Question Time and This Week

The QT programme was strangely nerveracking viewing, for all its moments were highly charged.

The good thing about the QT special was the constant hope that the dialogue would break down completely, and one of the panellists would call the other a f*cking c*nt or something.

It's the end of the fackin' world. Kill that cunt, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!

what do people think of Sean O'Callaghan?

I forgot to watch QT and just switched on when someone was talking about immigration. He had been here since he was 11 or something, was that him?

Bizarrely, I also forgot to watch TW and just switched on to see some Irish fella talking about terrorism, I think. Who was he?

Both programmes are excellent, I think. I must remember to watch them.

I'm guessing this is Sean O'Callaghan .... call it a wild stab in the dark

Dreyfuss was frankly poor. He borrowed authority from his weathered stardom, but his actual remarks did not get anyone very far.

on the other hand, if you care about serious and informed debate on current affairs on the BBC, the pinefox OTM upthread

JtN likes Hughes, and his taxi-cab.

I always have a special affection for the Lib Dems, generally - they seem like nice people who handle politics the way I would like it to be handled. Now, if only they were socialists...

But her very final comment, about foxhunting, was correct.

Andrew Neil wondered where Tony Blair got his three and a half million pounds form, but hasn't Andrew Neil got three and a half million pounds as well?

Apparently saying "I can apologise" is the same as apologising.

Kwame Kwei-Armah pissed me off with his "There are billions of people starving and that is more important than fox hunting" response. I'm sorry mate but you're there to answer the questions asked and debate the issues raised so get off the moral high ground or fuck off to the World Hunger Debate.
By his standards the entire concept of political discussion is a waste of time until everyone gets a bite to eat.

Makes Blair look a twit, either way.

As someone said on 'this week', it'd be a ludicrous situation where aggressive 'intent' and not action can be a cause for war. Why hasn't Blair been pilloried and laughed out of the country for making such a statement?

Voices of sanity on that QT Panel: Matthew Parris and Jody Dunn. And yes, Patricia Hewitt was appallingly predictable in parroting the Blair line.

Anybody see last night's? I actually whooped when Michael Hessaltine told that Daily Mail woman were to get off about the EU. Dimmers was also particularly mischievous.

Drink when he says:
"You couldn't make it up!"
"Cottaging!"
"Hell in a handcart!"
"The PC brigade!
"Guardianista!"

Drain your glass when he says:
"Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!"

Why haven't the Left got a lucid, authoritative spokesperson in this country (Tony Benn is too old now)? One is sorely needed.

It is funny how old Tories become loveable lefties, viz. Heseltine's slapping down of the odious Phillips. (It is funny also that she was a Guardian columnist for so long!)

I saw Michael Moore on QT once and was so impressed that I rang the Corporation and told them how good it had been.

Hey, maybe that's why they've asked him back!

the snag seems to be that any member of the current cabinet, backbench labour types etc are aware that the pm may watching and have 2 constantly tow the line no matter how much the audience groans, dimbleby tears into them, fellow panelists laugh and suchlike. they've become just as toothless as the tories on the show were in the 80's. the current crop of blues couldn't give anything like as much of a toss what happens give or take, so they can kind of say what they like. i've seen the likes of boateng consistently reduced to the most simpering wet ball-less geeks, and felt sympathy even for tebbit at one point in the past few years. watching robin cook desperately unconvincingly trying to defend his position in early 2003 while sitting next to benjamin zephaniah was *agony*. he apparantly turned to bj as the credits rolled to say 'i agree with every word you said, i'm quitting next week' then did just that!

the caption on this is great...

The highlight though was Moore confidently stating that Kerry will make the better President because he's going to properly go and hunt down terrorists, wherever they are. "Dude, Where's Your Credibility?" Haven't you just made millions from a film saying the very opposite?

Watch again folks

littlejohn would NEVER get on Question Time in the UK, which just shows what a poor shower this lot were.

the audience was woefully ignorant and incapable of expressing points that weren't related directly to their own experiences (and even that was done badly). it was as if they'd never seen a political debate before.

the miami voting league woman was terrific though. she brooked no shit.

I am still wondering about the pagan woman. Why was her voted discounted? Not because she was pagan, surely? She seemed to imply that.

oh god. i almost threw my glass at the tv at that point. i can't believe that no one commented.

xpost - and pagan woman was nuts, too. i'm assuming she meant that her vote was discounted in that bush stole the election despite the popular vote.

What's wrong with scoring party points? We need our people to be as partisan as possible. Moore was not, mostly, on fire, but he had a few better gags than anyone else, and when he takes a verbal swing at the enemy it gets me up and enthused with the blood of the battle. He is our commando guerilla comedy warrior of cynicism and low down dirty cunning and I'm backing him to the hilt any old time he wants to take down one of the enemy.

The audience was annoying - whooping/jeering at every soundbite or before the speaker had a chance to finish their argument.

i've realised i liked the voting woman mainly because of her eyebrow usage.

ok. lock everyone up and have done with it. we're all capable of walking on to a plane.

I liked Michael Moore's answer to the man who suggested that he wouldn't want war under ANY circumstances.

'I am still wondering about the pagan woman. Why was her voted discounted? Not because she was pagan, surely? She seemed to imply that.'

oh that is what she was saying.

I really got bored from the question about Blair onwards so I didn't get through all of it.

Someone who speaks out in direct opposition against the leader of their country, using disinformation as a tactic, while in a "war"?

Sounds like it entirely sums up his past 4 years.

But there is a more serious point. Lord Haw Haw, singnificant insult though it is, describes Moore completely given that he himself accepts America is at war (otherwise he could not claim, without contradiction, that Kerry should "go after terrorists better than Bush did"). The man has no place in rational or democratic politics, pure and simple. He fails to understand the process or the mechanism. (I take Pete W's point upthread about Littlejohn's "supporting your leader", but this is different. We're talking about Moore's own definition.)

Moore, by his own definition is fighting a "war" and is spreading disinformation in support of it. Aside from direct parallels such as anti-Semetism, which I don't anyone accuse Moore of to date, I don;t see what other part of it is wrong.

Wikipedia's front page (since it was quoted above) for Lord Haw Haw says :

Lord Haw-Haw was a propaganda radio program broadcast by Nazi German radio to audiences in Britain and Ireland on the mediumwave station Radio Hamburg and by shortwave to the United States. It started on September 18, 1939 and continued until April 30, 1945, when Hamburg was overrun by the British Army.

Two announcers played Lord Haw-Haw:

Wolf Mitler was a German national who spoke as the caricature of an upper-class Englishman. His persona was described by some listeners as similar to P.G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster. Journalist Jonah Barrington of the Daily Express coined the term "Lord Haw-Haw" to describe Mitler's voice: "he speaks English of the haw-haw, dammit-get-out-of-my-way-variety". Under Mitler, the program reached its greatest popularity in the British Isles, with over six million listeners.
William Joyce replaced Mitler in 1939. Joyce, a former leader of the British Union of Fascists, fled England before his planned arrest on September 1, 1939. For biographical details, please see William Joyce.
After Joyce replaced Mitler, Mitler was paired with the American-born announcer Mildred Gillars in the Axis Sally program and also broadcast to ANZAC forces in North Africa. Mitler survived the war and appeared on postwar German television. Joyce was hanged for treason on January 3, 1946.

Other British subjects willingly made propaganda broadcasts, including Raymond David Hughes, who broadcast on the German Radio Cymru; Norman Baillie-Stewart, a former Guards officer cashiered for selling secrets to Germany; and John Amery.

By all means, show me where Moore doesn't fit into that characterisation. He broadcasts propaganda, by his own admission. He speaks to his 'audience' in the language they will answer to (in his opinion). He co-opts other American subjects to make propaganda broadcasts on his behalf.

I'm assuming when you refer to "in the Nazi's pay" you mean Mitler's German nationality, and Joyce's adopted German nationality, in which case, yes, I agree entirely, they were in the direct pay of the country they were giving disinformation in favour of.

Moore is not in the direct pay of either the Afghanis or the Iraquis, but continues to broadcast propoganda (by his own definition) which includes disinformation (by anybody else's definition) against the country he is a passport holder of. Does this make him less or more stupid than Lord Haw-Haw? Unless you're assume that making millions from said disinformation from the free market is cleverer than making it directly from the people you're spreading the disinformation in favour of.

Does this mean I don't think Bush is an incompetent fuckwit, in the pay of big industry, and war-crazy? No.

Do I think this means John Kerry is automatically a better choice?

I fully expect to see every British poster to ILX signing their allegiance to Michael Howard underneath this if their answer to the above sentence is "Yes".

I shouldn't have called you a cunt last night. Sorry, I was a bit pissed.

Just like I'd love for any American ("or maybe just" m) to tell me the difference between Tony Blair and Michael Howard?

Michael Moore says we should vote for Kerry because he'll be tough on terrorists. BillClinton bombed a soap factory in Sudan because "intelligence" told him it was a munitions plant. Michael Moore even admits in 'Stupid White Men' that Clinton passed most of his so-called ethical policies (like agreeing to Kyoto) in his final days because he knew he wouldn't have to enact them.

