Andrew Marr

Terrible things are said online because they are anonymous. People say things online that they wouldn't dream of saying in person.

Andrew William Stevenson Marr (born 31 July 1959) is a Scottish journalist, broadcaster and political commentator.

Quotes

• A lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed young men sitting in their mother's basements and ranting. They are very angry people.
  • As quoted in "Andrew Marr says bloggers are 'inadequate, pimpled and single'" The Guardian (11 October 2010)]

• The so-called citizen journalism is the spewings and rantings of very drunk people late at night.
  It is fantastic at times but it is not going to replace journalism. ... Most of the blogging is too angry and too abusive. Terrible things are said online because they are anonymous. People say things online that they wouldn't dream of saying in person.
  • As quoted in "Andrew Marr says bloggers are 'inadequate, pimpled and single' " in The Guardian (11 October 2010)

• Business never rests.
  • Andrew Marr's History of the World, Episode IV, Into the Light (28 October 2012)
• In history, the arrival of a small man in a big hat is rarely good news.
  • Andrew Marr's History of the World, Episode VI, Revolution (28 October 2012).

• I'd very rarely quote George Galloway as an authority, but when he describes Rochdale as "tinder dry, waiting for a spark" I am afraid – very much afraid – he isn't wrong.
  • "How indecision turned toxic for Labour in Rochdale", The New Statesman (14 February 2024).
  • George Galloway was a candidate for the Workers Party of Britain in the 2024 Rochdale by-election held on 29 February 2024.

• As the night wore on, it became clearer this was not just a simple Tories-out, Labour-in story. The more we look in detail, the more this seems like the night of the great insurgency – a multi-sided protest and revolt against politics as usual. The British public was sending the political class, Labour included, a message which could be summed up as: we, not you, are the masters now, and for a very long time to come.
  • "Labour has been sent a warning", The New Statesman (5 July 2024).
  • Following the 2024 general election held on the previous day. In his last sentence, Marr is referring to a statement by Labour minister Hartley Shawcross in April 1946 ("We are the masters at the moment, and not only at the moment but for a very long time to come") which was commonly reduced to "we are the masters now".