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Posted by: ░░░░ 6th February 2014, 11:28 PM

I thought it's be nice to have a dedicated thread for this, I'm sure many of is watch this.

Tonight's is a little ridiculous with Starkey/Galloway dominating in panto fashion. Tessa Jowell is as false as ever.

Posted by: Danny 6th February 2014, 11:36 PM

George Galloway is a bit too extreme even for my tastes, but God do I wish someone as passionate as he is was in the frontline of politicians.

I'm surprised they let racist David Starkey on again.

Posted by: Cassandra 6th February 2014, 11:48 PM

I LOATHE it. I watch if I've got nothing else on and I catch it on the TV, but the incessant applause and bollocky populism really does set my TITS ON EDGE.

Posted by: ░░░░ 7th February 2014, 12:12 AM

ok hoi poloi, we cant all be as highbrow as you

and yes i do occasionally watch loose women, what of it?

Posted by: Cassandra 7th February 2014, 12:17 AM

PEDANTRY: hoi polloi more accurately refers to those I'd have ROUNDED UP in the audience and submitted to re-education programmes

Posted by: Suedehead2 7th February 2014, 09:09 AM

I'm afraid the combination of George Galloway and David Starkey was too much for me so I didn't bother last night.

A dedicated thread for the programme is a good idea though. I often follow it on Twitter (sometimes even when not actually watching the programme ) but that is far too busy to be able to read all the comments.

Posted by: G R I F F 7th February 2014, 10:47 AM

I went through a phrase of watching it, but then I got really bored - most of the panel bullshit to get the populist approval anyway.

I might watch last night's though, I'm always interested to hear what David Starkey has to say even if I don't necessarily agree with him

Posted by: LexC 7th February 2014, 11:13 AM

I find that this programme irritates me far more than a debate programme should (or maybe that's because people like David Starkey and Melanie Phillips irritate me, I'm not sure).

Posted by: Danny 13th February 2014, 10:46 PM

YES at this Scunthorpe audience laying into the establishment for pampering the south-east just because they have to suffer the horror of some damp carpets.

Posted by: Calum Sandé 13th February 2014, 10:48 PM

I KNOW *.*

"If it's not within 10 miles of London you don't care"; so true <3

Posted by: Suedehead2 13th February 2014, 11:10 PM

This is the second successive week when they have not had a Lib Dem on the panel. Therefore, I am not watching it.

Posted by: ¿ CATORCE ? 15th February 2014, 01:24 AM

Oh, someone noticed.

Worth noting that my friend was the one who asked that first question last night. Smashed it, I hadn't really known any recent examples of large scale flooding up north.

Posted by: G R I F F 15th February 2014, 07:31 AM

It's not really as simple as that though is it. I agree that the North should get as much attention but the South East is still struggling a lot

Posted by: Rooney 17th February 2014, 06:14 PM

Sure of course it is, but the media favors attention on the South East. There's been some ridiculous weather in the North of England over the past decade. It's awful when anyone's affected by natural weather causes, but there's a sense of injustice from the North definitely. I can't remember all the coverage, but it would be interesting to repair the coverage the North of England got in the 2007 floodings compared to now.

Posted by: Suedehead2 20th February 2014, 11:08 PM

The Tories are frequently accused of having a problem with women. Philip Hammond is not helping by constantly getting the name of Labour's representative wrong. He clearly thinks Labour only have one woman front-bencher so it must be her.

Posted by: Cassandra 20th February 2014, 11:09 PM

Who's on/what's he calling her?

Posted by: Suedehead2 20th February 2014, 11:14 PM

Liz Kendall on but Hammond seems to think she is Rachel Reeves.

Posted by: Danny 20th March 2014, 10:52 PM

For as much stick as Question Time gets, in my view the fact it moves around the country makes it one of the most accurate "weather-vanes" of political opinion. For the second time in a few weeks (after Scunthorpe a few weeks ago), northerners are rightly venting their fury at politicians pandering to the south east constantly and taking away from the rest of the country to give to the south east. Yet the establishment remains blissfully unaware of it.