As an outsider, and not drawn along the whooping political lines we say on the Question Time, it doesn't seem hugely different to me. Yes, Bush appears to be a complete fuckwit. As I said above, for the same reasons most British people on this thread would consider Tony Blair a complete fuckwit. Now see how many of them will automatically vote for the opposition because of that.

(btw, ythink bubba c made barely covert attempts to skew the intelligence he was recieving on sudan such that he might carry out the ideological aims of the anti-cleanliness hawks running his administration under the guise of 'ridding the world of dangerous weapons'?)(ps before you tell me that i am, i'm not saying clinton's blameless, but conflating some very different, and differently motivated, military, economic and environmental blunders with the 'they're all big industry puppets' line is, at best, oversimplification)

(this is all in parenthesis because its 2am and i'm not even in a fighting mood)

Erm... actually, the Clinton administration have made overt claims about the Sudan bombing being "to send a message to the world" and "to teach them a lesson" despite what intelligence sources were willing to leak to the contrary about the place he was bombing, as Michael Moore admits in "Stupid White Men".

Yes, Bush is wrong on a great number of things - and motivated by big industry and other economic, sometimes personal, relationships. Does this make him any different to practically every world leader alive today?

(btw, the only countries I've ever been to where I've heard no political dissent are Cuba and Japan. I'm sure there are different reasons why in either place.)

Oh, and I'd still like a non-Brit to point out the differences between Blair and Howard.

(i sleep now)

Protect Our Borders And Shores
Today, our borders, our ports, and our airports are not as secure as they must be. John Kerry and John Edwards will make our airports, seaports, and borders more secure without intruding upon personal liberties. " The last part of that second one is interesting: if I object to having my fingerprints taken on entering America, is that enough? If 100 people object? How do you make something more secure without increasing restrictions or surveillance?

On domestic policies Bush and Kerry do indeed seem to have differences, although very minor ones - the rhetoric is almost identical, although Kerry fixates on "middle classes and those who aspire to be middle class". But both say they'll create well-paid jobs and give tax breaks. Bush actually says he'll give them to "all". (I don't believe a word of it, but we can only judge Kerry on rhetoric so it's only fair to do the same with Bush)

On the environment they differ hugely, obviously, but I think what's interesting about Kerry is that he only focusses on environmental issues within America (the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and urban regeneration).

(I still want to know whether aldo thinks that Moore should be put on trial for treason or not, even if he doesn't believe in the death penalty for it)

However, if Bush Jr and Moore both believe they are in that kind of war, as they have both stated at different times that they believe they are, then an accusation of treason may well apply.

aldo, is your position here essentially (pick one): a) that (the current popular definition of) 'neo-conservatism' is a myth, or b) that neo-conservatism is comprised of a worldview indistinguishable from that shared by any recent american administration.

(i think both options are misguided).

Although to give me two options you both think are misguided and force me to pick one is exceptionally bad form, if I have to pick one I'll say b). It's far more polarised than I'd describe it, however. I think it's near-indistinguishable to those outside America, and there are differences on internal (i.e. within the territory of the US) policies.

'Gentleman with the massive quiff. Yes, you sir.'

10.35 BBC1 Question Time, possibly featuring the ILX Glasgow Massive.
11.35 BBC1 This Week.
12.20 BBC2 Breathless, as in the Jean Luc Godard film.

I am glad you are not going to the FAP, because I like you a lot already, the way you are.

QT is the highlight of my week, some weeks.

My friend Emmie T was in a QT audience last year, and I was very envious. She was only shown for a brief second, but she was making an amusing face.

Or, the week?

Sometimes I watch QT with RJG, and we tut and laugh at it together. And I like This Week almost as much. Tonight I'm going to watch the Lord Lucan program then Frank Skinner then QT then This Week, and I will probably enjoy it all very much except I don't really like Frank Skinner.

Frank Skinner is bad! But I kind of enjoyed seeing Rufus Wainwright on his show.

Yet, I am glad that you enjoy it. Maybe RJG's presence is key to the pleasure? So often is that true.

This Week, in particular, is often quite funny.

Question Time in an unadulterated joy. Did anyone see Paul Heaton on it a few years ago.

I watched alone. Perhaps, I should have invited Cathy over. Oh well.

How many weeks has Diane Abbot been wearing that leopard print top? At least three. I wonder if I'm the only one to notice.

Rosie, you don't have to use the word 'slaughter' in every answer. It's not called 'Slaughter Time'.

I thought it was a very poor programme, more or less on a par with 'House Doctor' or 'Beat the Burglar'.

The only thing I enjoyed was the feisty Scots answering Dimbleby back.

There weren't many people in the audience.

Ian, the Declaration of Human Rights pointmaker: I thought he might be Ally C. He looked like One Of Us.

I gave up half way through 'This Week'. Diane Abbot looked very tired. The righthand side of Portillo's hair is quite admirable, but the lefthand side really is a disappointment.

The person I liked most was Don McCullin. I liked the way he keeps his photgraphs in some kind of tissue paper sleeves. He seemed very sad.

I also taped Jean-Luc Godard's 'L'Eloge d'Amour' which means 'The Black Hole of Love'.

he's perhaps not as funny as he once was, yet the crudeness remains (or has increased?)

I liked Any Questions, though that has been almost as bad as Question Time since the Mess O'Potamia. Any Answers - the phone in - can get to fuck, though. If I wanted to hear misinformed and out-of-date views on week-old issues from utter idiots, I'd head down to the local Whetherspoons. And why they can't filter out the people who phone up to 'subtly' promote the BNP, I have no idea.

Otis Ferry is achieving the impossible by being more annoying than Sarpong.

The audience are similarly stupid. "Should any foreigners be allowed to buy any of our football clubs" is the latest gem.

Otis Ferry's contribution = "foxhunting is great, I don't like football, foxhunting is great, Coldplay are great but not as great as foxhunting, I don't watch Big Brother, did I mention foxhunting is great".

June Sarpong's contribution = "I'm from Ghana so make poverty history"

Lembit Opek's contribution = "Andy Kershaw is the cutting edge of cool so there should be more Africans on the bill at Live8"

Tory bint's contribution = "I know lots of stuff about Man Utd, i.e. I know who they beat in the 1999 Champions League final, so I'm ONE OF YOU COMMON PEOPLE AND NOT A HATEFUL TORY BINT AT ALL"

Tony Benn: "what the hell am I doing here, I don't belong here"

Then they got a schoolkid on to play the theme tune on the piano.

Excellent new QT meme "Aha, but you said that about WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION so how do you expect us to believe you now?"

Geoff Hoon's standard response: stupid grin.

dadaismus's first post nails it beautifully

good one tonight thanks to Hislop and no thanks to Roof Kelly

someone explain to me tho why Hislop and other members of the press are as up in arms about Brown's visit to Iraq during Tory Conference week as the Conservatives themselves. irrespective of the actual value of the trip, is it just because Brown went earlier than scheduled and caught them all on the hop?

Arguably bad taste electioneering in place where lots of people are getting killed?

Politicians accusing politicians of playing politics. Isn't that what they're for?

Ming & Hislop were good.

Definitely arguable but I find it very difficult to trust opposition OR press criticism of it.

Andrew Neil has become insufferable (I used to like his style, I'm sure he wasn't hamming it up this much 4 years ago). Can't they get Claudia Winkleman to present This Week?

saw it

george osborne: youngest cunt in parliament

ruth kelly: youngest cunt in the cabinet

or Konnie Huq (xp)

that's the spirit xpost

Obv the party that brought you The Falklands Conflict are ill-placed to complain about war-zone campaigning, and obv the usual suspects in the press are following their own agenda, but I'm not happy that Brown tries to score points by visiting a country he helped to fuck up.

Better than burying head in sand (not that the visit's purpose or outcome are necessarily useful, but it seems just a drop in the ocean). I'm just not bothered that he did it before confirming election, the timing is not the problem really when cynical electioneering is inevitable as it is.

Obv the party that brought you The Falklands Conflict are ill-placed to complain about war-zone campaigning

are they? I am not so sure. The Falklands are British sovreign territory, the people there did not want military rule by the Argentinians, a negotiated settlement was probably not possible seeing as Argentina was ruled by a military junta at the time. The Falklands Conflict was resolved with relatively little loss of life, peace was restored, the invaders retreated and as far as I am aware the residents of the Falklands Islands did not become factional and have not planted a single car bomb or launched a single rocket launcher. In these circumstances I think your allegations of double standards are somewhat misplaced.

The Falklands Conflict was resolved with relatively little loss of life

Weren't more people killed than actually live in the Falklands? From that perspective, it was a bloody huge loss of life!

yes but I wasn't making the comparison from that perspective but rather from the perspective of comparing the situation with that of Iraq.

the falklands war was much easier to justify than iraq, but to be fair i don't think labour have used the iraq war in the same way the tories used the falklands war. for the blindingly obvious reason that the iraq war is very unpopular.

