BBC presenter's question was patronising

Nick Robinson

Yesterday I did a number of radio and television interviews about Brexit, starting with an interview by Nick Robinson on the Radio 4 Today programme and then an interview on Five Live.  An hour later I was interviewed on the Victoria Derbyshire on BBC 2, crossed over to RTE for a four-way radio discussion on RTE and an interview on RTE television.  Later in the evening I had two more interviews and there was a Radio Scotland interview as well earlier in the day.

The final question from Nick Robinson was as follows: 'Just a final thought, I wonder if we haven't really got to the point here, which is what unionists couldn't stomach is an Irish Taoiseach claiming victory because it would look like the unionists had been defeated.  So this is not really about principle, it's about face.'

I replied: 'Well I think that's a very patronising view of the people of Northern Ireland.  It says in effect that this is a petty matter.  It's not.  This is an issue of getting the best outcome for not only Northern Ireland but for the whole of the United Kingdom.  We saw last night that already Nicola Sturgeon was in line to say that if there were some special arrangement for Northern Ireland we would have to have the same for Scotland.  There were folk in Wales we would have to have the same for Wales.'

Sometime you just have to tell a BBC presenter that he is being 'patronising'.