Posted by: Suedehead2 20th March 2014, 11:42 PM

The thought of seeing people defending the Budget put me off watching it this week. The point about moving around the country is a good one though. One of the worst features of our electoral system is that a party's MPs end up coming from very similar constituencies. One of the strengths of the Lib Dems should be that, even with fewer seats than Labour or the Tories, they represent a more diverse range of constituencies. Sadly they haven't used that strength in the coalition.

Posted by: Suedehead2 9th April 2014, 10:07 PM

Among the panelists tomorrow night - unless there is a late change - is Sajid Javid who has just been promoted to the Cabinet after Maria Miller's resignation. Hmm, I wonder what the first question will be

Posted by: steve201 11th April 2014, 09:19 PM

A lot of his friends are saying he could be a future leader (Tim Mongomery) and playing on his working class background!

Posted by: Cassandra 11th April 2014, 09:29 PM

As IF Sajid's a future leader. His time'll be gone by the time Boris vacates.

Posted by: Suedehead2 11th April 2014, 10:19 PM

I was decidedly unimpressed with Sajid Javid last night. Obviously I didn't expect to agree with him much (if at all) but I still thought he was pretty poor.

Posted by: Cassandra 11th April 2014, 10:32 PM

Identity politics can only take you so far.

Posted by: Doctor Blind 11th April 2014, 11:30 PM

Given that Javid is a firm supporter of the government's appalling/reckless/stupid/never-ending 'Help 2 Sell (and Encourage Massive Debt).. er, I mean Buy' scheme I would like to add my disapproval of him in general.

Posted by: Cassandra 11th April 2014, 11:49 PM

Of COURSE HE IS, he's a MEMBER OF IT

You aren't exactly going to get many on the Tory benches coming out and saying it's shit!

Posted by: Suedehead2 1st May 2014, 09:39 PM

Oh dear, my MP is on.

Posted by: Barbaric-Brett 1st May 2014, 09:45 PM

Tim Farron reminds me of The Master from Doctor Who for some reason.

Posted by: Danny 1st May 2014, 10:33 PM

You know it's bad when a Ukipper is most passionately outspoken against the scandal of zero-hour contracts. Yvette Cooper has been so useless, which is a shame because before tonight she was one of the few Labour people I thought was decent.

EDIT: That said, she'll probably look like the model of authenticity and sincerity by this time next week since apparently Chuka Umunna is going to be on *shivers*

Posted by: Suedehead2 1st May 2014, 10:48 PM

And there's also some bloke called Farrarj (or something like that). Anyone heard of him?

Posted by: Cassandra 1st May 2014, 10:50 PM

For someone who DRAPES HIMSELF IN THE FLAG such I'm always surprised he doesn't rhyme it with the English pronunciation of garage.

Posted by: Danny 30th May 2014, 11:24 PM

Just watched last night's. Joey Barton was oddly underwhelming, despite Twitter hyping him up as being "controversial" I thought he didn't say much that was interesting at all.

It was good to see the Scottish Labour woman actually say that it's stupid to try and blame all the country's ills on immigrants (though she did end up throwing in those teeth-grinding platitudes like "honest debate" and "listen to people's concerns"), rather than some of the cringeworthy talk of late from the likes of Ed Balls about how Labour needed to be "tougher" on immigration.

Posted by: Suedehead2 30th May 2014, 11:28 PM

I only saw a bit of it and am planning to watch more of it in the next few days. The UKIP woman seemed particularly awful with roughly the intelligence of a baked bean.

Posted by: Cassandra 30th May 2014, 11:29 PM

It was more the sexist pointed 'you're the least ugly of four girls' comment at the Ukip woman.

Posted by: Cassandra 30th May 2014, 11:30 PM

The Ukip woman seemed pretty impressive to me, in a 'if I knew nothing about politics at all and didn't have access to a fact checker I'd think she won' way. She was quite gifted at arguing for a manifesto that wasn't the one Ukip ran on, and came off fairly convincing in explaining away all the accusations against Ukip (even if all the explanations were patently false).

Posted by: Suedehead2 3rd July 2014, 10:43 PM

An enjoyable programme tonight thanks to Twitter

Posted by: Doctor Blind 7th July 2014, 06:19 PM

I enjoyed the programme too, Alan Johnson should be leader of the Labour party over the weak Ed Miliband.

