LET'S GET GRAHAM NORTON TO REPLACE JEREMY PAXMAN
John McGurk
In the end it was like a death in the family while, as Jeremy Paxman may even have said himself, the reality was “Old Man Retires From Job.”
Paxman reportedly wanted little fuss but his leaving Newsnight seemed to be trailed all over the place with clips from his final interview on a tandem with Boris Johnson.
Even his rivals got in on the act with Paxman being interviewed on Channel 4 News, where he confessed no understanding of social media, and which ended with his anchor-man rival Jon Snow performing a musical ditty for our amusement entitled “Paxo Please Don't Go!”
His appearance with the London Mayor turned out to be more of a pantomime than an interview as they peddled around the City disrupting ordinary lives and making jokey comments about each other.
Boris sarcastically referred to Paxman as an “adornment to broadcasting” while The Great Man continually moaned about the Mayor's inability to guide the machine properly.
Even old adversarial politicians joined in the fun: there was Baron Mandelson of Foy supposedly defending his party leader Ed Milliband, but also putting the boot in, while Michael Howard, who famously was asked the same question by Paxman 12 times, popped up to be put on the spot for a 13th time.
Paxman, in his concluding remarks, quoted the “mad as hell” line from the film Network about the bizarre world of television news before the credits rolled with the New Seekers song “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing”.
And just when we thought he'd gone, suddenly he appeared again against the weather map and, in his usual disdainful style, quipped: “Tomorrow's weather: more of the same. Don't know why they make such a fuss about it.”
Ironically, the show had its biggest audience in three years with 1.1 million apparently tuning in no doubt hoping for the unexpected.
What are we to make of all of this? And what does it tell us about television news shows?
It does seem clear that after the Saville and Lord McAlpine scandals, which immersed his programme in scandal and fecklessness, Paxman has been unhappy about his continuing involvement with Newsnight which he had presented for 25 years.
There are those who wonder whether the programme can continue without Paxman's individual style because when he doesn't appear as the host, the show misses him and viewing figures slump.
He doesn't pull it off every time, of course, because Newsnight can often be deadly dull even when he is there but lately he's been showing signs of weariness and fatigue.
When he grew a beard last year, it was surely the first sign of outward rebellion.
The second was his interview with Silvio Berlusconi when, as if demob happy, Paxman asked the former Italian Prime Minister if he had insulted Angela Merkel with a shocking comment about her backside and lack of sexual attraction.
Paxman was apparently reprimanded after slagging off colleagues when he said: “There's a pile of stuff on the BBC I can't stand. My idea of hell is going down in one of those lifts in that ghastly new building (New Broadcasting House) in a lift which has Radio 1 Extra plumbed into it. I don't quite understand why the BBC does Radio 1 Extra.”
Thanks mainly to the techniques of the late Robin Day, clearly adopted and embellished by Paxman, shows such as Newsnight have come a long way since Prime Ministers were virtually handed the microphone and asked what message they wanted to impart to a grateful nation.
But there can be little doubt that, nowadays, the political interview is too often a waste of the licence fee; interviewers are determined to skewer politicians while politicians have been trained to say nothing resulting in a modern gladiatorial contest where audiences are none the wiser.
It has long been realised that serious stuff on television should also be a performance and that those taking part need to provide a large shot of showmanship to keep viewers interested.
Programmes such as Newsnight, with aged and diminishing viewers, are becoming old hat while irreverent shows such as Have I Got News For You and the Jon Stewart Daily Show have demonstrated that the way to build new and younger audiences is to regard news as sheer entertainment.
Following Paxman's exit, it may well be that Newsnight's days are numbered. Besides, who in Scotland really wants to watch 50 minutes of it after suffering 30 minutes previously from Scotland 2014 which, despite the fanfare, has so far done little to excite or inform the nation in our hour of need?
I suspect that Paxman has recognised that the writing is on the wall and that he should get out while he is still well regarded and popular.
The fact that he is lined up to present a one-man show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this August also suggests that even he is now more interested in comedy and satire rather than old fashioned news dissemination or inquisitorial interviews which, more often than not, lead nowhere.
Handled cleverly, a lot of news can be fun while shows which demonstrate this are more likely to get interviewees to let slip when their guard is down.
Maybe they should replace Paxman with someone like Graham Norton or Jonathan Ross and get Fred MacAulay, or a comedian, to front Scotland 2014.
John McGurk is a former editor of The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday and was managing editor of The Daily Telegraph.
[PS. In case you’ve forgotten just how good Paxo was in his heyday, here’s the Spectator’s replay of some golden moments – ED]
SCOTS SMEs 'MORE CONFIDENT THAN UK'
Scottish small business confidence is now higher than the UK average, the latest Federation of Small Businesses’ (FSB) quarterly report shows.
