Question Time LiveBlog 24th February 2011


Tonight, Question Time comes from Newport; birthplace of Wales’ first billionaire. The area has two Labour MP’s – anonymous all-woman shortlister Jessica Morden and the serial weirdo Paul Flynn.

On the panel we have Sec of State for Wales Cheryl Gillan MP, “Baroness” Shirley Williams, perma-tanned vandal and bank robbery suspect Peter Hain MP, Lord of the Rings extra Elfyn Llwyd MP and the undeniably sound Fraser Nelson. Umbrellas and earplugs have been issued to protect the audience from Janet Street-Porter. WARNING: the combined visual and audio effects of JSP may damage your television and fry your brain.

In addition to the traditional B-BBC bingo, a prize will be awarded to the first commenter to correctly identify the current colour of Hain’s fake tan. Pantone numbers and descriptions only for valid entries, please.

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!

Question Time LiveBlog 17th February 2011


Tonights Question Time comes from Barking and on the panel we have Michael Heseltine, the ex-St Vince Cable, Yvette Balls (nee Cooper), Nigel Farage and a book publisher called Victoria Barnsley.

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!

Question Time LiveBlog 10th February 2011


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!

Question Time LiveBlog 3rd February 2011


Tonight Question Time comes from Workington which has been a Labour stronghold since its creation in 1918 except for a short lived Tory by-election win in 1976. It is represented in the House of Commons by Labour career trade unionist Tony Cunningham.

On the panel tonight we have Damian Green MP, Andy Burnham MP, Melanie Phillips, the utterly insane Clare Short and someone called Noreena Hertz who is engaged to Danny Cohen, the Channel Controller of BBC One.

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!

Porn Again

You can’t make this stuff up:

Former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is to cash in on her dodgy expenses claims by presenting a documentary about pornography.
The ex-MP was one of the most high profile casualties of the expenses scandal after she mistakenly charged taxpayers for the cost of hiring two blue movies.
Now she is to present a documentary for BBC Radio 5 Live, entitled ‘Porn Again’, to be aired on 3 March.
The programme will investigate the pornography industry in the UK – meeting those who make, watch and comment on porn.

How much are we paying this expenses cheat (she lied to fiddle £116,000, remember?) to trade on her husband’s sleazy escapades and front this? It’s the unique way that…

As A Dog Returneth To His Vomit…

Splendid use of licence tax money again, with news that Nick Robinson is fronting a scaremongering programme dedicated to showing us how we’re all doomed. Returning the country to 2006 spending levels, as the Government is only doing, risks taking us back to a time when libraries were forced to open and the dead were  left buried. Or not, it seems….

A pack of 20 dogs were encouraged to foul a residential street for a TV programme about the potential impact of council cuts. Film producers brought the pets – complete with their owners – onto the cul-de-sac and filmed them walking a circuit for at least 30 minutes.
The programme, called The Street That Cut Everything, charts how residents would manage if council services – including street cleaning – were withdrawn.

A road in Fulwood in Preston, Lancashire, was chosen for the filming of the prime time BBC series, which will be presented by the Corporation’s political editor Nick Robinson.
One dog owner at the filming confirmed that her pets were there to foul the street. It is understood the exercise was aimed at highlighting what would happen if council staff stopped cleaning the streets.

The article focuses on the dog-fouling aspect of the story whilst missing the bigger picture…why are we paying for this sort of partisan broadcast?

Instead, how about a programme about how Britain would cope without the BBC?

Question Time LiveBlog 27th January 2011


Tonight Question Time comes from Cambridge; represented in the House of Commons by LibDem Julian Huppert who is Treasurer of the Parliamentary CND group. Cambridge is without a single Conservative on the local council.

On the panel tonight we have Edwina Currie, Chris Huhne MP, Chuka Umunna MP, Kate Hopkins (no, me neither) and Will Self.

The LiveBlog will also cover the surreal This Week, with Andrew Neil and Michael Portillo.

Your friendly moderators David Vance, TheEye and David Mosque will be keeping order here from 10:30pm.

Question Time LiveBlog 20th January 2011


Tonight Question Time comes from Burnley, best known for the fact the more Bénédictine is drunk in one bar there, the Burnley Miners’ Club, than anywhere else in the world. LibDem Gordon Birtwistle, elected in 2010, is the first non-Labour MP for the area since the Great War.

On the panel we have lone Tory and serial QT underperformer Caroline Spelman MP, Simon “The Straight Choice” Hughes MP, below average cat-impersonator George Galloway, below average human-impersonator Alastair Campbell, and, unbelievably, Burnley Football Club central defender Clarke Carlisle. You couldn’t make this stuff up.

The LiveBlog will also cover the surreal This Week, with Andrew Neil and Michael Portillo.

Your friendly moderators David Vance, TheEye and David Mosque will be repelling boarders here from 10:30pm.

Question Time LiveBlog 13th January 2011


Tonight the first Question Time of the new year comes from London.

David Dimbleby will be with Michael Gove MP, Diane Abbott MP, Charles Kennedy MP, right-on lesbian novelist and delicatessen owner Jeanette Winterson and Dragon’s Den judge Nazim Khan who now calls himself James Caan since watching “Godfather”.

For those playing the Buzzword Bingo, we’ll be using the Soft On Crime, Soft On The Causes Of Crime Rules so any links to underworld denizens will be score highly tonight. Look out for triple-point references to Ken Clarke, Prison Closures, Control Orders and Prisoner Votes. On the same theme, special prizes tonight if anyone scores references to bang-to-rights Labour criminals Chaytor and Illsley openly on the BBC, and also Phil Woolarse, fire extinguisher lobber Edward Woollard and LibDem on-the-run donor fraudster Michael Brown who owes £2.4m. You’ll notice that Palin has been taken off your bingo cards for this week as it’s too predictable.

The LiveBlog will also cover the unspeakably strange This Week, with Andrew Neil and Michael Portillo and, if enthusiasm levels permit and alcohol levels allow, may stay open for the Oldham and Saddleworth by-election declaration. Maybe.

David Vance, TheEye and David Mosque will be feeding the guard dogs here from 10:30pm.

Question Time LiveBlog 13th January 2011


A reminder, as if we needed one, that the grim horror of Question Time returns tomorrow Thursday the 13th for the first show of 2011. It’s BBC bias in the raw; at its most blatant and visceral.

As usual we’ll be hosting a live chat here starting at 10:30pm and followed by the unspeakably awful yet strangely unmissable This Week with Andrew Neil and Michael Portillo. If the wine hasn’t run out and the enthusiasm remains we might stay online for the Oldham by-election result straight afterwards too.

The main event though, is first up and promises to be an unwelcome return to bias-as-usual. Join us here to discuss it, live and uncut, from 10:30pm tomorrow!