Is there any point in comparing the military occupation of a country of 23 million largely hostile people with the recapture of a few islands with a couple of thousand friendly residents?

anyone see peter stringfellow on "this week" last night?

what a knob. the lower middle classes are getting taxed too much tho.

i thought it was quite cheeky getting him to do a little skit and at the end saying "you're the one for me, Cammy"

i mean wtf was the point? who cares what Stringfellow thinks? fuck off

for the blindingly obvious reason that the iraq war is very unpopular.

and hasn't been 'won' in any meaningful way.

who cares what Stringfellow thinks?

unfortunately, quite a few people. Granted most ppl will recognise that he is a deeply unfashionable, unattractive, somewhat creepy man who has made his fortune in a questionable way, but ppl like him for being entrepreneurial and getting off his backside and doing something and for being a "working class boy made good". he was in constant demand when I was a stoodent to talk at AISEC and Young Entrepreneurs Society meetings for this very reason.

Not because the chairmen of said societies wanted comps for his club?

i think the only reason they got Stringfellow on was to do his HILARIOUS "all this talk about the Tories being up or down in the polls...my girls are up and down poles all the time anyway" intro

fair dos Genie but they didn't do a celebrity plug for Brown or Ming or anyone else on the same show so fuck you BBC

The real shock last night was hearing Kirsty Wark on Newsnight using the phrase "big up" not once but twice in links.

Did Osborne ever go back and answer that black guy's question about what the Tory party stood for, as promised?

The real shock last night was hearing Kirsty Wark on Newsnight using the phrase "big up" not once but twice in links.

-- blueski, Friday, October 5, 2007 2:42 PM (28 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

oh shit i heard this phrase used on the lunchtime news the other day. "today is big up david cameron day at the tory party conference" or something.

Kirsty Wark on Newsnight using the phrase "big up"

I look forward to her saying "pwned".

YR POLICIES

let me question them

i think the only reason they got Stringfellow on was to do his HILARIOUS "all this talk about the Tories being up or down in the polls...my girls are up and down poles all the time anyway" intro

-- blueski, Friday, 5 October 2007 13:38

that caused a mega-groan, then a lol for the groan.

you all watched question time.

Paxman would never say 'big up'.

This wanker from the Sun. People are cheering him. Fucking hell.

Yes, what a cunt. But it was in the heart the "Middle England" - The Home of Cunts, so what do you expect? Harriet Harman is rubbish.

I wish Andrew Neil would just go away so I never have to look at him again. After a couple of weeks as strawberry blonde, he was brunette this week. I must give Portillo his due, for sticking up for Inheritance Tax as a good, progressive tax. Most sense I've heard anyone talk on this subject for weeks.

Hoon really lost it last night - same old 'yes i am in favour of eroding our civil liberties if it means we can stop being killed by terrorists' rubbish.

For a Chief Whip he is being far too visible.

Yes, that was another one for the IT'S OVER category surely.

I know that the good burghers of Stoke have other things to think about, but was a bit disappointed that no-one took Hoon on over the Stansted decision - his first major decision in his new post. Also, that guy is orange.

Are you sure it wasn't Dale Winton?

"Standted Airport: It was a bit strange, but we all loved it..."

October 1981 on Sunday: will he play "O Superman"?

Nah, Luton Airport (x-post)

"It was Cats UK's only hit...now there's a surprise!"

Dimbleby's tie!

Alex Salmond again very impressive and Hattersley was good too. Baroness Barmy did the Tories no favours at all if we're talking hysterical grandstanding.

Alex Salmond does a very good after dinner speech.

He'd be better value than Kenneth Clarke or Tom O'Connor, that's for sure.

Can I just say to Marcello that Neuk means Fuck in Dutch.

Thank you.

I couldn't possibly comment ;-)

Hehe. Yeah yeah yeah. I bet you can't. :-)

US election edition from DC now!

Not as good as four years when Michael Moore's contributions were thrilling.

No, they bloody weren't. I remember him saying something like, "When it comes to gay marriage, well we find you republicans pretty deviant, but when john kerry wins, he's still gonna let ya marry!" Gahhhhhhh!!!!

Last nights show was astonishing. Can't remember a show like it, not even the 9/11 edition or ones during the build up to the gulf war. If anyone had any doubt about the feelings in the country they'll be certain now.

I thought the audience came over as a bunch of twats, personally. Tories let off the hook, as usual.

If anyone had any doubt about the feelings in the country they'll be certain now.

I think you want CiF.

It was HYS made flesh

but everyone is saying the same thing...

That's what they said about Nazi Germany

what, "If I'd invaded Poland, I'd be in jail by now!"

Ha ha, like people who fiddle expenses, which happens everywhere and all the time, usually end up in jail

LOL DAILY MAIL

(the jail reference has been more in reply to the mortgage overclaimance)

Lynch mobs aren't usually too hot on legal niceties

Could be mistaken, but the anger and disgust goes beyond the usual HYS/Daily Mail crowd, e,g Mark Thomas planning to take Speaker Martin to court for a judicial review.

Quite simply, none of us one of us could get away it. When benefit cheats get caught working and signing on, they get punished. They don't form a committee made up of other benefit claimants to debate how they might make new rules to prevent themselves from doing it again. They certainly don't appear on BBC News barking that "they work extremely hard and made a simple mistake."

Nor can an exposed tax dodger offer to pay back money because they are "concerned about how it looks to the outside world", and then walk away with no repercussion.

It is unfair, unjust and profoundly undemocratic. Which is why lawyers acting on my behalf have served legal papers on Speaker Martin this morning. As the chair for the House of Commons Commission, he should take urgent steps to commence a review of the department's actions in dealing with MPs' applications for expenses. These should include an independent audit of expenses and the forced repayment of wrongly claimed expenses; and in cases of fraudulent claims, the police should be called in. Speaker Martin has 14 days to respond. If he does not, I will instigate a judicial review of Speaker Martin's decision, on the legal grounds that public law should be consistent. MPs should not be allowed to be above the law and what is good enough for us is good enough for them.

I'll keep you posted on how I get on.

Update (Thurs 17:20): Thanks ever so much for offers of support - at the moment I've made decision I should pay for legal costs incurred so far. But if we end up taking Speaker Martin to court for a judicial review then we will launch a campaign fund. I am in the process of setting up a not-for-profit company specifically to collect funds for this one issue: it will be administered independently from me - i will have no contact or involvement with any of the money. Thanks again for offers of help. If it gets to court you can be sure I'll be coming back to you. (P.S. The commission have confirmed they have received our legal papers.)

Could be mistaken, but the anger and disgust goes beyond the usual HYS/Daily Mail crowd

Well obviously, all I'm saying is there was whiff of the lynch mob about the Question Time audience and they're appeared rather a lot of mouthy twats in there too

Tell some people often enough that they ought to be outraged and they get all outraged. It's like a public Racist Bottle Opener thread where everybody gets to pile on.

(That said, all MPs are bent, venal scum, obv.)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8321157.stm

these fuckin' hippies better not ruin Question Time. I'm really lookin' forward to it.

Protestors totally swarmed the police about 20 minutes ago - the police had them all lined up on the pavement and then the protestors just decided to bust through into Wood Lane. Traffic is stopped.

Anyone know why QT is in London this week? I'm wondering if it is actually in order to give the biggest platform for protestors..

its probably already been recorded.

also these fuckin hippies better not mess up my commute home, I need to use the White City station in about 45 minutes

pfunkboy no, it's not already been recorded.

Lukas Keudic, 20, a student at King's College London, was one of those who managed to get to the doors of the studio where the controversial debate is due to be held later.

He said: "We were in the main reception next to Piers Morgan when about 30 police officers turned up. There were about 10 to 20 of us and we were just standing there chanting in a peaceful protest.

LOL namedropper

the bbc have removed the bit where the guy says they started chanting "Ian Tomlinson"

There are also protests currently taking place outside BBC buildings in Glasgow and Belfast.

Well that'll do a lot of good

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46593000/jpg/_46593994_protest1_bbc_226.jpg

Nick Griffin is inside the building.

http://www.viciousriff.com/files/IMG_294.jpg

(xpost)

not gonna watch this

It will not be much fun

It's fucking Question Time, it's never fun.

Unless one of the guests is pissed.

these people are complete fucking morons

like seriously talk about giving floating potential bnp voters a liberal strawman to hate on.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8319635.stm

The whole "no platform for Fascists" thing brings back a warm glow of nostalgia from being at Uni in the 1980s, but personally I figure if the Fascists are on a platform it makes them easier to throw bricks at.

i'm sure dimbleby has packed an extra brick or two

it's just a big fantasy for people romanticising protest eras...also comparing griffin to hitler is some fucking offensive have your say level shit.

Does anyone have a right to a job? Surely people have to stand on their own two feet? Isn't that the argument of all the mainstream parties - equipping people for the realities of the modern world?

Errrrrrrrrrrrr, is this the BBC talking here?

xpost

tbf Griffin probably wanks to the idea of being Hitler.

Tom D those BBC magazine articles are woeful...frequently.

people are protesting Nick Griffin though not the BBC, aren't they?

tbf Griffin probably wanks to the idea of being Hitler.

^ Should be the topic of the first question tonight I think

no they're protesting the BBC, bigstyle.

xpost

I will pay five English pounds to any ILXor who can make this happen. OTOH this shit was recorded at the end of our street last week and I couldn't be bothered to check it out then, either.