Posted by: Suedehead2 7th July 2014, 07:26 PM

He has the great virtue of speaking like a human being rather than just in fluent politician-speak. However, I can't help feeling his honesty was a sign that he has no further front-bench ambitions and so can speak more freely. Politics needs more people like him.

Posted by: Danny 11th December 2014, 10:53 PM

Russell Brand and Nigel Farage on now.

Underwhelming so far tbh.

Posted by: Brett-Butler 11th December 2014, 10:57 PM

I'll be watching it 30 minutes behind, as we've got our own politics show on before.

I really hope one of the panelists goes full Wanda on Russell Brand. "Aristotle was not Belgian".

Posted by: steve201 20th March 2015, 09:40 PM

Anyone see this last Thursday evening - Charles Kennedy was almost certainly on the whiskeys beforehand. Must have seen the latest Ashcroft polls!!

Posted by: Suedehead2 20th March 2015, 09:45 PM

Last week's panel was pretty poor. Charles Kennedy had either had a few or was simply unwell. The Labour and Tory representatives were both pretty weak as well. After all, it included defence minister Anna Soubry insisting that a reduction in service personnel from 95,000 to 82,000 was not a cut.

Posted by: steve201 20th March 2015, 10:00 PM

Awful woman, she literally mirrors Thatcher in her styles of talking.

Yeh I love Charles Kennedy as an MP - good old SDP style Lib Dem but he wasn't all there and I did feel sorry for him a bit. Least we had Ian Hislop to give us his little insights.

This weeks one was much better - Will Self is always funny if a little too much and I like Chukka even if he clearly is desperate to be leader. The woman from the Tax Payers Alliance was a dose tho!!

Posted by: Suedehead2 20th March 2015, 10:18 PM

I'm not a fan of Will Self, so I decided that a combination of him and a dipstick from the Taxpayers' Alliance was too much to stomach.

Posted by: steve201 25th March 2015, 11:41 PM

Ha Dipstick haven't heard that word in a while!

Posted by: popchartfreak 26th March 2015, 05:44 PM

Neither am I - he reviewed my friends Comics business in Putney and mentioned Comic Book Guy in a not particularly flattering way, when he's a gem of a person.

Self Self Self, if ever anyone was named correctly....

Posted by: Brett-Butler 26th March 2015, 10:55 PM

I liked this clip of Will Self from Shooting Stars, apart from that I agree with everyone else. Not a fan at all.

Posted by: Suedehead2 9th April 2015, 11:39 PM

Liz Truss was spectacularly awful tonight. It was almost as if the Tories had deliberately decided to send their most patronising minister to represent them.

Posted by: Danny 9th April 2015, 11:45 PM

She's hilarious.

Posted by: Suedehead2 9th April 2015, 11:52 PM

Before tonight, I had thought that HIGNFY might have been exaggerating her inadequacy. Not any more.

Posted by: nickthenoodle 10th April 2015, 12:25 PM

Eugh and then Louise Mensch on This Week after. I'm no Tory fan but they really can find better people to represent themselves than that awful pair!

Posted by: steve201 10th April 2015, 01:11 PM

Indeed she was awful on it, a chip on her shoulder feminist with a right wing agenda!!

Posted by: Suedehead2 29th October 2015, 11:13 PM

You've got to love the Tories for their strange grip on reality. The former leader of the Scottish Tory party said tonight that Harold Wilson was unelectable. He led Labour into five elections. He won four of them.

She also said that she voted in favour of the tax credit cuts because she supported the principle of changes to the system and even though she didn't support the detail. If Osborne or Duncan Smith proposed shooting half a million unemployed people, would she vote for that because she supported the principle of reducing unemployment?

Posted by: Doctor Death 29th October 2015, 11:53 PM

If they so desperately wanted to cut the benefits bill (of which PENSIONS make an ever-increasing vast majority - £153bn or 58% of total welfare - but they won't because most of the old codgers are selfish bastards who vote in great numbers and usually for the Tories) they could start by looking at the housing benefit crisis which is brought about directly by failing government policy as reported in the Independent tonight.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/london-house-prices-are-the-most-overvalued-in-the-world-report-says-a6713936.html

I suspect they won't though as most of this money ends up in the hands of .. you've guessed it rich Tory landowners/landlords or PENSIONERS. Ugh. Kill me now.

