Question Time tonight comes from Swansea. It was granted city status in 1969 to mark Prince Charles’s investiture as the Prince of Wales so the odds on a snippy BBC-friendly republican question are high considering recent wedding news.
The panel tonight are mostly anonymous and need to be introduced. We have the familiar faces of Chris Grayling and Kelvin MacKenzie, who are joined by Carwyn Jones (Welsh First Minister) Kirsty Williams (Leader Welsh LibDems), Nerys Evans (a random Plaid Assembly Member) and Lionel Barber (FT editor).
For those playing the Buzzword Bingo we’ll be using the For You, Paddy, Ze Economic Autonomy Iz Over Rules, meaning that German takeover, bailout, corporation tax, Eurozone, and national interest are all in play. You’ll notice that your Joker cards this week feature a picture of the German Chancellor dancing through the Berlin streets singing “Springtime for Merkel and Germany!”. Bonus points for any attempt to blame the Irish economic owes on Thatcher or Ashcroft.
The LiveBlog will also cover the awful This Week, with Andrew Neil, Michael Portillo and the next one off the current conveyor belt of balancing socialist windbags.
David Vance, TheEye and David Mosque will be hoping Offa’s Dyke is an earthwork here from 10:30pm.
Brillo’s first Blue Nun reference appeared in his first sentence last week, thus rendering this week’s competition meaningless.
I think I’ll stick to the Discovery Channel and Michael Ashcroft’s prog about winners of the George Cross.
Anyway, the last time I referred to the Offa’s Dyke, my (now mercifully former) employers sent me on diversity and gender awareness training.
Methinks the Beeboids have proved the “conspiracy theory” (WRT audience selection) tonight. I spend a lot of time in the Swansea area and have never heard as many English accents in the population as I did tonight. Added to this I would also comment that very few of the Welsh accents were from the Swansea area!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Watched about 10 mins of QT from Swansea. Kelvin Mackenzie seemed to be the only participant, in either the panel or the audience who didn’t have a statist, leftist viewpoint.
Low points of the episode? The Welsh Lib Dim MP (eventually) saying that Ireland should accept Eurozone assistance ‘for the greater good’, Kelvin Mackenzie preaching against Ireland’s freedom to set their own taxation policy, and a stream of vox pop blaming ‘the bankers’, culminating with an audience member bellowing ‘Tax the rich!’.
There was no point in watching after that…