Mr Griffin described the protesters as "yobs" who were attacking his right to free speech.

"These people have been bussed in from around the country by groups funded by Labour councils. It's disgraceful," he said.

"..There were about 10 to 20 of us and we were just standing there chanting in a peaceful protest.
We spoke to the police and they started grabbing us."

Fuck this guy for trying to make out like the police are doing something wrong.

They might have thought he was Piers Morgan

Nick Griffin Question Time Drinking Game
http://armyofdave.com/2009/10/21/nick-griffin-question-time-drinking-game/

If the audience have got anything about them they'll just ask some questions that he can't answer dishonestly without fucking off the party faithful.

"Mr Griffin, do you think the current recession is the result of Jewish control of the world banking system?"

The Guardian live blog, for your quirky BNP build-up:

Protesters are also gathering in Hull, where Richard Bacon is presenting the late evening phone in for Radio 5 Live. Apparently they are angry that there'll be a post-Question Time phone-in. At the moment he's stuck in an Ask pizzeria, waiting to be escorted into the venue two security guards.

How many nanoseconds before Griffin brings up Straw's past as a left wing student leader?

... nanoseconds after someone quotes some pro-Nazi stuff Griffin said in the past, I mean

Apparently they are angry that there'll be a post-Question Time phone-in.

Have these dicks ever listened to 5 Live after 10pm? They have a fascist phone-in every fucking night.

Bacon does good cop and Northern Ireland's number one concern troll Stephen Nolan plays the shock-jock.

I'm just surprised you can buy pizza in Hull, it's a bit foreign innit.

kind of bizarre to use the power of free speech to specifically protest free speech imo

xpost

Fuck off y'cheeky twat, we've got two Chiquito's we're that cosmopolitan.

behead those who say the bbc is a ruthless bloodthirsty organisation imo

Those two (hilarious) outbursts from Griffin, about allowing African migrants to drown and comparing British Army generals to Nazi war criminals, give me some hope that he might not be as well groomed and well behaved as we all fear and might come out with something utterly batshit

The thing is, the dude is batshit, like all of the hardcore Nazis, so I don't think it'll take much unrehearsed air-time for him to say something awesome.

Speaking of foreign food, I hope Griffin's pre-show green room meal is a nice traditional British curry and a few cans of some traditional British Stella.

blue peter garden being trashed as we speak

From what I've seen of him in the past, he seems a wee bit thin-skinned and touchy for a professional politician

I am amused by reports of cops chasing protestors through TVC. That place is such a warren, so many great hiding places, it must look like a chase scene in scooby doo.

... mind you, the same could be said of our Prime Minister (xp)

xxxxpost

We got Sushi when we were at Television Centre. He'll enjoy that.

Axis power, innit?

That place is such a warren, so many great hiding places

when i used to work there i became briefly obsessed with the idea of staging a giant paintball tournament within. mainly so i could shoot at paxman.

Independent website there's "10 things you should know about the BNP when you watch Question Time tonight"

1. Nick Griffin is a convicted racist who said Hitler 'went a bit too far'

The man who will achieve a first for the extreme right-wing in Britain by taking his place on the BBC's flagship debating programme tomorrow is a convicted racist who once said that Hitler "went a bit too far" and fraternised with the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

Since attending his first National Front meeting at the age of 15, the privately educated leader of the British National Party has been imbued with the doctrine and practice of the far right from an early age. He read 'Mein Kampf' when he was 13.

The 50-year-old father-of-four has been assiduous in recent years to distance his party from the thuggish, neo-fascist image of the extreme right. But his insistence that neither he nor his party are racist sits uneasily with his past. In 1998, he was convicted of inciting racial hatred for articles that denied the Holocaust and given a suspended nine-month prison term. While in the witness box, he said: "I am well aware that the orthodox opinion is that six million Jews were gassed and cremated and turned into lampshades. Orthodox opinion also once held that the world is flat."

2. Party's constitution is committed to restoring white supremacy in Britain

After two decades in which the party actively excluded any members from ethnic communities, Griffin last week accepted a review of its governing rules to allow black and Asian people to join its ranks after a legal victory for the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

But the 12-page constitution of the BNP remains unashamedly a manifesto for an ethnically cleansed nation. It reads: "The British National Party stands for the preservation of the national and ethnic character of the British people and is wholly opposed to any form of racial integration between British and non-European peoples. It is therefore committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration and to restoring, by legal changes, negotiation and consent, the overwhelmingly white make-up of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948."

3. Send the Olympics back to Athens – and other flagship BNP policies

Alongside its pledge to offer Britain's ethnic minorities voluntary repatriation and its leader's description of Islam as a "wicked and vicious faith", the BNP has tried to broaden its electoral appeal with a raft of new policies.

In the 2008 London Assembly elections, the party took its "send them back" theme a stage further by offering to repatriate the 2012 Olympics. Its manifesto read: "We... believe that the Olympics should be held in Greece on a permanent basis. That is their birthplace and it is wrong for athletes to be forced to roam the world like homeless vagrants looking for a new venue each four years."

Griffin has long warned of the risk of a civil war in Britain sparked by racial tensions. In 2005, the party's general election manifesto called for adults who had completed a certain amount of military service to be "required to keep in a safe locker in their homes a standard-issue military assault rifle and ammunition". To this list has now been added the return of the birch for juvenile offenders and hanging for paedophiles, rapists, drug dealers and murderers.

4. Billy Brit: mascot that glorifies Powell

"In 1912 a lion was born./Enoch was his name./A gentleman. A British hero./Through truth, the man found fame./He gave a speech called 'Rivers of Blood'./And never gave up the fight./Enoch Powell spoke for me and Enoch Powell was white".

So sings Billy Brit, the official mascot of the youth wing of the BNP, during a campaigning video for the 2009 European elections.

Aimed at children as young as eight, the flame-haired puppet features in videos posted on YouTube and the BNP website reciting a series of "educational poems". Children have been sent photographs of Billy or encouraged to download his picture along with a comic, 'The Comet', delivered to "all you eight- to 12-year-olds out there who love your country".

Youth members of the BNP are invited to regular camps where they discuss ideology and are encouraged to perform up to eight hours of "political activism" each month.

5. Encounters with the Ku Klux Klan in America

In 2000, Nick Griffin travelled to the US to address an organisation called the American Friends of the BNP. Members of the group included David Duke, at the time leader of the Ku Klux Klan, and James W Von Brunn, a white supremacist who killed a security man in an attack on Washington's holocaust museum earlier this year. During Griffin's visit, he outlined his blueprint for making his party electable by dropping its lexicon of "racial purity" and Jewish conspiracies: "The BNP isn't about selling out its ideas, but we are determined to sell them. Basically, that means to use saleable words such as freedom, identity, security, democracy."

Griffin continued: "Once we're in a position where we control the British broadcasting media, then perhaps one day the British people might change their mind and say, 'yes, every last one must go'. But if you hold that out as your sole aim to start with, you're not going to get anywhere. So, instead of talking about racial purity, we talk about identity."

6. Griffin's pride in his 'strong, direct link to Mosley'

With more than 900,000 votes cast in its favour in the European elections, the BNP insists it is part of mass politics. Founded in 1982 by John Tyndall, the party grew from a schism in the National Front, of which Nick Griffin was, at one point, national co-ordinator.

Griffin joined the BNP in 1995 and, by 1999, had taken over as leader, deposing Tyndall. Griffin, who was introduced to the works of the 1930s British fascist leader Oswald Mosley from his grandfather's bookshelves, is unabashed about tracing his political DNA back to an avowed admirer of Hitler. He told one interviewer: "There is a strong, direct link from Oswald Mosley to me."

7. The party membership that dare not speak its name

The BNP has been regularly rocked by internal disagreements and security breaches, including the leak of its entire membership list by a disgruntled former activist.

As part of the overhaul of its image – described by Nick Griffin as "put the boots away and put suits on" – and efforts to thwart entryists, the party adopted a system of secure emails and secret rendezvous points as well as embarking on a recruitment drive beyond its blue-collar heartland. The success of the campaign was revealed in 2006 when it was disclosed that Simone Clarke, the principal dancer of the English National Ballet, was a member.

Two years ago, a dispute over the actions of three senior party figures led to the resignation of more than 50 local and national officials. In November last year, the BNP suffered a further blow when its 10,000-strong membership list was published on the internet. The revelation led to the dismissal of at least three police and prison officers.

8. The Italian terrorist Griffin names as an influence

In August, Griffin cited Roberto Fiore – a convicted criminal and member of the Italian terrorist group implicated in the 1980 Bologna bombing that killed 85 people – as an important influence on the party. Mr Fiore was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison in 1985 for his membership of the political wing of the party. His conviction has since "timed out" under Italian statute of limitation laws, allowing him to return to his homeland where he is leader of far-right party Forza Nuova. He recently took up the European Parliament seat vacated by Benito Mussolini's granddaughter, Alessandra.