The FSB’s Voice of Small Business Index, published yesterday shows that while small business confidence is growing across the UK, an average firm in Scotland is currently more bullish than its counterpart in England and Wales.
The analysis also shows that, as spare capacity in small business falls, recruitment intentions are at their highest level since the research began in the first quarter of 2010.
The Scottish Small Business Index, the FSB’s measure of small business confidence, rose substantially to plus 44 points in the second quarter of 2014, up 8 points from quarter one. This represents a substantial improvement from this time last year, when the index stood at just plus 9 points. Half of the small businesses surveyed expect business prospects to improve over the next three months, compared to just 12 per cent who expect them to deteriorate. Across the whole of the UK, the Small Business Index rose from plus 35.7 points to plus 39.7 points over the first quarter 2014, while the share of UK businesses expecting conditions to improve held steady at 47 per cent.
The proportion of Scottish firms reporting that they are running below capacity fell from 52 per cent at the start of the year to 46 per cent this quarter. Looking ahead, only 33 per cent of firms expect to be running below capacity during the next three months. Revenue and profits are looking healthier, too, with 37 per cent of respondents expecting revenues to increase over the next quarter. A balance of 16 per cent reported increased profits during the last quarter and 26 per cent of firms anticipate higher profits in the coming year. Further, 19 per cent of businesses plan to increase capital investment over the next year, compared to 8 per cent at this point in 2013.
Says Andy Willox, the FSB’s Scottish policy convenor, “While it is nice to see Scottish small business confidence climb above the UK average, more significant is the continued rise in small business confidence across the UK. Further, reduced levels of spare capacity means that more businesses are looking to recruit.
“This is good news for unemployed Scots and for the recovery – as is the fact that one in five businesses plan to increase capital investment this year. More businesses placing orders with suppliers means more full order books, more materials to be sourced and more staff to be hired. That is the key to rebuilding our economy.
“No matter how confident we are, though, none of this investment will happen without finance. Although the position has improved since this time last year, it has hardly moved in the last three months. We’ll need to keep a close eye on this trend and ensure things don’t start to slip back. Having worked so hard to build a recovery, we can’t have it stifled by a lending market which lacks our members’ ambition.”
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RETAIL LEVY 'PUSHING BUSINESS OUT OF SCOTLAND'
Scotland’s £95 million large retail levy “looks designed to push retail investment elsewhere”, the Scottish Retail Consortium claims in a pre-budget submission to Holyrood.
It argues that the non-domestic rates system “is no longer fit for purpose. It is a disincentive to invest in commercial premises, the tax seems to only ever rise, and retailers pay disproportionally more than other sectors.”
A comprehensive longer term overhaul of the business rates system is required, which would increase retailers’ confidence about investing in property, create more jobs and help revive high streets.
The large retail levy or ‘Tesco tax’ was brought in to assuage small firm concerns that the retail super-stores were sapping business from the high street and putting traditional and family businesses in jeopardy. Others saw it as a pure and simple tax grab by the Holyrood administration.
And there other improvements, the SRC argues, that can be made to support the retail industry. “The small firms’ relief is a welcome acknowledgement of the need to keep down costs, and avoiding the repatriation of control over the poundage rate to local authorities is sensible.”
However, it argues, the £95 million large retail levy was a significant departure from poundage rate parity.
“It has meant that for three years 240 retail outlets are paying 28% more than equivalent stores in Wales or England. The levy has been a conspicuous blot on the Scottish Government’s claims to have the most competitive rates regime in the UK.
“Indeed, the policy appears designed to push retail investment elsewhere in the UK, rather than attract it to Scotland, the very antithesis of the argument that the First Minister has been making recently in seeking to “rebalance the economic centre of gravity across these islands”. We welcome the pledge not to continue with the levy.
The SRC recommends that Scotland’s rate poundage rises no faster than that in England, it comes good on its promise not to renew the £95 million levy and rejuvenate the Business Rates Incentivisation Scheme to ensure that revenues accruing to local government from it are transparently re-invested in aiding town centre regeneration.
Transport is vital to the success of the retail industry. With 23,000 outlets in Scotland, located in every town and village, retailers rely on access to good quality and reliable transport for the daily operation of their businesses – for ease of access for customers, to deliver goods, and to enable employees to reach the workplace.
“We fully support the Scottish Government’s plans to dual the A9 between Perth and Inverness, and the A96 between Inverness and Aberdeen, but would urge a more ambitious timescale for delivery rather than the two decades currently envisaged. Improved connectivity to the North and North East will help unlock the economic potential of these two regions, help get goods swiftly to retail outlets as well as, as is increasingly the case, direct to customers.
