BBC star Amol is too cool for Kwasi

A FEW weeks ago Nick Robinson divided the nation — or at least the Today listeners — by telling Boris Johnson to be quiet.

Some said it was downright rude, others thought Boris richly deserved it. BBC bosses, never keen to upset prime ministers when licence fee negotiations are under way, were distinctly unimpressed.

This week Amol Rajan began an interview with the Cabinet minister Kwasi Kwarteng by telling him what subjects he wanted to cover and then asking him: ‘Is that cool with you … ?’

The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy graciously agreed it was and the interview proceeded smoothly. But this worries me. Not so much because I still think ‘cool’ means the opposite of warm, but because listeners might have thought Amol had been ordered by nervous bosses to be nice. I doubt that — he’s a pretty tough character. But what if he’d got a different answer?

What if Kwarteng had said: ‘Actually no… and this is what I want you to ask me instead’.

What could Amol have said then?