9. David Copeland: London nail-bomber and BNP member

In 2007, London nailbomber and former BNP member David Copeland was sentenced to a minimum of 50 years in prison for setting off three explosives, killing three people and injuring 139 others. Other BNP criminals include Ian Hindle and Andrew Wells, convicted of having sex with a child and engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child respectively. Former BNP candidate in Coventry Roderick Rowley was sentenced to 15 months in prison after admitting to fourteen charges of making, distributing or possessing obscene images of children.

10. Some of those other members who have resorted to aggression

In 2006, Kevin Hughes, election agent for the BNP Redditch councillor David Enderby, was sentenced to 30 months in prison – reduced to 24 on appeal – for assaulting an Iraqi asylum seeker.

Earlier this year, pensioner John Jones was convicted of racially aggravated threatening behaviour after giving a Nazi salute on his way to a BNP rally in Derbyshire.

Peter Hain is a coward by not confronting BNP in debate, if he can't defeat a moron like nasty nick griffin in debate he shouldn't be in politics

you defeat the BNP by exposing them

Griffin exposed in 2000
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04QolIvfQEw

George Galloway wanted to go on Question Time tonight to confront and expose the BNP, why didn't the BBC have the guts to put him on the panel?

"We... believe that the Olympics should be held in Greece on a permanent basis. That is their birthplace and it is wrong for athletes to be forced to roam the world like homeless vagrants looking for a new venue each four years."

OTMFM so tired of this shit

George Galloway wanted to go on Question Time tonight to confront and expose the BNP, why didn't the BBC have the guts to put him on the panel?

Too left wing for Question Time

George Galloway has been on Question Time before

he wanted to be the cat for Griffin

But not a black cat obv.

50 Cent is at the BBC tonight recording Tonight w/Jonathan Ross - they should get him on QT.

http://twitter.com/realnickgriffin is good, and goes back a while

eating a Scotch egg. sounds a bit fucking ethnic to me. still, i'll give it a go.
4:00 PM Jul 25th from Tweetie

xxpost

Like to think there's a surprise panel the Beeb haven't announced featuring Fiddy, Darcus Howe, Bobby Seale and David Haye.

Is it true Bonnie Greer's on it? Fuckin' hell.

Yeah, heard that at the start of the week. Don't rilly think Griffin and the boys have thought this one thru.

yeah, normally they're really on the ball

Can't believe I missed my cue to repost lolloway.jpg

Dannii "even some of the street signs are in Asian" Minogue is also recording a programme at Television Centre tonight, according to the Guardian.

Bonnie Greer, American playwright and critic: "The joker in the pack; knows how to look after herself and may be more of a handful than the others."

Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman: "Big hitter. Menzies Campbell would have been more daunting."

Jack Straw, justice secretary: "A very effective advocate."

Sayeeda Warsi, Tory community cohesion spokesman: "Token Asian, Muslim woman on the Conservative team. They were always likely to play a stunt like that."

"a great bunch of lads"

pretty stoked that bonnie's on the panel tbh, she's great

God, this is terrifying. I really wouldn't have made the same decision.

http://twitter.com/mirrorjames

Audience tweeter says "Mood in studio has switched from anger to mockery and contempt"

I read "Griffin shaking and nervous as his views are mocked" and I start to feel bad for him. Fucking underdog-supporting instincts kick in! God, I'm such a softie.

YEAH GO ON NICK, SHOW 'EM SOME BULLDOG SPIRIT

http://twitter.com/DavidWooding

"Griffin on Question Time all over. He's left. Worth watching. He gets an absolute pasting."

Look forward to seeing this now.

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/02_03/TorresHatrickBall_468x616.jpg

http://achildgrowsinbrooklyn.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/504143_grumpy_bum.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/149/419361622_c27fb6d492.jpg?v=0

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-uE-agNkHL8/STyfTKGCTlI/AAAAAAAAAzk/P7lPJIQ7GrA/s400/rickystuartisacrybaby.jpg

http://images.dpchallenge.com/images_challenge/0-999/189/800/Copyrighted_Image_Reuse_Prohibited_62147.jpg

Speak Your Branes' top answer:

I'm afraid I can't hear you Mr Griffin, the BBC appear to have 'inadvertantly' allowed in a whole bus load of Guardian reading social workers to shout you down from the audience!

martin, leeds

Recommended by 464 people

Also lol at Nick Griffin being taken up the back entrance.

Added: Thursday, 22 October, 2009, 07:05 GMT 08:05 UK

If I could get a word in above the howls of protest from idiots in the audience I would ask how he is going to tackle the out of control population problem in the UK, how to curb young idiots in too powerful cars endangering everyone else and how he'll deal with antisocial behaviour. In all cases I would expect a straighforward answer unlike the other main parties who seem happy to watch this country go down the drain happily aided by the PC brigade. The silent majority are fed up!

(solomondogs)

Recommended by 417 people

Wasnt the BNP for raising the speed limit? That will really curb young idiots in powerful cars!

ow to curb young idiots in too powerful cars endangering everyone else

i'm pretty certain that young adults driving cars is the worst problem this country has.

Me too

http://i.thisislondon.co.uk/i/pix/2009/03/hamilton-button-415x339.jpg

Added: Thursday, 22 October, 2009, 11:39 GMT 12:39 UK

I do not agree with the racism issues, but a lot of what they stand for is fair, and logical. why do we have sopport groups for "ethnic minorities" which by definition neglect the majority? why should we have any positive discrimination at all? that is as abhorrent as the racism issues. If I was to try to launch a "Music of White Anglo Saxon" origin, I would be termed racist. (probably would not be successful!) yet we allow things like MOBO to go ahead. that is racist.

john king, st albans

Recommended by 92 people

I think that guy posted the same thing on HYS before

Why is there even a latin grammys? can't they just enjoy seeing americans win them? racists.

Griffin on Talksport now

Not like Talksport to give air-time to batshit right-wingers.

Nick Griffin - Twitter stream is on overdrive
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=nick+griffin

Try searching for #bbcqt

Americans: Who is this Nick Griffin chap

if you watch the clips you can see he gets a total roasting. by the end he's actually shaking and can't handle it cos basically it appears that no human being could sit there and be eviscerated with the glare of a hostile crowd on them. what the fuck can he say when a black guy in the audience loses the rag with him completely and starts asking why his parents or an indian person's parents or a pakistani person's parents should have to leave Britain?

Hasn't a fucking leg to stand on, the more they make these racists have to talk to their intended victims directly the more lily livered they'll appear.

But this will only be seen as intimidation by his sympathisers won't it? Nick Griffin didn't get a fair hearing blah blah blah...

I'm not really expecting anyone to watch QT and have the sudden revelation that he's a odious tool. Either you know this already, or you're never going to twig.

coming up the most watched QT ever

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/playlive/bbc_one_london/

Yeah but if the net result of the programme is just that his sympathisers stay loyal then that's pretty good. I agree many people will have known what the BNP are about but personally I do think it's worth being reminded how bad they actually are. Plus like I say, it was a small risk that he might have done very well out of it and convince some people he wasn't an odious tool.

coming up the most watched QT ever

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/playlive/bbc_one_london/

― djmartian, Thursday, 22 October 2009 22:33 (1 minute ago) Bookmark

Well the BBC are so short of good comedy these days.

Mark Langford, Sky News Online
BNP leader Nick Griffin got a "rough ride" on BBC's Question Time after violent protests beforehand left three police injured.

Griffin sparked controversy by telling the audience that Britain's white population were equivalent to the "Aborigines".

Journalists sitting in the studio said that much of what the BNP leader said was "mocked" by the audience and the panelists.

Would be pretty good if Dimbleby didn't actually direct any questions to Griffin and just let him sit there and stew.

I never thought it would be possible to actually warm to Jack Straw.

Griffin just called the 1940s "the early days of British immigration", didn't he?

and a low blow about Straw's father.

I think anyone who wasn't sure now know how odious this cunt is.

haha dimbleby is ripping the pish out of him

I never thought it would be possible to actually warm to Jack Straw.

^^^ haha yes!

Sure I hate black people but they don't walk like monkeys! Like me!

"I never said they walk like monkeys, I just think it."

was his strategy basically to lie about all the stuff he has actually said???

x-post he's more odious than I thought...good call by dimbleby, what the fuck is he smiling about?

Nick Griffin actually looks a bit like Churchill doesn't he?

http://www.redesign-day.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/churchill-dog.jpg

^^^ this one I mean

oh yes

Jeez, I was welling up when Straw was talking about the Lancs regiment in WW1. I bet that never happens again.

voice wobbling already

Did I just see the camera pan past one Tracer Hand?

(sorry for crepe)

Griffin exposed ! re: the youtube video i linked earlier

oh yes

Martian, you just made me laugh out loud.

"it's ok i hang out with klan leaders, they are non violent!"

"almost"

BNP language manual = control = wolf in sheep's clothing

Griffin could've turned this whole night around by saying "What's wrong with being racy?"

The silent majority are fed up!

i think this was mentioned in the GOP thread, but they ain't silent and they certainly ain't the majority

Griffin is comedy gold, I was under the impression he was a tough interviewee.

