Sisterly solidarity

In The Guardian, Polly Toynbee deplores the choice of Nick Robinson to replace the BBC's Andrew Marr instead of Martha Kearney:

"This is how the two sides squared up in the heated internal debate. In the male corner was a man seen as a rottweiler of the lobby: relentlessly aggressive, abrasive and sometimes downright rude, admired for his take-no-prisoners onslaught on politicians. Clever and consumed by an obsession with all the minutiae of every passing ripple in the Westminster game, the man is a walking Wisden of political detail. He is the lobby personified, he was made for it and it for him. Two tough guys - the editor of the Today programme and the editor of the 10 o'clock news reportedly strongly backed the macho candidate.
In the other corner, Martha Kearney is calmer, wiser and - that rarity in the lobby - someone who is as interested in the policies themselves as in the Westminster game. Because she is not a rottweiler, her denigrators outrageously called her "coquettish" - which roughly translates as "not a man and not hideous to behold". She can be acerbic, but the real difference is that she does not approach politics as a violent contact sport between the lying bastards in power and the noble gladiators in the media."

Ms Toynbee has a point, I suppose. But if politicians have to be kept in order, then I would prefer to rely on a rottweiler. And Mr Robinson represents the triumph of geeky, balding, four eyed nerds, a triumph with which I find myself in some personal sympathy.