Posted by: Suedehead2 29th October 2015, 11:58 PM

One of the audience members tonight said that Labour had taken Scotland for granted. They were right. Labour has consistently taken its core support for granted. The Tories, by contrast, have always looked after their core supporters very well.

Posted by: Qassändra 30th October 2015, 02:44 AM

Incorrect. The Tories have always been more vocal about looking after their core supporters very well. The biggest failure of the New Labour government wasn't that it didn't help the poor, but that by fearing its measures were less popular than they were, staying quiet about them. Which has meant plenty have been rolled back to little fanfare. If Osborne gets through tax credit cuts, arguably the only remaining substantive socioeconomic legacy of New Labour (other than to the generation growing up under it) will be equalities legislation.

Posted by: Brett-Butler 5th November 2015, 07:12 PM

One of my favourite people, Victoria Coren, is one of the panelists on Question Time this evening. As is Peter Hitchens, who is also a human.

Posted by: Suedehead2 5th November 2015, 08:17 PM

Debatable.

Posted by: popchartfreak 5th November 2015, 09:29 PM

The Max state pension is £150 a week. Most get less, and a couple much less. Selfish spongeing bast*rds lounging about on the hard-earned taxes of working people, and they don't even have the decency to drop dead at 65 (well, most of them at any rate). Jobseekers allowance is half that, though you might argue, ooh, older people have spent their life paying tax, and oh I dunno, young people haven't. Jobseekers and sickness benefit claimants also get just as many, if not more, cushy benefits as pensioners (free bus passes, free TV licence, winter heating bill): they get their council tax free, free dentistry, generous allowances for rent and property charges in flats. If they have children they get accommodation and child support worth up to 26K, which is more than I earn.

The problem isn't the allowances it's that older people turn up to vote and young people don't. Unless there's a sudden Corbyn-led wheeze to reduce the old folk numbers by some kind of Logan's Run cutting pensions, denying them access to the NHS that is never going to change as that's not much of a vote-winner (the Tories BTW are having a right old go at that right now by the way, first question you get asked when you ask for home help? Have you got any savings? First question you get asked when ill in hospital? Could you sign this please if you don't want resuscitation in the event you stop breathing. Cheaper you see than having 'em hanging around taking up a bed for years or home visits).

Savings for your old age suddenly disappear when you get ill. So, yes, old people feel pissed off about stuff, quite apart from feeling crappy, and motivated to vote.

Posted by: Suedehead2 6th November 2015, 01:10 PM

Last night's panel was one of the weakest I've seen for a long time. Justine Greening (Tory) just spouted the lines she's been given from Central Office. Ckuka Umunna spoke a lot but said very little. Jenny Jones (Green) was unmemorable and Peter Hitchens was is usual self, the odd good point amidst a load of nonsense. Victoria Coren-Mitchell was great on the NHS and attacking Umunna for being vacuous, less good on some other subjects. At least she was prepared to admit it when she wasn't an expert on a subject. Politicians are petrified of answering "I don't know". They hope that if they speak at sufficient length, the audience won't notice that they haven't actually said anything of substance.

The lad in the audience who didn't seem to have grasped what microphones do was quite amusing.

Posted by: steve201 7th November 2015, 02:54 PM

An audience in Tottenham in the 6th year of an austerity Tory government and the audience were more angry with the Labour MP than the current Tory cabinet minister - says a lot really!!

Posted by: popchartfreak 7th November 2015, 03:59 PM

Victoria doesnt suffer fools gladly. I rather like her a lot!

Posted by: Brett-Butler 15th September 2016, 09:53 PM

Both John McDowell & Alistair Campbell on the same QT panel this evening. Let's see if there's more fireworks between those two than between Labour/Conservative panelists.

Posted by: Steve201 15th September 2016, 11:18 PM

Anna Soubry was a disgrace - all the centrists sticking together!

Posted by: Brett-Butler 23rd June 2017, 06:54 AM

Imagine how terrible a person you have to be to get kicked out of the audience of QUESTION TIME. Well done, annoying Corbynite. Well done.

