Amanda Platell Says It Should Have Been Me

As we enter the last five months before next May’s General Election, the obedient hackery of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre has, with the inevitability of night following day, gone into more or less permanent BBC bashing mode. This is because, when push comes to shove, the Vagina Monologue favours Young Dave and his jolly good chaps, and kicking the Beeb, he thinks, will help.

The stuff of nightmares

The less than convenient matter of Dacre still looking for that elusive gong, and that he had lunch at 10 Downing Street just before the Daily Mail went into pro-Tory grovel mode, no doubt has nothing to do with it. And this is certainly not mentioned in today’s anti-BBC rant by the Mail’s Glenda Emeritus Amanda Bloody Platell, who has zeroed in on Question Time.

“How could Question Time sink so low?” shrieks the headline, as readers are told “the programme is supposed to be a forum for serious debate, a chance for politicians and commentators to engage directly with viewers and discuss the significant issues of our time”. Ho yus. It ceased to be totally serious when they started inviting newspaper pundits on, Ms P. Hint.

But do go on: “This week, however, thanks to the gratuitous and cynically calculated pairing of Ukip leader Nigel Farage and Russell Brand, it descended into pure farce. Or rather into abusive, ugly, hate-filled TV. As several viewers put it on Twitter: this was the moment Question Time turned into the Jeremy Kyle Show”. That would be the same Twitter that is irrelevant when its users criticise the Mail.

Anyhow, what’s her problem? “Put aside for one moment the inflammatory choice of panellists. More troubling still was that there was not a single question about the biggest issue of the week: Britain’s complicity in the CIA’s barbaric interrogation techniques that will haunt this nation for generations. No question either on the first major speech on the deficit by Ed Miliband”.

And to that I call bullshit. While I agree that the US Senate report on the CIA’s activities is important, the only paper that really trowelled it on was the Mail – in other words, it’s what her editor wants to be the biggest issue. And the Miliband speech is only important to the Mail so they can slag it off. What is her problem?

As if you need to ask: “And much as I try, I’m afraid it’s impossible to deny that the show is increasingly skewed to the Left-liberal orthodoxy that saturates the BBC”. Yeah, right: apart from Farage, they had a Tory MP and a Times columnist on, which is totally lefty, isn’t it? Pull the other one. No, the real reason is here: “I have also appeared as a panellist on many occasions — most recently, two weeks ago”.

And it wasn’t “gratuitous”, or “abusive, ugly, hate-filled TV” then. What Ms Platell really means is that she didn’t get to meet Russell Brand. Pass the sick bucket.