Yesterday evening, the BBC brought us a Question Time leaders’ special from Sheffield, where those leading Labour, the SNP, the Lib Dems and Tories were lightly but separately grilled by a studio audience, with host Fiona Bruce fielding the questions. Jeremy Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon acquitted themselves well. Jo Swinson got a mauling. And alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson again failed to live up to expectations.
We can be sure of this because of the low moaning noise emanating from those out on the right in the hours during and after the broadcast. There can be no surer sign that Bozo The Clown - who looked tired and drawn during his appearance - had come off second best.
The complaints came in thick and fast, but only from one part of the political spectrum, typical being that from Sarah “Vain” Vine, aka Mrs Michael “Oiky” Gove: “This. Audience. Is. A. Total. Labour. Stitch. Up. Well done BBC, you've really outdone yourself this time”. Allison Pearson was on the same page. “I’ve just made a complaint about appalling bias against Boris in tonight’s #bbcqt audience. Call 03700100222. You have to press a few numbers but eventually reach a human. Well worth doing. Grrrrr!” Whine, Madam?
Darren Crimes, er, sorry, Grimes whinged “Question Time is supposed to vet this audience for balance. Where’s the pro-Boris, pro-Brexit voices? Typical BBC”. Tim Shipman, totally unbiased Murdoch minion, harrumphed “Conservative source claims this was the number of interruptions: Corbyn 11 … Sturgeon 15 … Swinson 17 … Johnson 45”.
One source fits all, eh Shippers? Meanwhile, the deeply unpleasant Andrew Pierce of the Daily Mail moaned “We’re there or any Tories or LibDems in the BBC question time audience?” Then came the giveaway, as he was asked which questions he considered unfair: “Didn’t watch it so wouldn’t know. I’m presenting my LBC show”. What a prat.
Iain Dale was also unhappy: “Is there a single Liberal Democrat in this Question Time audience? Seems to be heavily stacked with Corbynistas. God knows what will happen when Boris comes on! So as well as there being no Liberal Democrats, or Leavers in this Question Time audience, there appear to be bugger all Tories there either. I imagine Daniel Blake may make an appearance soon. Kudos to whichever Momentum branch that managed to pack the audience!” And on the subject of Daniel Blake, well.
The Sun’s non-bullying political editor Tom Newton Dunn was on the case. “Is Kate Rutter, an actress in 'I, Daniel Blake' a @BBCQT audience member? The BBC confirm to me that she is”. Er, so what? How does that disqualify her from questioning our political leaders?
Tom Harwood, replacement teaboy to the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines at the Guido Fawkes blog, considered that acting made Ms Rutter bang to rights. “She’s been in Corrie too. Very strange for the BBC to have her in the audience of this show”. Why? Because she was in Coronation Street? And then came Robert Colville of the Astroturf CPS to blubber “How come Boris isn’t getting all those questions Corbyn did about exactly how brightly the sun shines out of his fundament?” Snot fair! Waaaaah!
Bozo The Clown failed to live up to the hype once again. That is not the fault of the BBC, but those who put him in 10 Downing Street and his press cheerleaders. End of story.
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"And alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson again failed to live up to expectations."
ReplyDeleteFTFY
"And alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson again managed to live down to expectations."
All those self-pitying tory whiners seem to have missed the opening by two tory audience plants......One a Sith Ifrican/Rowdeesyan if his accent was anything to go by, the other doing a passable impression of an exploded mattress*. Both, of course, spitting hatred at Jeremy Corbyn - who to his eternal credit dismissed the latter with humour and a kindly invitation, and demolished the former by a straightforward account of facts.
ReplyDeleteInsofar as these mere spectacles are worth anything, Corbyn pissed it easily. Sturgeon was slightly plausible but the usual one trick pony. Swinson was a shrill train wreck. And Bozo......well, words almost fail......the fellow is an utterly insensate, self-entitled public school buffoon straight from a Bullingdon hooray henry ale-house meeting......a total cringeworthy embarrassment.
So naturally the right wing Grauniad thought Swinson "...did well under unfair pressure...", while the usual tory hysterics could do no better than produce their Losers Lament listed in this blog.
*That was just his appearance. His crackpot propaganda was even worse - straight out of the Joe McCarthy playbook. Whoever placed him there shouldn't be allowed to manage anything more challenging than a slug circus......which, come to think of it, is all the Bozo gang is anyway.
What's interesting is the assumption, the default expectation that their side is going to win. That any criticism isn't just the natural way arguments work, but an aberration. That it has to be a "stitch up", because they cannot conceive of anyone naturally reaching the conclusion that Labour might be better for them.
ReplyDeleteSays an awful lot about the Oxford debating club mentality driving the Tories (what larks, all a big game, call daddy's lawyer if shit gets a bit real).
From a forum, subject Johnson: "...he looks like somebody has taught a concussed ox to walk upright and stuck it in a suit to lumber on to the stage and mumblefcuk specious schite..."
ReplyDeleteYou've been rumbled, Bozo.
Sqwawkbox points out a Tory Activist - Ryan Jacobsz, a South African - who was on last night and has been chosen to ask questions on Question Time at least four times. (They must know who he is and he has travelled quite long distances from his home in Hull to appear on the various programmes).
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/skwawkbox/status/1198197447195017216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwterm%5Eprofile%3Askwawkbox%7Ctwcon%5Etimelinechrome&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fskwawkbox.org%2F
Here is a profile Jacobsz wrote for Conservative Home.
https://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2018/08/ryan-jacobsz-to-win-the-next-election-the-conservatives-must-make-better-use-of-their-activists.html
I was just going to say, though Mirandola has beaten me to it, that the only stitch up I could see was in having Ryan Jacobsz YET AGAIN appear in the audience. Yes, Kate Rutter was in the audience and yes, I cheered to see her. What her appearance told me was that, for an actor like her, I, Daniel Blake and Paterloo (she's in that too) weren't just gigs. As a Sheffield resident she has a right to be there and her question, do the LibDems regret austerity, was far less loaded and agenda-driven than Jacobsz rant.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree with Andy's comments more. The self-entitled, privileged nature of these cretins is beyond belief.
These folk have coasted through life with the cheat codes up to the max.
ReplyDeleteThey feel aggrieved, nay, discriminated when they encounter a level playing field.
Let them fume, and ridicule them like the impotent hoorays that they are.
Anon 11:24
ReplyDeleteThis probably isn't the first time you've called a woman 'shrill,' I'd ascertain.
Thanks to the lovely mrs Oik I have just called the bbc to lodge a complaint against Tory activist mr Jacobs, also raising his multiple previous QT appearances and the fact that he had travelled a considerable distance to be in the audience. You see, it can work both ways. I encourage others to do the same. Whether or not you support Corbyn is in my opinion unimportant.
ReplyDelete