So where is Question Time coming from this week – the week of savage cuts spending rising but not as much as it was previously?
One day after the the Comprehensive Spending Review it’s coming from Middlesbrough which is ranked as 324th out of 324 council areas by Experian (well spotted Tim). In other words (according to the BBC website) it “will be the least resilient to such public sector cuts.“
Could the location be any more deliberate, more calculated or more biased?
BBC-NUJ-Labour’s ‘Question Time’ weas last broadcast from the Labour town of Middlesbrough on 18 Feb 2010.
Given that ‘QT’ was off air around General Election and during summer holidays, that’s only a few programmes ago.
‘QT’ is a Labour bus, driven by D. Dimbleby,; most of the passengers are excluded from wearing blue. Licencepayers fund these days out. H. Harman is the ticket-inspector on all the routes.
How dare they broadcast from a poor area, ill bet it’s full of miners and benefit cheats.
…and X Factor third place contestants Journey South.
Finished your Irony homework? Good. Now run along Ben, its way past your bedtime!
QT is ndeed becoming a propaganda event, designed not to enlighten or debate, but t give the impression to those who voted Conservative (or LibDem) that they are loathed by the majority, a majority who would have voted Labour had they known what Clegg would do.
This is now the whole BBC message – that a minority now run the country and are stripping everybody else for their own ends. No mention of why the country is broke, or where the money went, or how much money we owe and how much more we borrow.
The good people of Middlesborough are being used as a battering ram against the rest of the country – while never having to point why it is that they are in such a situation – that the last government made it so expensive to do business in the UK that the only way that they could increase employment was to create the jobs directly.
Nere we see all the eggs are in one basket – a feature almost exclusively in areas which vote Labour.
Maybe Mr Dimbleby should ask them how they have been bought so cheaply?
“becoming” ?
The BBC have completely forgotten about the past 13 years. Of course they remember beyond that but all the warnings that were apparent 6-7 years ago and the alarm bells ringing 2-3 years ago seemed to have completely slipped their minds.
It would be VERY interesting to obtain a list of QT locations over the last year and plot them on a map. I wonder how many have been in Labour constituencies?
Oh dear, here for example is the next few programmes locations…
21 October – Middlesbrough (Labour)
28 October – Glasgow (Labour)
4 November – Sheffield (Labour/Lib Dem)
11 November – London (tbc)
18 November – Swansea (Labour)
25 November – Workington (Labour)
2 December – Coventry (Labour)
9 December – Exeter (Labour)
Good grief – the QT producers really don’t care that their bias is so flagrant, do they? Astonishing – they must surely fear the worse.
Time to double my efforts in getting more people to cancel their TV licence.
I bet they spin it as saving money – I can hear it now “…by hosting QT in Labour areas, we don’t need to hire so many buses to bring in the audience”
Sorry Roland Deschain (further down) just read your post.
Perhaps someone could help me fill in the blanks.
For the next 8 shows, we have 0 Conservative, 7.5 Labour, 0.5 Lib Dem areas.
Here is the history:
via http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t1q9 (if someone looks at the first 2 minutes we can find out where they were held) — my guess is they are going to be HEAVILY weighted towards Labour-held constituencies.
14/10/2010 Cheltenham (Lib Dems)
07/10/2010 Birmingham (Labour)
30/09/2010 Manchester (Labour)
23/09/2010 Liverpool (Labour)
16/09/2010 Labour Party Leadership Special
22/07/2010 Hartlepool (Labour)
15/07/2010
08/07/2010 Edinburgh (Labour)
01/07/2010 Ipswich (Conservative)
24/06/2010 Canary Wharf, London (Labour)
10/06/2010
03/06/2010
27/05/2010
20/05/2010
13/05/2010
29/04/2010 Birmingham (Labour)
22/04/2010
15/04/2010
07/04/2010
25/03/2010
18/03/2010 Wythenshawe, Manchester (Labour)
11/03/2010 Dewsbury (Conservative)
04/03/2010 London (tbc)
25/02/2010 Cardiff (Labour)
18/02/2010 Middlesbrough (Labour)
11/02/2010
04/02/2010
28/01/2010
14/01/2010
10/12/2009
03/12/2009
26/11/2009
19/11/2009 Leicester (Labour)
12/11/2009 Weston Super Mare (Conservative)
05/11/2009
29/10/2009
22/10/2009
They hide thier bias behind the obvious caveat : they are aiming to take in the major towns and cities. Unfortunately this is simply a way of avoiding places where support is less than wholesome.
It’s actually their contribution towards reducing CO2. Hold QT in places where the lefties for the audience can arrive on foot instead of being bussed in.
Dewsbury conservative? I used to live there and is was red, red and more red. Unless things have changed drastically I cannot fathom how it’s Conservative, even if it has a Conservative MP.
I think when the QT website doesn’t mention a location that means that the programme is broadcast from London. There was another Conservative one though – Witney on 17/6 (David Cameron’s constituency).
And still Mr J Hunt says the BBC isn’t biased and do a very good job,send him a list then we’ll see….dont hold your breath he and the tories wont do anything only lip service
I guess if we had a Conservative Party run by people who love their country more than they love having power they’d do what is necessary for the good of the country with regards to the BBC.
If Ray Mallon isn`t on then don`t watch it!
Maybe we might get a Pickles or a Hague-at least they are FROM Yorkshire…probably get Mandelsons guacamole pot as a guest instead.
Actually the Beeb are doing a great job on their own destruction. Their increasingly shrill bias and special pleading has finished ,once and for all: any claim to be “impartial and balanced”. Lord Haw Haw was more subtle and had more integrity compared to the lavender trots and toyboys who run this once great institution.
Yet despair ye not-every time these champions of the trough go on their bandwagons to sneer at the dupes that voted their lovelies out of power-the more we KNOW that they are finished.
That a Johnson or a Balls DARE give any comment after their slash and burn over the last thirteen years is truly shameless and we know that they have no ideas at all. They caused this mess-yet we are expected to blame the Coalition for it.
Stii we`ll not get them being reminded of this by the Dumblebores and their feather bedded fellow travellers. We the people won`t forget-and never forgive either!