Author Archives: All Seeing Eye

Question Time LiveBlog 9th December 2010

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Question Time tonight comes from London. On the panel we have Liam Fox MP, Norman Lamb MP, Sadiq Khan MP, Aaron Porter and Janet Daley.

For those playing the Buzzword Bingo we’ll be using the Broken Promises Rules. You should play your Clegg joker early as riot police, any excuse to miss lectures,  anarchy, fire extinguisher, and we’re all in it together are all in play. References to Aaron Porter’s emails suggesting cutting grants and loans aren’t on the cards tonight, nor Labour’s promise to implement the Browne Report because the BBC have airbrushed all of that from history. Usual points for spotting a Thatcher, but points this week also for references to Gordoom’s new book and any direct quotes from Wikileaks (only if made in the context of undermining somebody who is right-of-centre).

The LiveBlog will also cover the insane This Week, with Andrew Neil, Michael Portillo, a random lefty politician and a collection of X-Factor rejects.

TheEye, David Mosque and Ollie Cromwell from the Red Rag blog will be hitting demonstrators with batons here from 10:30pm.

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Question Time LiveBlog 2nd December 2010

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Question Time tonight comes from Coventry, and on the panel tonight we have Danny “Ginger Rodent” Alexander, Nadine Dorries, Ken Livingstone, Sir Christopher Meyer and John Sergeant.

For those playing the Buzzword Bingo we’ll be using the Football’s Not Comin’ ‘Ome Rules, meaning that Beckam makes an unexpected entry on tonight’s cards, and extra points for attempts to connect the loss to Thatcher, cuts, or tuition fees. This week we’re also awarding bonus points for any mention of the weather, especially references to global warming, we’re all going to fry and save the polar bears. It’d be nice if it snowed the same time each year, just to prepare the grit lorries, and any panelist linking the World Cup and Global Warming is an instant win.

The LiveBlog will also cover the awful This Week with Andrew Neil, Michael Portillo and a smorgasbord of mediocrity padded with third-rate childish graphics. Marvellous.

Your dynamic Moderation team of TheEye and David Mosque will be kicking a football about around here from 10:30pm.

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Question Time LiveBlog 25th November 2010

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Question Time tonight comes from Maidstone in Kent, once the parliamentary seat of Disraeli, location of the largest paper recycling factory in Europe and birthplace of the bloke who plays “Barry” in Eastenders.

On the panel tonight we have Ken Clarke MP, ex-GMTV sofa-bunny Gloria de Piero MP, Nigel Farage MEP (presumably the token right-winger) “Lord” Ashdown, and someone called Kate Mosse….who has written a novel….about France. Maybe they tried to book the supermodel and it all went horribly wrong.

For those playing the Buzzword Bingo we’ll be using the Insulting Johnny Foreigner Rules, meaning that Godfrey Bloom makes an unexpected entry on tonight’s cards. Bonus points for Führer, Nazis and fascists; and the insult cranks and gadflies is also in play. References to the student riots and tuition fees will only count if the BBC narrative of LibDem betrayal is included. Same sentence only will count, and the adjudicator’s decision is final. Repeated over-use for years means that unfortunately Thatcher and Ashcroft are temporarily off the table.

The LiveBlog will also cover the awful This Week with Andrew Neil, Michael Portillo and a random socialist windbag – all joined by some deranged F-List wannabe-celebs.

Your dynamic Moderation team of David Vance, TheEye and David Mosque will be prowling the perimeter suspiciously here from 10:30pm.

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Question Time LiveBlog 18th November 2010

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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.

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Question Time LiveBlog 11th November 2010

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Armistice Day Question Time tonight comes from London.

On the panel tonight we have Theresa May MP, Caroline Flint MP, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles (the Special Ambassador to Afghanistan and Pakistan), Clive James and Douglas Murray.

For those playing the Buzzword Bingo we’ll be using the Rioting Student Rules, meaning that tuition fees,  LibDem betrayal, manifesto pledges, fire extinguisher and attempted murder are all in play.  For this game Scottish players can be bussed in to take part in the event though the results don’t affect them. References connecting the riots to Thatcher and the Community Charge Disturbances are worth bonus points tonight.