I cant believe how good Straw is. I used to really dislike him.

the great thing about this is he is actually a coward. he won't admit to being racist, holocaust denying, etc etc etc.

x-post noodle otm...if he tried to defend racism he'd be doing better.

xxxpost straw on holocaust fucking owned him just there.

The BBC website appears to be totally down... anybody?

Griffin on the verge of actually foaming at the mouth now

Yeah, Straw is killing it here.

his mannerisms are seriously disgusting, like a gerbil

Man if you had told me this morning that I'd be praising Jack Straw I'd have laughed in your face. I'm glad labour sent in a big hitter to show up Griffin as the blustering cowardly arsehole that he is.

Slightly off topic, but Straw looks almost Prime Ministerial here.

FUCKS SAKE LET'S NOT GET CARRIED AWAY

Aye, im thinking that this might be the moment someone to replace Brown finally appears.

Jack "they come over here mumbling into their veils and I can't understand a word they say" Straw?

Probably as leader of the opposition though unless the lib dems to beat labour as well.

Not especially like a prime minister when he muddles asylum and immigration numbers.

VOTE TORY, THE PARTY OF RESOURCES!

Brown can relax, Straw not looking so good with the immigration question.

We already have caps and figures, you dumb Tory fuck.

NV that might help him win votes from those who dislike immigrants - the acceptable face of racism. Which is what the tories want to do and that is stop immigration etc but in their way, not the nasty racist BNP way, despite it having the same result.

lol at the Young Tory in the suit pretending not to know the Tory woman's name.

Many Tories dont really argue against BNP immigration policies just the fact that people vote for them. The tories just want to take those voters by applying anti-immigrant policies.

I think a lot of the schooling being dished out here says more about the other guys' political chops and Griffin's outright horribleness than it does about the respective merits of their positions.

How the fuck is there anyone who votes BNP who doesn't know how racist they are and just votes on 'immigration control'? I don't believe it whenever this is said,

"we are the aborigines here"

I think this guy needs to learn about Vikings

Nick Griffin's been here for 17,000 years... he must be tired.

wonder if robbie the pict is in the audience

the bbc stream is all over the place picture wise, i'm basically listening to it now not watching

Genocide = "Not teaching youngsters about their culture".

MUAHAHAHAHAHA.

It's really not worth getting into it with him on history at all. Bonnie Greer schooled him a little bit but in all honesty I don't think Griffin is much more ignorant than most voters on the history of the British Isles and the peoples who've lived on them and what constitutes a "race" and such.

What British Culture does Griffin want to uphold?

Morris dancing, shooting with bows, outdoor pig roasts?

Guided tours of the lake district wtf?

lol "dick i mean nick griffin"

I think bows are a french invention.

Guided tours of the lake district wtf?

I was just thinking that.

Griffin looking at that bloke saying "Where do you want me to go?" and thinking "To the gas chamber, obviously".

Still think Frank Field wandered into the Labour Party by mistake.

aye, that is one guy i'll never warm to.

yeah was he saying they stopped doing guided tours because "the pc brigade" decided they were racist due to no black people doing them.

seriously FUCK the tories for trying to score political points tonight.

This Tory woman has less actual facts about immigration than Nick Griffin.

iplayer died :(

"newspapers have the right to publish articles"....WELL DONE

tory lady: "i think newspapers have the right to publish articles!"

well fuck me.

ha xpost.

Listening to it on the radio.

Fuck a Jan Moir but how come nobody's pointed out the Mail runs half a dozen articles like that every day?

"dont say anything about the dead except good".

explains his hitler views then.

Noooo, not the militant homosexuals!

xpost

As if any politician would dare to criticise the Daily Mail

They come over here and teach creepy gay sex in our nursery schools while the PC brigade bans the native Ice Age Britons from guided tours of Windermere.

When is Nick Griffin gonna bring on the talking dog and the baby with the hilarious British accent?

"the feeling of repulsion is mutual" - line of the night.

Ultra-Leftist BBC?

Wasn't the BBC formed from a schism within the SWP?

I just applauded the telly at that point (xposts, "the feeling of repulsion is mutual", obv). Didn't get in for the start, will watch again when it's up on iPlayer, but Griffin looks a fool and sounds even more stupid every time he opens his mouth. Am a bit worried by Straw-for-PM thoughts upthread, pwning Griffin can't inspire THAT much awe, can it?

If he's so obsessed with 'English' being recognised on the census/as an indigenous people, why is his party not called the English National Party? Wanker.

Now for Radio 5 with Richard Bacon show - analysis on Griffin

I think that probably managed to do Griffin more harm than good in the end.

Ultra-Leftist BBC?

Would have thought he'd have given them props for the recent Wainwright programmes at least.

It has to be better than Cameron as PM
xposts

http://www.bailey-family.org.uk/Photography/Rock+HardPlace/rock+hardplace.jpeg

Years of inbreeding has really got to his fat-thom-yorke face, maybe he shouldn't have come from such an indigenous family.

alan davis being a bit of a twat on this week now

I wonder if there will be any opinion polls in the next few days

Maybe I would vote BNP if it stopped the BBC asking for fucking Twitter comments every two minutes.

xxxxpost to Ailsa, Straw for pm is a bit over the top but he fucking pwned Griffin at the start of the show in a way I never expected. Well worth rewatching.

Speak Your Branes is being overtaken by BNP fans:

Added: Thursday, 22 October, 2009, 22:43 GMT 23:43 UK

Having watched question just now, if ever I needed a reason to vote for Nick Griffin I just got it. I have never before witnessed such hatred directed at one panelist. I was shocked at the lack of control exerted by Dimblebly who seemed to gloat at trying to embaress Nick Griffin. I was hoping to hear contributions from Mr Griffin on a wide range of subjects, all I heard was hate directed at one individual for his non conformist views. Ill vote BNP now for sure.

A Connolly, Manchester

Recommended by 8 people

Anyone know where I can get dimbleby's insanely psychedelic tie?

"Why did you vote for who you did?"

"Because some dude got bullied."

"Ok, so not for any political views?"

"I don't actually agree with him, I'm a Muslim homosexual and fuck that guy, but you know, anti-bullying."

As if A Connolly didn't already vote for the BNP (xpost)

Some would say with all the anti-immigration/Europe posts on HYS over the years it was already taken over

but the tories are the "acceptable" face of race in politics

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8321631.stm

^I love Bonnie Greer

On 5 Live: "Nick Griffin looked like a scared virgin" says the guy who was first audience member to comment on the TV show proper.

all I heard was hate directed at one individual for his non conformist views

Presumably people should lighten up about that whole holocaust thing

I also love Bonnie Greer and thought that QT could've contained a lot more of Griffin being pwned by her (or, hell, by his own petard) if Dimbleby was a slightly less shambolic debate chair, but ho hum.

Added: Thursday, 22 October, 2009, 22:52 GMT 23:52 UK

On tonite's show with Griffin why in God's name did we have some American who happens to be a director of the British Museum on this program?

She had no sense of what England and the UK is about!!

A UKIP member would ahve been better.

Absolute nonsense.

Paul K. Smith, Queenlans, Nova Scotia

Recommended by 40 people

She knew more about "this country" than Griffin did.

Queenlans

Nova Scotia

btw Garda fwiw I saw no "down w/BBC" posters or whatever at the protest, it was all anti-BNP placards

tonite's

It was kind of great to see Jack Straw come out with that big ideological narrative at the beginning, way better than normal QT. The way he apologised to the audience member for saying "afro caribbean" was so cute.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8321627.stm

Only seen clips of this but am I right in thinking he said the BNP weren't racist now, although they were when he joined? How did he think admitting to joining a racist party would help him seem not racist?

Last night was a total missed opportunity. Only Bonnie seemed to understand that the best way to humiliate Griffin and shred his credibility with the kind of disenfranchised voters who might support the BNP is not to shout him down as a racist but rather to let him show up himself as a fucking moron and an idiot. My fear about last night is that people will see him as having been bullied, and thus sympathise. There seemed to be far too little talk about actual policies, talk that would show the BNP to be a sham party driven by hate.

^I think it served a purpose, to the extent that no one could have watched QT last night and come away with the impression that 'that nice man Nick Griffin' isn't a racist and that the BNP are not a racist party. You're only likely to sympathise with him being 'bullied' if you actually sympathise with his positions (re: holocaust, ku klux klan, homosexuality, mixed race marriages, the inalienable rights of the indigenous ice agers to roam the lake district, etc.). Anyone who watched it and continues to support the BNP while claiming not to be racist is basically lying.

...if Dimbleby was a slightly less shambolic debate chair

I thought Dimbleby handled it very well.

Scenes last night might dispel some of the "hey everybody's doing it" attitude to voting BNP too. But y'know what? I'd bet money that very few BNP voters are regular Question Time viewers, or watched it last night, so really what matters here is how news agencies report the story.

Just iPlayed this. I have a feeling that QT was viewed by exponentially more people than the hard corps of news junkies who usually watch; one thing that struck me was the way none of the parties were challenging the idea that 'racists don't vote for the BNP' - instead, these voters are 'people with concerns'. Because, seriously - a vote for them is NOT a slightly more sophisticated method of ballot spoilage to 'send a message' to mainstream parties - the only message it sends to me is that bigotry is always twinned with ignorance on the part of the follower and obfuscation on the part of the leader. BNP voters are useful idiots at best and complicit in racial disharmony at worst. They are definitely on the racism spectrum.

