82 Responses to QUESTION TIME WATCH

  1. David Vance says:

    “Islamophobia at fever pitch” – lol!

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  2. disillusioned_german says:

    Yeah, I just switched over to Brit Hume. Unbelievable!

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  3. disillusioned_german says:

    I forgot to say I watched QT for the first time in ages. The first 25 minutes were interesting but I said to myself “you’ll change channels as soon as muslims or George W. Bush becomes the topic. And that’s what I did.

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  4. emil says:

    Have they had the obligatory Sarah Palin question yet?

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  5. disillusioned_german says:

    I must say, David Vance, I admire you. I wouldn’t have the nerve to watch the whole of QT. Bravo!

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  6. archduke says:

    now they’re on about islamophobic and the bnp.

    yawn… switching over.

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  7. disillusioned_german says:

    Who would have thought James Caan was a muslim?

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  8. David Vance says:

    There was the obligatory “Time to get out of Iran” whinge from St Clare, the moral hypocrite.

    BNP= EVIL. Islam = misunderstood.

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  9. David Vance says:

    Disillusioned German,

    With a glass of red wine in one hand, and the remote control in the other, I can usually make it through it. It’s my sacrifice for b-BBC!!

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  10. a says:

    Is the ratio 4-1, 3-2, or 5-1 in favour of the left? I think at least 3.5-1.5

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  11. David says:

    I can’t stand this Lib Dem woman. She’s like a female Clegg – all shouty without actually saying anything. And I’ll eat my own foot before I believe the Lib Dems are being sincere on tax cuts. They are in a position to offer magic cakes and swan rides to anyone who votes for them, so I guess they just figured to try tax cuts instead.

    And why is it that whenever a question gets asked about government policy, DD turns around to Grieve and asks him what he would do instead? Hoon gets away without answering while the Tory is expected to come up with all the answers. Not the job of the Opposition.

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  12. disillusioned_german says:

    David Vance | Homepage | 16.10.08 – 11:19 pm |

    One glass? I just had my third glass of mulled wine (hot, spicy red wine) and I still felt I was much too sober to watch QT.

    Al Beeb should carry a health warning! I hope you’re relaxed and taking deep breaths, my friend!

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  13. David Vance says:

    I see Big Pharma got the traditional bashing…

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  14. archduke says:

    a | 16.10.08 – 11:20 pm

    grieve – conservative

    short – left
    hoon – left
    goldsworthy – left
    dimbledore – left

    not sure about kahn. although he called for the government to jobs being outsourced – by LAW… so i guess he’s no free marketeer.

    5 to 1 lefty advantage?

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  15. David Vance says:

    Yip -usual balance.

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  16. disillusioned_german says:

    I thought his name was Simplebore? Anyway, I’m going to shut up now. We need to come across as serious commenters.

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  17. a says:

    Not far off though Dimbleby isn’t always unfair. I thought to start with caan might have some economic sense but has since veered left. Poor Mr Grieve has found it difficult to speak at times with sometimes several people attacking at once.

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  18. Martin says:

    archduke: See my post on the general thread. Caan is a Labour supporter.

    Grieve is outgunned and is continually shouted down.

    Oh and am I the only who has noticed that whenever anyone in the audience is asked what they do, they are either Labour party activists or public sector workers?

    Considering Stoke has a large BNP support base why is no one from the BNP on the panel?

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  19. Martin says:

    archduke: In fact, here’s the link to Caan’s politics.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/pandora/pandora-pa-problems-bug-tony-blair-805481.html

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  20. a says:

    Although some of them seem to have some quite independant views that are critical of the Labour party, albeit from a left wing perspective. Quite interesting to hear what they had to say about business problems in the area and the person criticizing the mayor and three way allaince was interesting

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  21. archduke says:

    what weird stuff that hoon is saying… is he REALLY saying that our security services CANNOT monitor terrorist emails and internet traffic?

    errr… is that what GCHQ and Echelon do already???

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  22. David Vance says:

    Dave Spart will never be dead whilst a QT audience is alive. Power to the people, comrades.

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  23. archduke says:

    so if the cops are allowed to tap our emails, whats to stop an al qaeda plant in the cops from using that against us?

    in other words, hoon is a fascist and dumb as a plank too.

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  24. archduke says:

    what “new technology” is hoon on about?

    doesnt he realise that the internet has been around for years now…

    if our security services cannot monitor internet traffic, does that mean that our spies are woefully underesourced and ill-equipped , compared to say the NSA in the States?

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  25. TaffDragon says:

    Cant believe they had a poor muslim crying about the bnp,who have been voted in by the people.Muslims are the parasites of the human race

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  26. LeDon says:

    It’s interesting to note that there seems to be no BNP support in the audience seeing that there are a large number of people in Stoke who voted in all those BNP councillors.

    Hmmm QT audince vetting? Surely not…

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  27. Snooze 24 says:

    Funnily enough, the panels haven’t been too bad in recent weeks, but clearly it was a return to form this week.

    Loved the protectionist mantra being preached by the Stoke On Trent pottery (potty?) audience; apparently the fact noone wants to buy pottery from them means we should ban imports and force everyone to buy from them.

