Andy Burnham, together with Liverpool mayor Steve Rotherham, appeared on a charity special of Channel 4’s Gogglebox last night. The show began in 2013, but is still going, as all hit TV shows must in this benighted century. The novelty of the format – watching viewers watch TV – is long gone, as the participants inevitably started acting up for the cameras. It may be a false memory, but I’m sure I remember the show being more caustic,  a bit sharper. It is now crushingly cosy and twee. So, perfect for our Andy then. 

This episode, a fundraiser for Stand Up To Cancer, interspersed the usual TV ephemera with harrowing real life cancer stories. The shoving of cameras into people’s faces to capture tearful reactions is fair enough when collection tins are being rattled, but I’m not sure it’s a very good idea for a sitting Prime Minister to volunteer for it. It feels like another Rubicon being crossed lightly,  storing up trouble for the future. Luckily, there were no cameras filming the reaction to Burnham’s reaction from relatives of the victims of the MRSA outbreak during his time as Health Minister. I don’t imagine they were........

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