Author Archives: All Seeing Eye

Prime Minister’s Questions 12th Sept 2012

It’s been obvious that that server Biased-BBC is hosted on has been suffering over the last few weeks and for that I can only apologise. I’ve been working behind the scenes with the hosting company day and night.

Right now *fingers crossed* the change they have made to the mysql database configuration might have fixed… no … I’m not even going to tempt fate by typing it.

We are heading back into Question Time territory.

CoverItLive decided to put their system on to a changed commercial structure that would have meant we’d be paying (understandable, yes, I can’t argue with that) so I’ve found a new application which does the same sort of thing yet much cheaper.

My thanks to David Mosque (@DavidMosque) and Billy Bowden (@Ontablets) for helping me test it a few months ago.

I want to test it with a larger audience though with greater server load.

So please join us for PMQ’s next Wednesday 12th for a trial of the new system.

If it breaks … if the server dies … if we can’t properly moderate the spam that we usually bin off … sorry. This is a trial and we’re just going to give it a go.

Your help in the test would not only be appreciated but will be an important part of keeping this site on the cutting edge of fighting BBC bias.

Please join us here for a livechat next Wednesday during Prime Minister’s Questions!

Question Time tonight comes from Derby.

On the panel we have Conservative MP Louise Mensch, Energy and “climate change” Secretary Ed Davey MP, former postman and occasional home secretary Alan Johnson MP, Sunday Times and Independent columnist Dominic Lawson, and John Lydon, former lead singer of the Sex Pistols and founder of the band Public Image Ltd.

This Week will follow, and we have the standard lineup of Andrew Neil with Michael Portillo, plus Alastair Campbell. Lucky us.

This is the last Question Time of the season and also possibly the last one we host here using CoverItLive who have decided to start charging. We think (fingers crosssed) that David Mosque has enough ‘credit’ left in his test account to run this tonight.

However we are still trying to source an alternative. Any suggestions – please let us know!

You are very welcome to join us once again. Please play nicely.

Question Time tonight comes for the first time from a foreign country – Lutonistan.

On the panel we have transport secretary Justine Greening MP, shadow Olympics minister Tessa Jowell MP, secretary-shagger Paddy Ashdown, Tony Robinson (the irritating broadcaster one, not the EDL one) and the businessman Terry Smith, chief executive of the City brokerage Tullett Prebon.

This Week will follow, and we have the standard lineup of Andrew Neil with Michael Portillo, plus the failed postman Alan Johnson

This may be the last LiveChat for a while. CoverItLive has decided to charge for the service and it isn’t going to be cheap for the blog to subscribe for the number of participants we have. TheEye is urgently looking for something similar as a replacement but is so far drawing a blank. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas?

You are very welcome to join us once again. Please play nicely.

Question Time tonight comes from West Bromwich – and specifically from the new £77 million Sandwell College.

On the panel are Justice Secretary Ken Clarke, shadow health secretary Andy Burnham, general secretary of the Unite trade union Len McCluskey, economist Ruth Lea and Midlands Business Woman of the year Julie White.

Although by ‘Business Woman of the Year’ we mean in 2011, limited to the Midlands, a title made up by something called Vitalise, she “bought the company from her father” and “is a champion for women“. Not sounding promising but it would be great to be pleasantly surprised.

This Week will follow, and we have the standard lineup of Andrew Neil with Michael Portillo, plus the failed postman Alan Johnson

You are very welcome to join us. Please play nicely though.

Question Time tonight comes from Stockton-on-Tees. This market town is Europe’s largest producer of huge chavvy earrings, amphetamines and inca hats. It has an exceptionally low unemployment rate for the North East of only 73%.

On the panel we have Housing Minister Grant Shapps MP, television executive and former Director General of the BBC Greg Dyke, President of the Liberal Democrats and serial stirrer Tim Farron MP, Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens, and Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry MP.

Quiz question – when was the last time that we had a coalition loyalist LibDem on QT? They have been usual suspect troublemakers for months now. Deliberate? You decide…

David Vance is currently en vacances dans la belle France but his rules about politeness during the LiveChat still apply (TheEye has a sicknote from his mother and is exempt from that rule). Please respect David’s wishes and in return we will respect your free-flowing banter and satire.

There will be no This Week this week. The trivial affairs of the country and the world are replaced by the much more important football highlights.

