It would take a braver man than me to tune in to this week’s Any Questions! The panel consists of Ben Bradshaw, Minister of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, Shadow Health Secretary, Don Foster, Liberal Democrat spokesman on Culture, Media and Sport and Dame Suzi Leather: Chair of Charity Commission. Anybody tune in? Have you recovered?
Managed to miss most of the first of the 2009 “Any Questions” programme and given that it had the loathsome Tony McNulty and the abomination that is Sarah Teather no bad thing. Alas I did catch Teather doing her party piece and getting viciously stuck into Israel. All that was missing was the violins as she spewed out her pro-Hamas talking points. I also heard McNulty having a go at Christians, so no real change there. However the bit that struck me most was the actual introduction to the programme. It came from Kingsmead School in Enfield. Dimblebore thrilled about how the school is proud of the “multicultural and inclusive ethos in a community of 87 ethnic groups” that make up this area. Sorry, is this a British school or not? Maybe “Any Questions” could one day find a school with “modern facilities” which is proud of it’s British ethos? It’s not just the panelists and the audience which the BBC stacks, it is even the choice of venue.
So I didn’t get to hear this when it was broadcast last night but unfortunately I did catch the repeat earlier today and I have to say that it really was a classic in sustained political bias. As ever, the beat is left. For once there were no politicians on the panel – with Univeral Shami (Left) Gulam Noon (Left) Joan Bakewell (Left) and Peter Obourne ( (No fixed position or indeed no fixed hairstyle) – but there was quite the consensus amongst this commentariat. They all agreed it was vital that a public enquiry was held RIGHT NOW into the disgraceful UK “invasion” of Iraq; they mostly all agreed that until the Palestinian question was sorted out there would be no peace inIraq or Afghanistan; they mostly all agreed that our capitalism of the past twenty years was morally wrong and that Brown’s Masterplan of digging deeper when in a hole was the inspiring way forward; Joan Bakewell came across as a really bitter uberleftist, Shami is so sweet when she talks of her patriotism whilst simultaneously bitterly undermining the basis for our armed forces ever going into action. The audience whooped and cheered each time every left wing cliche was spouted. When it came to the issue of whether it was right to have liberated Iraq from the Saddamite diktat, out of an audience of 300-400, around half a dozen felt that our presence had achieved at least some good. This programme achieves the impossible and makes Question Time seem almost fair and balanced and it is another instance of the BBC using its taxpayer funded bully pulpit to endlessly propagandise left wing values.
Yes, little Miss Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti, is on the Any Questions panel tonight. So is Dame Joan Bakewell, the latest government Age Czar! If anyone is brave enough to listen, do share your opinions!
. I rarely listen to “Any Questions” but was unlucky enough to catch about 15 minutes of it this evening. Naturally the ubiquitous Ken Livingstone was on the panel – as was putative suicide bomber Jenny Tongue. (She’s a lady, you know) Livingstone was permitted to trot out some amazing claims about his pal and employer Venezuelan thug Hugo Chavez to loud applause from the audience but the bit that struck me was an almost unanimous assault from the panel on all those millions of folks who like to travel by air. Even Peter Hitchens joined in – with the panel droning on about the wonders of rail travel and how IT should be supported. (Not a great transport mode for getting across the Atlantic) This fits into the BBC agenda that air travel should only be for special interest groups like themselves. The plebs should stay at home and restrict their travel mode to bus and train, preferably run by the State.
. Can anyone explain why Dame Shirley Williams is so omnipresent on the BBC’s main political debating programmes? I note she has been on this week’s “Any Questions” and she was on “Question Time” but a few weeks ago. Have the Lib-Dem’s got no-one else to put up for these programmes? Personally I am sickened by the fawning reception that she is given by BBC hosts when she does appear and it makes me think that politically, the BBC and the far-leftism of the Lib-Dem’s are synched soul-mates, which may explain why Williams gets such disproportionate prominence.