    The audience managed to blame islamophobia on the lib dems and tories (for working with the labour mayor); as Littlejohn would say “you couldn’t make it up”.

    Finally, we had the usual suspects moaning that every single drug on the planet wasn’t available free to them. I couldn’t face anymore at that point and switched to Newsnight, which actually seemed balanced for once based on what I saw.

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  28. Martin says:

    archduke: But Hoon was talking bollocks anyway.

    These days you can get access to free wifi in many places. You can use a VPN to connect to computers using very strong encryption even without using services like Skype.

    The weakest link is actually the physical computer itself. If that gets lost or found by the Police, that’s when they have their best chance to learn its secrets.

    if you want to have a private chat on the internet with someone it’s very very easy to do.

    My concern is that the politicians and Police tend to use these so called terrorism powers not to hunt down Muslim terrorists but to lock up people for protesting against the Government, stopping Iceland from operating its banks and so on.

    Most people probably don’t give a toss if some bushy bearded Muslim is locked up for 42 days. But if a memeber of their family was arrested on the most flimsy of evidence (say having a picture of Bin Laden on their computer) and locked up for 42 days, they would soon change their tune.

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  29. Jeff says:

    Martin “Considering Stoke has a large BNP support base why is no one from the BNP on the panel?”

    Their excuse was that QT never allowed a party that just had councillors. You had to be in Parliament, the GLA, or a MEP.

    Funny, because the BNP have a GLa representative now, and I don’t recall Shami Chakrabarti, Tracey Emin, Boy George, Tranny Artists and Jerry Springer ever being elected either.

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  30. adam says:

    Labour is a joke. They have done nothing on crime. Jackboot Straw has let all the criminals out and wont deport terrorists.
    yet they claim 42 days is needed to fight terrorists.
    Nobody believes that Liebore are tough on terror, even their own lefty audience.

    Hoon is a joke.

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  31. NonTVLicencePayer says:

    Any chance we can get a BNP spokes-person on question time? You know… to add some balance to this comedy show!?!?!

    Thought not.

    To be fair… the BBC have a charter to breach. They wouldn’t want the paying public to know that there are two sides to every coin… would they?

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  32. whitewineliberal says:

    the bnp were well represented on this blog last night. stoke has historically been a facist stronghold, starting with mosley. not sure most people in stoke are particularly proud of the fact. only one in seven voted bnp last time around.

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  33. Gerald Brown says:

    whitewhineliberal.

    Only one in four voted the present government into power.

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  34. Martin says:

    whitewineliberal: Why is it you only seem to appear on this site at night time? Do you have to have had a few in the pub before you spout your bollocks?

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  35. Roland Deschain says:

    Muslims are the parasites of the human race
    TaffDragon | 16.10.08 – 11:52 pm | #

    It’s exactly that sort of comment that can be used by opponents of this site. In fact I suspect it was put there deliberately to bring it into disrepute. I’m disappointed to see it has met with little reaction.

    That’s not to say I don’t have a problem with the way a great number from this religion carry on. But sweeping statements like that in my view undermine our case.

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  36. Peter says:

    Only one in four voted the present government into power.
    Gerald Brown | Homepage | 17.10.08 – 8:36 am | #

    While there are many in the political infirmament with whom I disagree, in a democracy I would prefer their words and deeds were allowed to exist in open contest so they may be defeated by more reasoned, persuasive words and deeds from others.

    From such as the Guardian to those it recruits for, both behind and in front of camera, I am both astounded and depressed that there is not recognition that ‘favouring’ certain ‘acceptable’ views and giving them voice, decrying those who don’t espouse them and, worse, actually telling voting public who go off message and support ‘the wrong side’ that they are ‘misguided’, is probably the most divisive and disastrous policy they can possibly follow.

    Assuming, that is, they are seeking to encourage democratic, consensual politics and moderation.

    Mind you, in the mess we are in, getting in power with 25% approval may be the best we have, but is woeful. However, the minute any pol tells me that they ‘have a mandate from the people’ on this basis is when they have lost my support for ever more.

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  37. oliver says:

    The LibDem woman was poor – fresh from the Student Union.

    Clare Short was given an easy pass, considering that she voted for the war in Iraq (NOT Iran, as she mistakenly said.

    Grieve was ok.

    Hoon did his usual impression of a speak your weight machine and did the time-honoured routine about ‘a perversion of Islam’.

    Aside from the audience, it was a bore.

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  38. whitewineliberal says:

    martin – my post is timed at 8.26am; “am” is foreign for morning. posts tend to be at night because I have a family and a job. you might be in the same boat one day.

    roland – pleased to see you too found that objectionable. our welsh friend might consider stormfront a more appropriate stage for his views.

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  39. George R says:

    Why watch BBC ‘Question Time’?

    The composition of the panel is usually politically biased to the left (as last night), the audience composition similarly. BBC elite does not consult licencepayers on this programme, as it prepares for reasons best known to itself, to send Dimbleby to the outer reaches of the UK. What a shambles.

