He once asked Michael Howard the same question 12 times and questioned Tony Blair if he was familiar with Megaboobs and Horny Housewives magazines. Now the Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman, famous for giving ruthlessly short shrift to politicians, has confirmed that his irascible on-screen attitude towards Westminster is more than skin deep.
The rottweiler figurehead of the BBC2 programme gave both barrels to all three main parties in a no-holds-barred column in the Radio Times published on Tuesday.
The presenter, 63, revealed he once did not vote because the choices were so "unappetising" and said politicians' burning desire to order people about was "one of the many reasons they are so odd".
"At the next election we shall have a choice between the people who've given us five years of austerity, the people who left us this mess, and the people who signed public pledges that they wouldn't raise student fees, and then did so – the most blatant lie in recent political history," wrote Paxman.
"It won't be a bombshell if very large numbers of the electorate simply don't bother to vote. People are sick of the tawdry pretences," said the presenter who dubbed the "whole green-bench pantomime in Westminster … a remote and self-important echo-chamber".
Paxman's withering critique followed his much-discussed Newsnight interview with Russell Brand last week. The 10-minute encounter, in which Paxman upbraided the comedian because he "can't be arsed to vote", became an unlikely YouTube hit, with 10 million views – nearly 20 times Newsnight's average audience.
But despite his criticism of Brand for never voting, Paxman confessed he too had once failed to vote in an election. "I think part of Russell Brand's diagnosis is right. There is a huge sense of disillusion out there," he said.
"Russell Brand has never voted, because he finds the process irrelevant. I can understand that: the whole green-bench pantomime in Westminster looks a remote and self-important echo chamber. But it is all we have. In one recent election, I decided not to vote, because I thought the choice so unappetising.
"By the time the polls had closed and it was too late to take part, I was feeling really uncomfortable: the person who chooses not to vote – cannot even be bothered to write 'none of the above' on a ballot paper – disqualifies himself from passing any comment at all."
He warned: "We ignore the democratic process at our peril … People died for the right to choose their government, because otherwise power is wielded by the rich and strong for the benefit of the rich and strong.
"Whether you bother to vote or not, someone is going to sit on those benches and tell you what to do."
Recent Newsnight guests to have been "Paxoed" include Tory MP Chloe Smith, when she was economic secretary to the Treasury last year, and Amadeu Altafaj-Tardio, a European commission spokesman who walked off the show after Paxman called him "Mr Idiot".
Paxman, who will complete 25 years on the programme next year, admitted he had low expectations of Brand, whom he interviewed on the show after the comedian guest-edited the New Statesman.
'Spawn of the devil'
"A multimillionaire with a house in California talking about the need to take from the rich and give to the poor. That is – what's the word? – rich," said Paxman.
"But we really ought to admit it, Daily Mail columnists may think Russell Brand the spawn of the devil. But there is something irresistible about him. The energy, the loquacity, the camp manner, the apparent frankness. He stands squarely in the British tradition of cheeky chappies."
He added: "He [Brand] thinks the wrong people are in charge. Well, perhaps they are. But the people in charge are always people who want to be in charge … I have no burning desire to order people about. Politicians do; that is one of the many reasons they are so odd."
The BBC traditionally frowns on its presenters, especially those in BBC News, using columns to comment on news and current affairs. Strict guidelines were introduced 10 years ago after several controversies caused by corporation presenters and journalists speaking out in newspapers and magazines.
Days after the Tory party chairman, Grant Shapps, complained about a lack of "fairness" in the BBC's reporting, Paxman appeared to be equally dismissive of all three parties.
The BBC declined to comment on Paxman's statements.
In last week's Newsnight interview, Brand asked Paxman: "Aren't you bored, aren't you more bored than anyone? Ain't you been talking to [politicians] year after year, listening to their lies, their nonsense, then it's this one gets in, that one gets in, but the problem continues? Why are we going to continue to contribute to that facade?"
Brand, it appears, may have been closer to the truth than he realised.
www.theguardian.com/media/2013/nov/05/pa...russell-brand-voting