I've long believed it is worth scrutinizing party leaders like Griffin - as panellists pointed out, he can't claim to be misquoted when statements appear on YouTube and are therefore easily verified. He certainly did not stand up to scrutiny here (and people who may have seen him for the first time know a shaved hamster when they see one). History shows that global migration has always been with us and always will be a revolving door; Bonnie Greer could have added when discussing Churchill's mother that her marriage provided the historically central Churchill family with a serious cash infusion (possibly staving off their financial ruin and continuing their influence); Jack Straw could also have added that amongst the black and Asian soldiers fighting in WWII was Barack Obama's grandfather, a Kenyan sent to Burma.

Yesterday afternoon I met a very well-known Anglo-Jewish columnist/critic who was toying with the idea of trying to recruit a million Jews to join the BNP all at once, to wreck it from the inside. Me and the friend I was with thought this was kind of a bad idea, even if we understood the pique that led him there.

Yeah, I guess he did about as well as possible in last night's circumstances, but QT is always full of interesting questions swept away unanswered in favour of more repetitions of stupid name-calling, people who talk all over everyone and are allowed to get away with it while other guests keep getting cut off and DD never goes back to them, etc.

Sick Mouthy OTM. "Have the super-smart black lady who appears to be the only one taking you seriously start a civilised debate with you then effortlessly but politely trap you into showing the utter ridiculousness of yr arguments" seems a smarter game than catcalling, and I would have liked more of it.

LOL at Paul K. Smith from Queenlans Nova Scotia.

That was an xpost*2 or so there, obv.

I've read the Daily Mail's take on it and I'm still finding it so hard to believe that their story is more critical of the BBC and the protestors than it is of Nick Griffin and the BNP.

No wonder people are voting for them. It's not the BBC giving them an unchallenged platform, it's that horrible fucking right wing rag doing it.

Did anyone see the 'BRITAIN IS FULL - GO HOME' cover of the Express the other week?

xpost Link or something? Also did James Brown (Loaded guy) do a column? Lots of Facebook friends referencing this, but w/o links...

BBC says 8 million viewers watched last night - three times normal volume!

The 'news story': http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1222331/BNPs-Nick-Griffin-jeered-appears-Question-Time--BBC-faces-Question-Time.html

The 'editorial': http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1222372/MAIL-COMMENT-The-bare-faced-BBC.html

Bitches, please. This is what the BBC is for and why we are very lucky to have it.

Hopefully we will get genuine comments on this from genuine people instead of the BNP cyber team.

- Christine, London, England, 22/10/2009 23:13, Rating: -473

lolol

I'm not really adding anything to the conversation but I don't think I've said the exact words enough: Fuck this cunt, BNP members and anyone who contemplates for voting the BNP.

oh yes

Haven't looked at the papers yet, but isn't there a huge risk that in areas where there is strong support of the BNP, this whole thing would have seemed like a bunch of effete middle class folks ganging up on Griffin?

But Jack Straw grew up on one of those council estates

if you want to get really angry, read the comments on teh Mail article linked above.

I don't, and ime not reading comments in the Mail, or any other part of the Mail, goes a long way to promoting a blissful life.

Yeah, but surely the general perception of him now is quite removed from that image? And he's very much guilty by association with the rest of his chums. x-posts

I wonder if there's an issue for Griffin of losing respect amongst his own hardcore followers every time he has to publically deny some tenet of the faith. Historically the far Right is more vulnerable to fragmenting from within than being attacked from without.

I'll skip it, BTL comments are always abysmal and their membership can't write with any clarity in the language they say all arriving migrants are supposed to use perfectly or go home. And if anyone looked like a wishy-washy middle-class bloater on telly it was Nick Griffin.

That's true, hence the membership leaks etc. x-post

What makes me laugh is how incompetent must the rest of the BNP be if Griffin is their leader?

And if anyone looked like a wishy-washy middle-class bloater on telly it was Nick Griffin.

But the man was in full flow on the plight of the Lake District tour guides and the ultra-leftist BBC cut him off.

BNP Wives was shown on one of the digital channels after QT last night ._O

Griffin is going complain and wants to appear again, according to the BBC News Channel.

let him

Maybe they could get him a cameo on Teletubbies or something?

He could do a sinister 'time for tubby-bye-byes' voice if Tinky-Winky ever gets deported.

the only winner out of all this is "TV"

what matters here is how news agencies report the story.

^^^This. In my insomniac state last night I had the dreaded radio 5 on - the vast majority of the news bites about the programme went like this: "leader of the BNP Nick Griffin last night used his appearance on Question Time to deny that he was a racist". They had a couple of slightly extended versions where members of the audience voiced their reactions (which were all anti-BNP), but if you just heard the basic news report the only message you would get is that he says he isn't a racist. Just like that lovely man from Strictly. Hooray.

Griffin the BBC created a lynch-mob that was hostile to him, wants a freedom of information request to find out how the audience was selected and who was there

that will be all those socialists, trade unionists, liberals, tories, lesbians, jews, British asians, Black British peoople - ganging up on the vulnerable Griffin

Question Time 'a lynch mob', complains Griffin
http://bit.ly/1OifMm

Griffin doesn't like London he reckons it's no longer British and wants to QT to come Stoke or Burnley (i.e where there are still white English BNP supporters)

on London...

Mr Griffin added: "Demographically there is lots of support for the Lib Dems there because for instance they are regarded as the party of ethnic minorities."

..that will be the same Lib Dems that trailed a poor third in the London Mayor vote

it's the only way he can play it really - on the merits his views are a petty, risible shambles so he has to keep claiming that the deck is stacked against him, can't get a fair hearing, etc - even after he's been on QT

what matters here is how news agencies report the story.

^^^This. In my insomniac state last night I had the dreaded radio 5 on - the vast majority of the news bites about the programme went like this: "leader of the BNP Nick Griffin last night used his appearance on Question Time to deny that he was a racist". They had a couple of slightly extended versions where members of the audience voiced their reactions (which were all anti-BNP), but if you just heard the basic news report the only message you would get is that he says he isn't a racist. Just like that lovely man from Strictly. Hooray.

― emil.y, Friday, 23 October 2009 12:32 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah i dunno, the Sun's headline on their spread inside is "a dedicated swallower of fascism" so there's a clear message going out in some v popular outlets. thing is, i don't think there is much misunderstanding about the nature of the bnp. a large amount of the very small number of people who vote for them are just racists who want to vote for the racist party imo.

otoh, the most depressing thing about question time was that after spending most of the programme monstering the bnp for being racists, when it came to the segment on immigration, everyone was agreed that there are too many foreigners stealing our jobs.

except for jack straw!

(portillo on this week said there weren't ENOUGH immigrants coming in each year to fill up tax coffers)

(The labour policy of 'having hands kinda tied re: asylum so keeping the figures steady by turning away skilled/Tier One migrants' hasn't helped in this)

Poor stuff. Wrong approach.

Attack them on policy detail, the minutiae of their economic plans (scrapping income tax? doubling VAT?), stop pointing the finger of racism at them as it plays into their hands. Face it, the sort of people who don't know or realise the BNP is racist by now clearly don't care - it isn't enough of a turn-off for a lot of voters any more.

So instead show how stupid so many of their policies are, and how when you start to unpick them there's nothing there, their solutions would only make things worse, cos all they really care about is white nationalism. That way, you wouldn't just be saying 'racist, racist, racist', you'd be saying 'political and economic incompetents, whose policies would be ruinous because they are stupid, and they are stupid because they are guided solely by ideological racism'.

Or words to that effect.

i agree with that pete

they didn't give him nearly enough rope to hang himself with, and it's like what are the odds of that having happened??

More people die in road accidents every year than are granted asylum, so Portillo is probably right.

that's an interesting stat but he was talking about all immigration i think i.e. EU folks who turn up for the high pay

what is needed is an integrated extended PPE essay - what state would Britain be under 5 years of BNP government - hypothetically discuss the philosophical, political and economic issues of a Nick Griffin controlled government after 5 years.

INTEGRATED essay required to show PLANK griffin leaves britain in STATE after only five YEARS

Has anyone ever asked Dick Griffin how he will go about removing the ~6 million (familiar looking number that) non-whites from the UK should his party ever win power?

ur username reveals ur bias imo

re: Has anyone ever asked Dick Griffin how he will go about removing the ~6 million (familiar looking number that) non-whites from the UK should his party ever win power?

Griffin would need to create a Department of Race Classification & Repatriation - staffed and enforced by BNP members

Griffin claims repatriation would be voluntary, but his jackboot control fascist tendencies would soon morph this into a compulsory scheme

Would football clubs no longer be able to sign foreign players?

blatter's already on that.

Would football clubs no longer be able to sign foreign players?

