Tonight Question Time comes from Bristol, birthplace of failed singer Nik Kershaw, failed comedian Lee Evans and failed lesbian Julie Burchill. It was also the destination of the final Concorde flight.
On the panel tonight we have the dripping wet Francis Maude MP, senile old fool Menzies Campbell MP, expenses fiddler and porno merchant Jacqui Smith, the always-wrong Mehdi Hasan and the only concession to reality on the panel Douglas Murray.
For those playing the Buzzword Bingo we’ll be using the Don’t Pick Up The Soap Rules on a day that you’ll struggle to learn from the BBC that newly convicted fraudster Jim Devine was a Labour MP. Similar points for mention of Chaytor, Illsley, Moran or any of the corrupt Muslim peers when played in conjunction with a Named Party joker card. Votes for prisoners is not in play as it’s too obvious. This week we’re offering a tour around Broadcasting House for any mention of the better than expected manufacturing figures and it’s an instant Bingo win for the first person to call LibDem Council Leaders Rebellion. The usual Thatcher and Ashcroft wildcards are in play, but with a Meryl Streep linked bonus ball.
The LiveBlog will also cover the surreal This Week, with Andrew Neil and Michael Portillo.
David Vance, TheEye and David Mosque will be moderating the abuse here from 10:30pm, so we look forward to seeing you!
Don’t be too hard on Julie Burchill, she’s a great supporter of Israel and fighter against antisemitism:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2003/nov/29/weekend.julieburchill
http://www.thejc.com/arts/arts-interviews/julie-burchill-brash-outspoken-and-wishing-she-was-jewish
Bio,
Fair point about Julie but, apart from her position on Israel, she is a bog standard Leftie.
Well, her position on Israel is far from being “bog standard Leftie”, isn’t it’? I don’t suppose “bog standard Lefties” agree with her.
Here’s another piece by her:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article394861.ece
I can live with “Lefties” who write like this:
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/bleeding-heart-ignoramuses-1.195022
Bio,
As I said in my post “apart from her position on Israel”.
I’d say that her position on Israel, and Jews, is what sets her apart from “bog standard Lefties”. In fact I’d say for most lefties it disqualifies her from being a leftie.
Anyhow, I don’t want to derail this thread so let’s leave it at that. *DONT_KNOW*
Bio,
I agree with you. That is exactly what I am saying . She is not the normal anti-semitic Leftie , but in all other respects she is a Leftie.
Out of interest I just googled “Julie Burchill leftie” (or lefty) and was surprised to see she’d written an article praising GW Bush for The Sun. She’s also written a lot of articles for the Independent and the comments show that in fact most “real lefties” don’t like her much, so I’m afraid I’ll still defend her. She was also in favour of the invasion of Iraq and in many respects is not a lefty at all.
Remember that Melanie Phillips and Nick Cohen, to name just two, were once socialists too…
Ok, Bio , let’s leave it . At the end of the day it is not a matter of life and death.
I also noticed, on one of the above links, that she has become anti-EU because of its stance on Israel. Perhaps she is moving in the “right” direction.
Well, I’m not surprised. She has always done things like that. She is a longstanding admirer of Margaret Thatcher, for example. That’s why she was employed as a columnist on the Mail on Sunday for years. She espouses a self-conscious sort of Englishness, defending the working class from middle class contempt and snobbery and proclaiming certain traditional prejudices, such as a fierce anti-Catholicism.
4 to the left and 2 (if you count Maude) to the right. Usual breakdown.
Demon,
I make it 5-1, including the ridiculous Dimblebore, who the BBC seem to refuse to pension off .
Maude is a quite useless, spineless , rather dim , wet Tory .
Douglas Murray, excellent , but he will be drowned out by the baying left-wing mob, bussed in by the BBC.
I won’t be watching the QT farce and won’t take the Tories seriously until they boycott it .
I did include Dimbleby in the left total, but I gave Maude the benefit of the considerable doubt and had him as one of the two righties.
That’s now 4 weeks in a row of more lefties than rights for 2011. Just like it was in December, November, September, the whole of 2010, 2009, 2008….
Just once BBC, ffs, just once, put on 3 right wingers and two lefties. One week out of 150 or so weeks you know you can do it.
Anyone keeping a list of all the lefty towns visited? It seems that goes left, left, left, left, right, left, left, left, right too!
