Author Archives: All Seeing Eye

Question Time LiveBlog 7th October 2010

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Question Time tonight comes from Birmingham, largest council in Europe and which has seen the invention of gas lighting, custard powder, Brylcreem, and the magnetron.

On the panel tonight we have an entirely unelected bunch: Baroness Warsi, Charles Clarke, Susan Kramer, Max Mosley and راجح عمر (Rageh Omaar).

For those playing the Buzzword Bingo, we’ll be playing the ToryBashing Rules which means that pro-Tory remarks will score double because they’ll be as rare as hen’s teeth. Playing your Child Benefit joker combined with protect universal benefits or destroying the postwar consensus only gets the usual score….however it’s a double score played with paying for Charlotte’s pony, with second skiiing trip or Jessica’s piano lessons.

Look out for old Buzzword favourites Thatcher, decline of industry, cuts, sleaze and 1980’s and we’re running a tonight-only Memory Lane Special on Ashcroft.

The LiveBlog will also cover the entertainingly awful This Week, presented by Brillo alongside the sneering and patronising Michael Portillo and the human airship Diane Abbott.

David Vance, TheEye and David Mosque will be Digging For Victory here from 10:30pm.

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Question Time LiveBlog 30th September 2010

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Question Time tonight comes from Manchester, which comes from an old Celtic word meaning “shaped like a breast”. As random trivia, the first edition of Top of the Pops was broadcast from a converted church in the city on New Year’s Day 1964.

On the panel we have Grant Shapps, Simon Hughes, Diane Abbott, David Starkey and an actor called Brian Cox (who you will all remember played Daphne Moon’s father in Frasier).

For those playing the Buzzword Bingo, we’ll be playing the Red Ed Rules which means players need only fill in the trades-union sponsored third of their bingo card to win tonight. Bonus points will be awarded for BBC strikes if you are holding a Tory Conference joker. Using the diagonal attacks allowed on the new bingo cards, you’ll see that Liam Fox is an instant win when coupled with Resign and Right Wing. This week, Thatcher with Cuts trumps any combination of Miliband and unelectable.

Returning as well, the LiveBlog will also cover the entertainingly awful This Week, presented by Brillo alongside the sneering and patronising Michael Portillo and the unspeakably terrible failure Oona King.

David Vance, TheEye and David Mosque will be on duty behind the bar here from 10:30pm.

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Question Time LiveBlog 23rd Sept 2010

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Question Time tonight comes from Liverpool, home to the United Kingdom’s first council house and the first Juvenile Court. This may not be a coincidence.

Controlled by Labour and without any Tory representation, Liverpool City Council was rated in 2008 as the worst-performing council in the country. This may also not be a coincidence.

On the panel we have the BBC’s newly re-haloed St Vince of Cable, John Redwood, Caroline Flint, Ian Hislop and the nutter’s nutter Mehdi Hasan.

For those playing the Buzzword Bingo, we’ll be playing the LibDem Conference Rules which means players are banned from bringing knitting needles or helium balloons. Bonus points tonight for Spivs and use of the word Comrade. Be aware of the diagonal moves allowed on the new bingo cards, meaning for example that getting Thatcher, cuts and starving orphans in one answer, or perhaps Carriers, Bribing and Labour Voters on the purple squares, is an instant win.

Returning as well, the LiveBlog will also cover the entertainingly awful This Week, presented by Brillo in cahoots, apparently, with Michael Portillo and Diane Abbott again. Is she really back? Can this be true?

David Vance, TheEye and David Mosque will be engaged in legitimate crowd control here from 10:30pm.

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Question Time LiveBlog 16th Sept 2010

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Question Time is back tonight with a Labour leadership special – where the five candidates will be on the panel facing questions from a hand-picked audience.

The live-chat, moderated as usual by David Vance, David Mosque and TheEye, will start here just before 10:35 and finish just after 11:35 (UK time).

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Question Time LiveBlog : The Return!

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Our old favourite – Question Time is back tonight!

Not just any jewel, but the very Koh-I-Noor of BBC bias returns with a peach of a broadcast:  a Labour leadership special where the five candidates will be on the panel facing questions from a hand-picked audience.

You should all have received your new-season Buzzword Bingo cards by now. For the first programme you’ll need the set which has a picture of David Cameron eating a kitten on them. Play is expected to be brisk, as Thatcher, cuts, evil, fairness, and equality will all go quickly. References to private education win you a Diane Abbott shaped Souvenir SoapOnARope from the BBC Executive Washrooms. Bonus roll of the dice for any mention of Harriet Hatemen having 4 votes in the election.

Reverse triangulation is in play, and because of weekday maintenance on the Circle Line, this week Trade Unions are only valid with a common people undercard, and riots are wild unless your strike action joker has lapsed.

See you here on the picket-line, in the company of David Vance, David Mosque and TheEye, from just before 10:35 until just after 11:35.

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Hannan Calls BBC Bias On Elected Police Chiefs

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The excellent Dan Hannan MEP raises the issue of BBC bias in the issue of directly elected police chiefs on his Telegraph blog today:

There was a snotty, sneering, superior piece about elected sheriffs on Radio 4’s PM programme this evening. Inevitably, it included an interview with Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona. Sheriff Joe admires the Republicans, thinks there is too much illegal immigration, is beastly to scoundrels and enjoys vast support. This, in Beebworld, makes him a one-man argument against democratic policing. Indeed, until now, BBC audiences might have been forgiven for believing that Mr Arpaio was the only sheriff in the United States.


Today’s feature branched out very slightly, and interviewed one other sheriff candidate, a chap from rural Alabama who seemed to have been chosen because a) his accent would make British listeners think of Mississippi Burning and b) his name was Jimmy Ray Swindle.

You get the idea. Allow people to choose who directs their local police force and you are likely to get racists, half-wits or crooks – often with hilarious redneck names. Just in case we missed the message, the correspondent spelt it out with his closing words: “While popular elections may increase direct accountability, it [sic] doesn’t necessarily lead to better policing”.

The tone of the BBC article and their hostility to elected police chiefs is understandable. The BBC and ACPO will defend each other because circling the wagons is the only way to prevent accountability being forced on them.

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Qualifications Not Required

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Writing on her blog in 2006 Katia Moskvitch says “In about a month I will finally graduate and become a “real” journalist!“

How’s that working out for her? Becoming a Russian reporter for the BBC was only the start – having demonstrated her scientific prowess with this Junior Wikipedia and GCSE textbook-fueled report on  nuclear power we now witness her inevitable rise to:

BBC News – Geoengineering ‘not a solution’ to sea-level rise
By Katia Moskvitch
Science reporter, BBC News

BBC Science at its best: Believe in global warming? Good. Know anything about science? Okay, doesn’t matter, you’re in anyway. Can you start on Monday?

Hat-tip to Englishman’s Castle

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