National Treasure
Andrew Neil, presenter of the BBC's Daily Politics programme, is fast turning into a national treasure with his tough, but fair-minded interviewing style - which seldom allows a slippery politician to wriggle off the hook.
Not that long ago, in the 1980s, Neil - a fellow Scot - was pretty unpopular in certain circles for his decision to edit the Sunday Times back in the 1980s when Rupert Murdoch decided to relocate his News International titles from their traditional Fleet Street base to a new site in Wapping.
The move was highly controversial at the time and led to a trail of strength with the print trade unions - which the unions eventually lost, but the battle cemented Neil's reputation tough, no-holds barred operator who was seen to be in league with the devil - also known as Rupert Murdoch.
Yet Neil proved himself subsequently to be no journalistic poodle because he famously fell out with the Wizard from Oz - criticising aspects of Murdoch's management style and ways of working - which meant Neil was cast out into the wilderness for a while before making a comeback through the BBC's Daily Politics programmes.
Slowly but surely Neil has made the programme his own, especially the later evening versions which give full rein to his rather quirky sense of humour which has brought back some much needed colour to political argument and debate on UK television.
Without doubt Andrew Neil is the most effective interrogator of politicians plying their trade today - he is courteous to a fault, but not overly aggressive - always very well prepared and unflinching in his questioning which place him very much on the side of the viewer.
Neil continues to take stick from the Private Eye, the UK's best and only fortnightly satirical magazine, which delights in tweaking his tail with an famous photo allegedly showing the former newspaper editor strutting his stuff at a popular London nightclub with a young woman at his side.
But as they say, the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about at all, so I very much doubt that Andrew Neil minds a bit of fun at his own expense - because far worse things can happen in life, you know.
