Nick Robinson, of the BBC delivering the Philip Geddes memorial lecture at Oxford University this past Friday:

“Many politicians are angry that at election time viewers saw and heard more of me, Marr & Boulton than them. Let’s be clear why this came about - because audience research suggested viewers wanted “a trusted guide” – a sort of sherpa to get them up the cliff face of political jargon and obfuscation.

Small step from them – learn, as Andy Marr memorably put it, to speak “fluent human”. Small step from us – cut back on pointless “two-ways”. We have too often replaced politicians who don’t speak fluent human with reporters who don’t either.

All too often – as Broken News has painfully reminded us – a two-way is an excuse to put the word “Live” on the screen next to a man who says “As I said in my report…” who’s standing somewhere where something did happen but stopped happening many hours earlier.”