Update: the ever-splendid Billy Bowden [blog here and twitter @ontablets] has pointed out that This Week has strolled randomly across to BBC2. Good spot and my appreciation.

You are very welcome to join us. Please play nicely though.

Tonight Question Time comes from Inverness.

Everyone is welcome to come along but I want to make it clear I want best behaviour, no ad hominems. Or else.

On the panel we have the most convoluted, adjusted and argued-over panel for many a year.

On the panel, Deputy First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon MSP, former leader of the Liberal Democrats Charles Kennedy MP, Labour’s leader in Scotland Johann Lamont MSP, Conservative former Secretary of State for Scotland Lord Forsyth, Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips and the actor Alan Cumming.

Or not. Possibly.

In fact, TheEye will defer to a post on the ever-entertaining Subrosa blog which details the shambles. It’s worth reposting in full here although TheEye would encourage you to also head over there and show your appreciation on my friend’s excellent site.

This week there has been quite a stooshie about tonight’s Question Time which is due to be broadcast from Inverness.

The SNP MSP Kenny Gibson made a formal complaint about the imbalance of the panel, with two supporters of independence and three guests from the No campaign. Originally Johann Lamont and Michael Forsyth were to be joined by Melanie Phillips, the Daily Mail columnist.

The BBC’s reason for including Ms Phillips was because the programme discussed UK issues.

This is the first Question Time since the launch of the Yes campaign and the announcement that Alistair Darling will head the No campaign. Flying a London-based journalist to Inverness to represent the UK is lamentable although predictable.

Couldn’t they have engaged the services of that prominent journalist frae Dundee if they were desperate to provide a UK view? I believe Mr Cochrane resides in or around London.

But Kenny Gibson’s complaint has not gone unnoticed by those of influence at the BBC. Ms Phillips is to be replaced by Charles Kennedy who will join Nicola Sturgeon, Alan Cumming, Michael Forsyth and Johann Lamont. This will be Ms Lamont’s first appearance on QT and it will be interesting to see how she performs.

The panel balance is now reasonably fair but it would have been even fairer if someone from the ‘undecided’ camp had been included. Lesley Riddoch is one who would fit the bill but there are plenty others who may welcome the opportunity to challenge both sides.

Update: Nicola Sturgeon has withdrawn and will be replaced by Alex Neil and Melanie Phillips will appear. Thanks to Grogipher for keeping an eye on Twitter.

Sooooooo basically nobody has a clue who is turning up. It is, as Subrosa observes in her Comments section, changing by the hour.

There is no This Week this week. It’s replaced by something called Proof which is billed as “A young woman is concerned about having inherited her deceased father’s insanity.”

That’s what you get from watching the BBC, love. Turn over and save yourself. Make us a cuppa whilst you’re in the kitchen, eh?

Oh, and CoverItLive has changed format and might play up tonight – apologies if it does but it is not our fault.

A note on Moderation: We have been extremely relaxed here (rightly) with a policy of free speech and rolling banter. It’s going over the top a bit recently and people need to calm down. We *are* going to start restricting un-modded status and not just letting every comment through. Some are becoming potentially actionable. Fun at the time, maybe, and especially after a good few beers – but your site admins are legally liable under some circumstances and that’s not a good thing for us.

Don’t do it. Ta.
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Tonight Question Time comes from King’s Lynn (Coat of Arms Motto: “I can’t read or write, but I can drive a tractor”). The arrival of the BBC moving-picture machine demoncraft has been reported widely in the local newspaper – which is published fortnightly to warn the locals of upcoming full moons, new roads and immigrants, as well as providing the timetables for witch burning.

On the panel: Universities Minister David “Two Brains” Willetts and the world’s most unsuccessful bulimic John Prescott. To be fair it’s been at least 2 or 3 weeks since the leader of the Green Party Caroline Lucas has added her lentil knitting stupidity to Question Time so the BBC have decided that she’s due another shot tonight. The painfully unamusing”comedian” Griff Rhys Jones (whose appearance screams out for an urgent phone order to Slick Mario’s Quick Lime, Tin Bath and Shovel Emporium) rounds off the panel alongside Sunday Times columnist Minette Marrin.