It’s very brave of the QT producers to invite an actual member of the Coalition Government not named Baroness Warsi for a change. Is Bristol a union hotspot, or is he just there to be attacked over more public service cuts in general? I forget what the Cut of the Week is at the moment.
I suppose Murray is there to oppose Hasan? And Smith is there as a sublte promo for her BBC programme. Agenda? What agenda?
David P,
Bristol is a relatively poor city with a high immigrant population, mainly Afro-Caribbeans and a high crime rate.
A happy hunting ground for Beeboids, although none of them would actually like to live there.
Grant, I remember now that the Cut of the Week is the cuts to the police budget. Less officers on the street and an increase in crime is the only conclusion, naturally, and Bristol seems a good setting for that issue.
David P,
You may be a Goddam Yankee, but you understand more about what is happening in the UK than most Brits !
More power to your elbow , sir !!!
Should be interesting seeing Murray and that Hassan bloke. Hassan is a typical lefty who shouts everyone down with an opposing view.
So which one on the panel is the right winger?
On another point, James Dellingpole was on Any Questions last week, so naturally no questions were permitted on the subject of global warming. As one of tonights panelists, Douglas Murray, is not too keen on the UK joining the Muslim Caliphate, does this mean this will be another topic avoided?
Good point – the bias of Question Time has many strands :
– the leftie choice of panellists
– the way the “Chairman” deals with panellists from the right
– the inevitably leftie audience
and the careful selection of questions.
Delingball’s main claim to fame is on climate stuff, he had been featured on Horizon just a few days ago, as the researchers will have told the “Chairman” and the producer.
Hassan, is a fifth columnist, Douglas Murray spoke most sense on the panel, and if Labour ever want to get back into government, they should elect Jacqui Smith as leader,
Llew & Grant, if you think Dimbleby , is left wing, you must be watching a different program from me, if he was anymore right, he would fall off the planet, and I watch every week, look him up on google and his family.
Sweeny,
Until I gave up watching QT about 9 months ago, I monitored Dimblebore’s performance for many years as do other people posting here.
There is no question that he is Left-wing.
You can check out the evidence on this website. If the estimable Craig is reading this , he may have some facts and figures to back me up as he used to measure these matters with forensic accuracy.
Have seen very little of Mr Dimbleby since I left Blighty, but what I have seen confirms my previous opinion, and absolute class act and what the BBC should be about: impartiality.
Hippie,
I am surprised at you, unless you are being sarcastic ?
I just googled “Nik Kershaw “. It seems he is just some pop singer , so what the hell is he doing on QT ?
What is wrong with having my postman as a guest ?
This looks like it will be very funny stuff!
Will we ever see some kind of balance on Question time? Only one panalist that will not be ‘on message’, woopee!
Mehdi Hasan is an annoying C**T and is going to wind me right up.
Mehdi Hasan is an Islamic extremist. Watch the full video below of his various speeches.
Lynn Grace-Corbin,
just watched the youtube videos, you advised, didn’t have to though, but they only prove what I worked out for myself, beware, Fifth columnists, they are out to bring this country as we know it down, but not before I die.
His Grace writes about Mehdi Hasan.
http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2011/02/ignorance-immaturity-and-hypocrisy-of.html
Mehdi Hasan talks about his views on Question Time.
Mehdi a vile little twat.
His (here’s one I prepared earlier) ‘As Dostoevsky said two hundred years ago…’ was a doozy.
Not least as it would be another ten years before Dostoevsky was born.
As a Bristolian, I have to say that this City used to be old Labour, but now most of the working class and poor are the same as the rest of the country, disenfranchised and ignored.
The reactions and questions from most of the audience seemed to come from the admittedly large squeezed-middle that exists here. The same types who are oblivious to the lives of the poor, indeed, they think they ARE the poor. they are New Labour on the whole.
Most of the council estate poor (like myself) have strong Bristol accents, most of the gentrified middle dont.
I’m a bit late commenting on this show, but the funniest thing was Jacqui Smith going on a idealogical rant about the cuts and when Francis Maude gave her the only answer she deserved (the its-Labours-fault excuse) the deeply unsophisticated crowd groaned.
Cannot stand that woman, imagine what the toilet smells like after shes been in it. You would need a special telephone line set up to raise funding to save the poor soul who entered afterwards.