Category Archives: BBC Question Time

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Question Time tonight comes from Glasgow; twinned with Havana and a Conservative-free zone since 1982. In 2006, 29.4% of the population were on the dole and it has the lowest life expectancy of any UK city.

On the panel tonight we have Ed Davey, Nicola Sturgeon Murrell, Chris “Y-Fronts” Bryant, Hugh Hendry and Simon Schama. It’s also David Dimbleby‘s 72nd birthday.

For those playing the Buzzword Bingo, we’ll be using the Congratulations Rules so any links to people with special days today score bonus points. Double points for Iranian Threat (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad…happy 54th!), Tax The Rich (Bill Gates is 53), Gap Between Rich And Poor (Princess Sophie of Liechtenstein turns 43), Political Donations (Bernie Ecclestone is 80) and that annoying socialist whine Selling The Family Silver (Canaletto would be 313 today).

The LiveBlog will also cover the awful This Week, with Andrew Neil. According to the BBC published schedule only Michael Portillo is confirmed, so speculation as to the identity of the balancing socialist windbag is welcome.

David Vance, TheEye and David Mosque will be manning the barricades here from 10:30pm.

Question Time tonight comes from Middlesbrough, which has the lowest life expectancy in England and Wales and, according to the BBC, a council that “will be the least resilient to such public sector cuts“. It also boasts a 33ft tower which changes colour when you send it a text message.

On the Trafalgar Day panel tonight we have Philip Hammond MP, John Denham MP, Caroline Lucas MP, General Sir Richard Dannatt, George Pascoe-Watson and finally a woman who was described by Boris as “incarnates all the nannying, high-taxing, high-spending schoolmarminess of Blair’s Britain. Polly [Toynbee] is the high priestess of our paranoid, mollycoddled, risk-averse, airbagged, booster-seated culture of political correctness and ‘elf ‘n’ safety fascism“.

For those playing the Buzzword Bingo, we’ll be using the In It Together Rules meaning that references to Philip Hammond being a multi-millionaire score points but references to Toynbee’s villa in Tuscany and tax arrangements mean that you miss a go. Playing your Dannatt card and getting carriers, jets or Falklands is worth a point, Gibraltar wins two but the phrase Carriers without Harriers beats every other hand at the table. The usual squares of Thatcher, dead unburied, doomed are expected to be in high demand and please note that fairness has been removed from cards tonight. Too easy.

The LiveBlog will also cover the entertainingly awful This Week, with Andrew Neil, Michael Portillo, Alistair Darling and the pickled remains of Charles Kennedy. This programme will be marked using Billy Blofeld’s patent pending “Gellard Scale Of Rabid Left Wing Whinging“.

David Vance, TheEye and David Mosque will be slashing the public sector here from 10:30pm.