B-BBC is delighted to offer a free Martin Clunes posable action figure for anyone brave enough to stay up for This Week*

There’s a short video by advertising executive Sir Martin Sorrell complaining about red tape strangling growth who will then debate it with Michael Portillo and Alan Johnson.

The Guardian’s Nick Watt will join a This Week torch relay as an embarrassing dressing up exercise for the political stories of the week review slot and then …well… Kerry Katona to talk about how she used to get whacked out of her head on cocaine but is better now. Maybe they’ll show some of her old “glamour” photos too? Hopefully not.

Join us for the LiveChat. If you dare.

* Posable action figure made in China, may contain lead-based paint and lethal levels of depleted uranium. Not suitable for small children, adults. Offer closes 19th October 1968

Tonight Question Time comes from Cardiff from the original Welsh “Cahhhhdeff”. The “You Are Leaving Cardiff” sign has been voted Most Welcome Sight for six years running. The dialling code for Cardiff is 029 which came second in the 2011 Wales Most Interesting Area Code competition, losing out to Newport’s 01633.*

On the panel: Minister for Disabled People Maria Miller (who? And why do they need a Minister?); the only ever UK Cabinet Minister to have stood trial for bank robbery Peter Hain (TheEye asked that in our pub quiz two weeks ago!); Leanne Wood, a republican socialist who is leader of something which looks like a bad hand at Scrabble called Plaid Cymru and the usually quite splendid Kelvin MacKenzie, Daily Mail columnist and former editor of the Sun.

Also appearing is someone billed on the BBC website as author and comedy scriptwriter John O’Farrell. Will Dimbleby also mention that he was a Labour candidate in the 2001 General Election? Or that he wrote the “jokes” in speeches given by Blair, Brown and other Labour politicians? Who’ll open the betting? Make me an offer.

Your Moderators line-up consists of David Vance, David Mosque, TheEye and John Ward.

Question Time is followed by This Week. Andrew Neil is cursed with the world pie-eating champion Diane Abbott, Michael Portillo – probably in a shirt resembling a 60’s deckchair – the unspeakably stupid Mehdi Hasan, Jilly Goolden, and a Greek stand-up commedienne called Katerina Vrana. No, I hadn’t heard of her either, before you ask, but she lists Eddie Izzard as her favourite comedian so on that basis alone she probably needs to be set on fire and the flames put out with a golf shoe.

Prediction: it’s going to be dreadful. And in other unexpected news, Fernando Alonso complains about the lack of charm in modern F1 and Brian Blessed calls for everyone to quiet down.

* May contain traces of lie.

Tonight Question Time comes from Oldham – which holds the record for the most Vauxhall Corsas per square mile. The name derives from Aldehulme; an Old Norse word meaning “Get the horses; we’re off”

On the panel: Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman MP who famously paid for her nanny on expenses, the Labour bloke who posted a picture of himself on the internet in his Y-fronts Chris Bryant MP, Liberal Democrat peer and serial troublemaker Lord Oakeshitt, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge and “Too Ugly For Television” Mary Beard, and the serial flip-flopping opinions-for-short-term-rent Daily Telegraph columnist Peter Oborne.

Your Moderators line-up consists of David Vance, David Mosque, TheEye and John Ward.

Question Time is followed by This Week. Andrew Neil has Louise Mensch, Alan Johnson and Charles *hic* Kennedy for company.

The lefty French journalist and Guardian political commentator Agnes Poirier looks at the consequences of the election of Francois Hollande in France, and what it could mean for Europe and the UK.

Quentin Letts gives a round-up of the Queen’s Speech week and the aftermath of last week’s elections.

The tedious Will Self looks at stigma, and will pontificate on gay marriage (presumably he’s in favour) and child sex grooming (presumably he’s against).

Tonight Question Time comes from Question Time from London for the second week in a row – presumably because the BBC chickened out of the promised Mayoral Special last week.

On the panel: Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith MP,
Labour’s deputy leader Harriet Hatemen MP, former leader of the Liberal
Democrats Sir Walter “Ming” Campbell MP, leader of the PCS union and semi-detached nutter Mark Serwotka and the businessman and panelist on Dragons’ Den Theo Paphitis

Your Moderators line-up consists of David Vance, David Mosque, TheEye and John Ward.

At 11:35pm (UK time) the BBC’s election coverage will begin so we will probably keep the chat window open for a while longer to watch the early biased punditry.