    We know the predominant views which will be emphasisied on the programme, as the BBC is politically biased in the following aspects:

    pro-multiculturalism, pro-mass immigration, pro-Islam, pro-Labour Party, pro-European Union, pro-Obama and Democrat Party, pro-Castro’s Cuba, pro-‘greens’ and Climate Change AGW, and pro-BBC licence fee increases.

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  40. Heron says:

    Martin,

    I wish you would stop insulting WWL. You may not agree with his views – nor do I in general – but he makes his points politely, coherently and without any attempt to provoke.

    You may wish all commenters on this site to agree with each other on everything, but I feel sure that most people would rather see a conflicting point of view every so often.

    This site has improved in most ways over the past 6 months, but it is sad that John Reith no longer contributes here, which is again largely down to comments like yours. Yes, he ducked and weaved and obfuscated a lot of the time, but he also provided a necessary intellectual challenge that is sadly lacking here nowadays – can you not see that John Reith made us make our arguments better? Several idiotic trolls have attempted to recreate John Reith – Hillhunt, Gunnar, Joel – by manner of supercilious sneers; fortunately these idiots have either been banned or become bored. WWL does not sneer, therefore he should be treated with respect, and his (IMO misguided) views dissected with relevant facts and links, rather than insult.

    I read this site because I object to the BBC’s bias and its arrogant refusal to adhere to its charter. There are many ways in which this bias has been, and can be, demonstrated. At its best, this site can be a force to either get the BBC to change its ways, or, via the help of other influential sites, get the BBC’s charter brought up in Parliament by the next government.

    LGF-style insults, a refusal to even listen to an opposing argument, and general rudeness is not going to achieve anything constructive.

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  41. henryflower says:

    Roland Deschain – agreed, well said.

    I was going to say the same thing myself, but having done so many times over the past year or so, nothing changes. Too many people on here simply want to vent bile, without giving a second thought to whether that helps or hinders the credibility of the site and the battle against the licence fee.

    The type of statement you highlighted is fairly stupid, but I’m not naive enough to believe it has been planted here to undermine the site; unfortunately that type of crass vulgarity is all too common from some regular commenters.

    Which is not to say anything regarding my own personal views on Islam. And that’s the point: my own views on Islam are irrelevant, my observations on the BBC’s coverage of Islam in comparison with other issues and faiths are what would be fitting here. The infantile urge to give unedited voice to every cultural resentment and dislike is what is detracting from the political credibility of this site, however it may be upping the number of hits.

    IF you think Muslims are the parasites of the world, fine – go discuss it somewhere else perhaps, because this site is (or used to be) about bias at the BBC.

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  42. Martin says:

    Heron: Sorry but WWL is just a troll. He/she/it never actually debates but simply amkes pointless statements that are just designed to wind people up.

    I am always polite to those that make sensible conversation here even if I disagree with them. But I have no time for trolls.

    As for Reith, I think he just could no longer defend the crap the BBC pump out.

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  43. Jeff says:

    @ whitewineliberal

    The Eastend also had high levels of antisemitism in the ’30s too, and coincidentally, if one visits Cable Street today, there’s more antisemites living there now than there ever was. Different sort of fascism this time, one which the liberal/left seem to ignore, or approve of.

    http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZNx0xHe0p0

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  44. Kill the Beeb says:

    Martin, calm down on whitewineliberal. If you don’t stop, I’ll have TVL come knock on your door. That’ll put the fear into you, eh?

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  45. Martin says:

    Kill the Beeb: er…no.

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  46. Kill the Beeb says:

    Oh no, sorry I forgot. You’re first in line at the post office come renewal date so nothing to hide, eh?

    I have this imagery of you standing in line, gripping your licence fee with white knuckles, hissing through gritted teeth: “Hundred and forty bloody pound. The bastards. I’ll show them.” Whacking your money down then scuttling off to lance the humiliation of it all at the B-BBC forum.

    Or are you more of a direct debit man?

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  47. billybob says:

    5 to 1 lefty advantage?
    archduke | 16.10.08 – 11:27 pm | #

    Mmm. What was the capitalist quota last night…

    1 Conservative
    1 New Labour
    1 ex-Labour
    1 Lib Dem
    1 Dragon

    So, that’s capitalists 5, non-capitalists 0. You’d think with the economic crisis there would be a least one dissenting voice from the capitalist system. I guess the BBC just want to prop up the system rather than here the voices of those that want to dismantle it.

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  48. adam says:

    Site has become infested with people who dont believe the beeb is biased.

    Honest posters like Martin are now being rebuked for their frustration at the beeb.

    First they came for Martin, then…

    The political corectness, pleasingly so absent from this before, has now begun.

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  49. Kill the Beeb says:

    Martin is being rebuked for being a hypocrite. He pays his licence fee because he’s scared of what will happens if he doesn’t. Yet here is daily coming off with ‘this should be done, that should be done’. Really? Well whoever DOES SOMETHING to end the BBC won’t need telling from someone who DOES NOTHING.

    Armchair warriors. Where would we be without them? Uhm…the exact same place we are now?

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  50. GCooper says:

    I’m unable to decide whether I think the ‘parasite’ post was genuine or a deliberate smear (I do think the latter is a distinct possibility).

    Either way, it does our work here no favours.

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