Posted by: Steve201 23rd June 2017, 10:07 PM

Sort of sounded like he wanted chucked out by the end - love Dimbleby tho!!

Posted by: Brett-Butler 15th March 2018, 10:58 PM

After the events of the past few weeks, this week's Question Time has a Russia Today broadcaster on the panel. Get the popcorn out (although make sure it's not poisoned first).

Posted by: Shia LeMuffQueef 15th March 2018, 11:00 PM

Yes, yes, but is Farage on it again with more Tory plants in the audience? That's what BBC thinks we want!

Posted by: Brett-Butler 15th March 2018, 11:02 PM

No.

Posted by: Botchia 💡 17th June 2018, 09:47 PM

Some sad (but inevitable) news, David Dimbleby is stepping down as the host of Question Time at the end of the year after 25 years

Posted by: Doctor Blind 20th June 2018, 03:37 PM

I haven't watched it in ages, it has all become a bit too like this sketch from Harry and Paul



Who do we think would make a good host though? I'd quite like James O'Brien. He used to be a panelist on the Wright Stuff back in the early 2000s, but he has been a very competent host on LBC over the past few years.

Posted by: Suedehead2 20th June 2018, 04:11 PM

I think they need to look at either revamping the format or perhaps replacing it with a wholly new programme. It's become unwatchable over the last few years for a number of reasons.

Most of the panelists simply toe the party line so it's obvious what they are going to say. Most of the audience comments have also ceased to add much to the discussion.

In the meantime, here is one of the Dimblebot's finest moments...

Posted by: Brett-Butler 20th June 2018, 04:33 PM

I think they should replace it with a programme where Jeremy Paxman interrogates a range of herbs and spices.

Question Thyme.

Posted by: Suedehead2 20th June 2018, 05:42 PM

The guests will, of course, be trying to avoid a Paxo Sage & Onion Stuffing.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 21st June 2018, 08:38 PM

James O'Brien totally my Number One choice. He knows his stuff, knows who is lying through their teeth and won't let them get away with the usual BS - he will challenge, which is what journalists are there for. The Truth is NOT in any way equal to a Lie. One of them is a lie and needs to be called out where appropriate.

Posted by: Suedehead2 7th December 2018, 06:56 PM

Fiona Bruce has been confirmed as the new host. Unless they make some major changes to the programme, I doubt I'll watch more than her first one.

Posted by: Lapland Labia 7th December 2018, 07:27 PM

Tory Time. Pfft. No thanks. Just axe it.

Posted by: Christmasteve201 7th December 2018, 08:30 PM

Good to see a women get the chair for the first time!

Posted by: Brett-Butler 7th December 2018, 09:06 PM

Not the first female host of Question Time, Sue Lawley hosted a few editions in the late 1980s. She is the first permanent female host though, and I was pretty sure that they would end up give the role to a woman. Fiona Bruce should do a decent job, although I doubt she'll be messing around with the current format in any hard way.

Posted by: 5 Silas Frøkner 7th December 2018, 09:33 PM

I quite like Fiona Bruce, it’s good to see her get the nod for the job

Posted by: Christmasteve201 7th December 2018, 09:41 PM

Ah thanks I didn't realise that. She's a competent performer and will hopefully not let the MPs go off on party political speech!

Posted by: Suedehead2 11th January 2019, 08:10 PM

I've been watching Fiona Bruce's first QT. She was a lot better than Dimbleby at challenging the politician when they were just waffling, Let's hope that continues. I might start watching the programme regularly again.

Posted by: Steve201 15th January 2019, 01:00 AM

She was excellent!

Posted by: vidcapper 15th January 2019, 06:32 AM

I've always said that politicians should be wired up to a polygraph & electricity generator - every time they lie, the get shocked, with the charge doubling each time...

Would they rather tell the truth, or get fried?

Posted by: Popchartfreak 15th January 2019, 01:34 PM

wouldnt work with half of them, as they self-delude and convince themselves they are telling the truth. They are the really dangerous ones, and we wouldnt want them coming over as telling the truth when they are just compulsive liars. You know the ones I mean.....

Posted by: Crazy Chris 15th January 2019, 05:30 PM

I thought she was very good and better than Dimbleby at challenging the panellists too as Suedy said.