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 manning the barricades here from 10:30pm.

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Question Time LiveBlog 4th November 2010

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Question Time tonight comes from Sheffield, a city with the world’s first ever official football club, 2 million trees and absolutely no Tory councillors.

On the panel tonight we have David Davis MP, Jeremy Browne MP, Jack Straw MP, Universal Shami (to be fair, she hasn’t been somewhere on the BBC now for, ummm, a whole 10 minutes) and Jon Gaunt.

For those playing the Buzzword Bingo, tonight’s panel has been specifically set up for an argument about coalition “splits” on terrorist Control Orders so we’ll be playing using the Book ’em, Danno, Terrorism One Rules. Look out for extremists and 9/11 but bonus points for stabbing MPs, and using Religion of Peace in a sarcastic tone. This may be a good tactical week to play your Weasel Words joker, as phrases like militants will score heavily, as will painfully convoluted ways to avoid saying Islam and Muslim. Points also for references to Forgemasters being a bad deal and any attempt to blame jihad on Margaret Thatcher.

The LiveBlog will stay open for the anarchic and downright odd This Week with Andrew Neil. Keen followers of the Blue Nun Reference Competition will know that David Mosque and John Ward are in mortal combat at the top of the leaderboard.

David Vance, TheEye and David Mosque will be moderating from 10:30pm.

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Protecting The BBC (Literally)

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So hands up who knew that the BBC still has a secret underground bunker, 10-floors deep into a mountain in the middle of nowhere, built during the Cold War in case there was a nuclear Armageddon?

Buried 10 storeys into the hillside is a fully functioning nuclear bunker, built at great expense in 1966, at the height of the Cold War. So few people knew of its existence that, even when it was being built, visiting trainees were told not to ask why all that concrete was being mixed. Those involved in its construction were obliged to sign the Official Secrets Act, and even now you won’t get a peep out of the BBC press office to acknowledge the reality.


Measuring 175ft long, the bunker – known to high command as Pawn: Protected Area Wood Norton – remains ready for service in the event of an attack on London. It is said to have beds and ping-pong tables and is connected by tunnels dug into the hillside to a mast on top of the hill which is fitted with a super high-frequency satellite dish.

It made sense at the time to have a broadcaster on the air at a time of nuclear attack, but the Russians aren’t coming any more. So now the only question is…why on Earth would the Soviets have thought that silencing the BBC was in their interests?

The BBC are squealing that freezing the telly tax is equivalent to waterboarding – so how about selling this Cold War relic off to raise some money?

Cross-posted on AllSeeingEye

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Licence Fee Freeze Is "Like Waterboarding".

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John Simpson, the BBC’s World Affairs Editor, has compared the licence fee freeze to “waterboarding”.

In a letter written to Ariel, the BBC’s own in-house newsmagazine, the BBC’s own in-house newsmagazine Mr Simpson says that only “far-right idealogues” and the “Murdoch empire” think the BBC should share the pain being endured by the rest of the public sector. It’s not fair that B-BBC doesn’t get full recognition there too.

“Our income will shrink year on year for seven long years, by amounts that are unknown because we can’t tell how high inflation will be over that period of time. It’ll be like waterboarding. As our head is pulled out of the bath, we’ll be so desperate that we can’t be certain what compromises and deals we might be tempted to make. We will be at the government’s mercy.”

Perhaps he should volunteer to be waterboarded to see if he changes his mind?

Hat-tip: Tim at ConservativeHome

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US Mid-Term Elections Live-Blog 2nd Nov

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Tonight we’ll be live-blogging the US mid-term elections. The BBC and the left-leaning media are already trotting out the excuses, the blame game is beginning and the spinning on all sides has been going for days. But the polls are only just closing and careers can still be won and lost in the next few hours.

We’ll have the live-chat going at midnight UK time, which will be two hours after the polls close in the eastern states and just as the BBC start their live coverage.

The chat session is spread across five blogs (in alphabetical order) A Tangled Web, All Seeing Eye, Barking Spider, Biased-BBC and GrumpyOldTwat so a chance to see familiar faces and meet new ones. We hope you can join us, even if only for a short while.

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