Question Time LiveBlog 31th March 2011


Question Time tonight comes from London.

At the time of writing this (approx 7pm) confirmed panelists according to the BBC Question Time website are Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, Sarah Teather MP, Diane Abbott MP and the regularly tedious Clive Anderson. It’s unclear whether an extra panelist is yet  to be confirmed, whether Abbott is vast enough to count as two people, or whether she’s already eaten the unlucky 5th chair z-list celeb.

Perhaps Abbott and Teather are supposed to average out?

UPDATE: Thanks to the ever-alert Clameur de Haro for updating us that mouth-breathing trade union parasite Mark Serwotka will be on the panel too. *sigh*

The LiveBlog will also cover the insane This Week, with Andrew Neil, Michael Portillo, a random lefty politician and an unbranded 6-pack of hangers-on.

Your cheerful brace of Moderators; TheEye and David Mosque, will be looking menacing here from 10:30pm.

LEAVE OF ABSENCE

Hi all. As you may know, I am standing for election to the Northern Ireland Assembly in the May 5th poll and pressures mean I must step away from this site for most of the next month or so.  I hope the other writers can keep you provided with copy whilst I am away. I will return.

GASSING AWAY…


BBC Greenies love farting cow stories. And when their favourite fart-gas – methane – is the subject of a government report that could lead to new emissions laws, they are clearly in their seventh, miasmic, heaven. It defies belief that a time when we are supposedly making record cuts, DEFRA spends countless and undisclosed oodles of our dosh in working out the relationship of feedstuff to gas (though this story also indicates that DEFRA has at best a very tenuous grasp on sanity). Especially as other research showed as long ago as 2008 that despite the frantic greenie alarmism, methane emissions have stablised. Never let the fug of a marsh gas fog get in the way of a good BBC scare.

ON ZADIE

Zadie Smith, the author, said the Coalition Government's policies on libraries, were
I see that Zadie Smith has caused a bit of a furore except to the BBC who see it all as fair and balanced; 
“Her comments, broadcast during the Today Programme on Radio 4, were an impassioned defence of libraries and “shared institutions” in Britain. 

The BBC has been criticised, however, for inviting Ms Smith to broadcast her comments without any interruptions or questions and for allowing the five minute piece to turn into a “party political broadcast”. After telling listeners about growing up with a love for Kensal Rise library in north west London, which is  earmarked for closure, Ms Smith rounded on the coalition Government’s “shameful” policies.”

It’s the rancid BBC which is shameful.

OH, THE PHILISTINES!

I was amused at faux BBC anger at the news that Luvvies are to be denied sticking their noses in the public trough to quite the extent has been the case in the past decade or more. I’m figuring that interpretative dance and endless plays endorsing left-wing hysteria is just one luxury we will have to go without…

BBC Correspondent Bridgette Kendall Tells A Little White Lie on the News

I just now saw BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridgette Kendall on the News Channel telling a lie to Sophie Long. It’s either a lie or a display of inexcusable ignorance. While discussing the very real concerns in nearly all corners about the legal and practical ramifications of arming the rebels in Libya, Kendall said that some people were wondering if it we could trust them.

“Some people in The States are saying” that they have links to Al Qaeda. No, BBC, it’s not just some people in the US. The leader of the rebel forces himself says so:

Libyan rebel commander admits his fighters have al-Qaeda links

Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Mr al-Hasidi admitted that he had recruited “around 25” men from the Derna area in eastern Libya to fight against coalition troops in Iraq. Some of them, he said, are “today are on the front lines in Adjabiya”.

Mr al-Hasidi insisted his fighters “are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists,” but added that the “members of al-Qaeda are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader”.

There is no doubt that there are Al Qaeda connections with the rebels in Libya. By suggesting that it’s only a concern put out by some people in the US, Kendall is either saying this man lied, the Italian newspaper created a false story and the Telegraph reproduced the fraud, or that she is simply unaware of this revelation. It also suggests a dismissive attitude towards certain factions in the US. Either way, it’s very poor behavior for a BBC correspondent, and indicative of a misguided attitude towards the realities of the Muslim world. It’s a pity, because the rest of her contribution was pretty straightforward stuff, clearly laying out the basic issues being discussed by the various politicians and advisers involved.

How can the BBC be trusted if the expert correspondent they bring out to explain things to you either doesn’t know the facts, or does know them and tells a fib to play down the truth? This is one of the most important international issues going right now, both for Britain and for the US, not to mention the rest of Europe and at least a dozen Muslim countries. Yet the BBC cannot tell the truth, or simply isn’t aware of it.

Your license fee hard at work.

TICK THAT BOX

Even I blinked with disbelief when I saw this. Thousands of dogs, cats, and millions of people pass from the UK and Europe and back each year; with them travel lots of unwanted insect life. Now, intrepid researchers at Bristol university have found that surprise, surprise, five (yes five) examples of a European tick have been found on a sample of 3,500 British dogs. My first reaction as an ex-reporter is to ask who the hell sanctioned such a lunatic waste of money. Not so Victoria Gill of the BBC. Instead, it’s a major new front in the climate change alarmism. She accepts without question the hooey from these nutty, priofligate academics that this is proof that the said ticks are spreading because it’s getting hotter. Their models say so, she faithfully reports.

Dogs retrieve sticks; BBC reporters pursue AGW tick stories with the same puppy-dog faithfulness and alacrity.