Griffin wants an immediate halt on ALL immigration into Britain, although a Leeds supporting BNP councilor on radio 5live last night stated he would still allow Leeds United to sign foreign players, as they are not permanent residents just here to play football for a few years, but would encourage Leeds to sign / develop more English players

the same BNP member said "I don't hate Hitler" when Richard Bacon questioned him

There seemed to be far too little talk about actual policies

Well, one thing I agree with Griffin on is that there should have been more discussion of topics other than those related to racism and the BNP in general. It was interesting how he got a fair few claps for his anti-war and anti-political class broadsides.

My ideal panel would have been Griffin, Galloway, Douglas Murray and Will Young. It would be interesting a situation where the divisions between other panelists would be sufficiently intense as to not be entirely extirpated by the common cause of anti-BNPdom.

Sayeeda Warsi was well-dressed and had lovely hair.

and a tory

Galloway and Griffin would agree on Bring the Troops home

last night the Royal Mail postal strike should have been mentioned, this was a poor editorial oversight by QT producers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QAvkFS_cgk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_EpcW6ucbo

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8322626.stm

More than a fifth of voters would consider voting for the British National Party according to the first opinion poll taken since the controversial appearance of Nick Griffin on Question Time.

Taken in the hours after Mr Griffin's appearance, the YouGov poll for The Daily Telegraph found 22 per cent of voters would seriously consider voting BNP in a future local, general or European election.

Two thirds said that they would not be considering voting BNP under any circumstances, with the rest unsure.

More than half of those questioned said that they agreed with the BNP, or thought that the party had a point, in wishing to speak up for the interests of the indigenous, white British people which successive governments have done far too little to protect.

This included 43 per cent who said that while they shared some of its concerns, they had no sympathy for the party itself.

Twelve per cent said that they completely agreed with the BNP and supported the party's decision to speak up, while 38 per cent said that they disagree totally with the BNP's political outlook.

The figures are based on a sample of 1,314 electors across Britain interviewed online from October 22-23.

Indeed, poor show, agree with Pete W. It seems the rest of the panel thinks of Griffin as a joke, which quite clearly he, and the BNP isn't.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/oct/23/bnp-nick-griffin-burnley-reaction

"He might have had good things to say on other issues but we don't know, because he wasn't allowed to talk about them. It was all on the race thing."

from the heinous little rant on homosexuality, it's clear that the way to discredit him in the eyes of all is to give him an hour long show just giving him random topics to talk about. He's quite capable of weaselly evasion and downright lying when he's being attacked, but when he's given the opportunity to just shoot the shit about shit it all goes nuts.

I think you're underestimating the number of people in Britain who would have no problem with Griffin's brand of barefaced homophobia.

well homophobia is one thing, but I'm sure there are plenty of topics on which he is just plain crazy from any remotely sane perspective. Like the 'bring Ireland into the UK' thing.

just let paxman interview him for an hour.

^^^ the BNP is a club for racists, but they claim to be a political party. So treat them as one. Put the BNP (not just Griffin but also other high ranking members) on TV and place them and their policies under exactly the same scrutiny as Labour/Cons/LibDems/UKIP/etc.. Let all these people who say that they "might" vote for the BNP see what they'd really be voting for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCt5Ce0i-m4

My dad repeated that argument about whites getting kicked out of their homes by Asians almost word for word the other day (his family are from around Oldham). There's not much you can say to that apart from that the problem isn't whites or Asians etc, it's RACISTS.

It's kind of weird how Griffin is highlighting the problem that is caused by believing exactly what he does and spreading hate the way he does.

Depressing.

All this shit that reactionary ppl use to bolster their arguments - immigrants supposedly given favourable treatment over indigenous population w/r/t access to public housing, immigration a "problem" b/s UK is supposedly full up & overpopulated, has anyone ever once provided any solid verifiable evidence to back any of this shit up?

see this, on HYS:

some of the things he said were in fact fair, my family and I cannot get any council accomodation due to the fact that immigrants come first, is this fair...NO.

Does any council or housing assoc in the UK operate a policy of putting immigrants above UK citizens on the housing list, as this hys poster seems to be claiming? I have never seen any evidence that this is the case. A lot of the elec safety testing I do is in housing assoc properties, and I think I've seen 2 of these houses/flats occupied by non-UK citizens in a year, during which time I've been in hundreds of these places, many of which are "social housing" Why do ppl not call out this shit when it's raised?

actually yes - my sister, while trying to get council housing, got a rejection letter weirdly pointing out that those who have just entered the country (and those who have just left prison) are priorities. No idea how widespread it is, though, this is a small council.

How weird!

where was that merdeyeux? think it would be unusual and of dubious legality to specify immigrants/ex-offenders, although in practice those groups might be given priority because they might be homeless rather than living with parents or whatever. official line on priority is:

people who are homeless
people living in insanitary, overcrowded or unsatisfactory housing
people who need to move on medical or welfare grounds
people who need to move to a particular locality in the district of the authority, where failure to meet that need would cause hardship to themselves or to others

which is pretty reasonable imo.

Inverclyde. Yeah, it just seems odd and asking for trouble - I spent a good 20 minutes explaining to some older family members why this was not an awful thing and a good reason to resent immigrants.

weird, i've just checked and they really shouldn't have done that, according to their own rules. thought at first it might be a tory council trying to feed the myth, but obviously not since it's scotland...

the BNP is a club for racists, but they claim to be a political party. So treat them as one. Put the BNP (not just Griffin but also other high ranking members) on TV and place them and their policies under exactly the same scrutiny as Labour/Cons/LibDems/UKIP/etc.. Let all these people who say that they "might" vote for the BNP see what they'd really be voting for.

I don't understand why everyone seems to think that making Griffin into some sort of British Sarah Palin is a good idea? It seems really Whiggish and bizarre to argue that that the entire GBP will hear Griffin's views on income tax and instantly think "what wrongheaded notions!" - I mean, try to remember here than 15% of the electorate have IQs below 85? Like, I'm sure he could say 'I will cut taxes and increase public spending by... reducing immigration' as much as the Tories can say "by cutting red tape"? Whereas "if you support the BNP, you are a racist" is a totally clear, sensible message, because no-one (even the BNP) is arguing that being a racist is good, and they look absurd denying that they're, well, racist. TBH I thought the Mirror coverage in the aftermath of Question Time was great, totally one-sided and bullying and exactly what was needed.

Okay, I hope I'm not going to cause a whole bunch of arguments by saying this, but I think there really is a big class thing going on here. A friend of mine positioned the class element of this as middle-class people being afraid that the working class were stupid, and thus would be mislead by the BNP whatever happened. This is wrong. Where the class element lies is that middle-class people are afraid that the BNP are actually the voice of the working class, and thus don't want to be seen to be uptight about giving those people a platform. However, the BNP are NOT the voice of the working class at all, and to treat them like they are is misleading at best, stupid at worst. It is not the BBC's fault, it is the fault of all political discourse.

Not only class but it's the north / south divide thing, too. Like how during the run-up to the European elections (and the other night) Newsnight did all their 'special reports' from places like Stoke but almost completely ignored other places where the BNP has a swell of support, like, say, Barking.

I don't understand why everyone seems to think that making Griffin into some sort of British Sarah Palin is a good idea?

It's one thing to say "The BNP are racist" (which they are), but it's another thing entirely to demonstrate that they are. The latter is what needs to be done to convince people not to vote for the BNP. The way to do this is to draw out the BNP's arguments and policies, and then show that those arguments and policies are clearly racist.
Unfortunately (as emil.y notes above), political discourse in this country is a mess. It's soundbites, headlines, and 30 second Newsnight interviews that are cut short. What's needed instead is calm debate (not a QT bear pit) and proper political analysis.

Council flats: foreigners/asylum claimants are not fast-tracked into flats. Most foreigners from non-EU countries who are allowed leave to remain in the UK don't get access to benefits or council housing until the fifth year of residence. Most councils have a 'points system' which they use to allocate accommodation and you can be allocated points for homelessness, disability/medical issues, condition of present housing, and (in my borough, at least) years of residence in the borough. In my borough, you take the number of points allocated and use that total in a bidding war for flats on the council's web site.

Local people - the 'indigenous working/underclass' - get a points boost if they've been resident in my borough for 15 years straight. Many asylum claimants enter the system with high disability/medical points (if you've been beaten or shot and have mental health issues/PTSD as a result, chances are you're in the highest band of med points they allocate) but in most circumstances the borough-born are at an advantage, at least in terms of the points system. Even so, I still encounter resentment from white working class people who are not willing to grant that someone whose brain has been mashed up and spat out in war before being taken in as a refugee, who cannot walk or go home, deserves consideration ahead of them. for any service. Sometimes this is borne of racism but it is always borne of the most myopic selfishness.

In the north, where there is more segregation between whites and Asians, the whites who join the BNP probably don't recognize that their Asian neighbours are from families that settled in the area one or two generations ago and are entitled to the same housing points for the same reasons. I find that racist and insular - these are people who do not talk Asians outside of superficial employment or retail settings and thus they never have to challenge their prejudices.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/BNP-Poll-Boost-News-Of-The-World-Immigration-Big-Issue-Lord-Carey-Attacks-Nick-Griffin/Article/200910415416084?lpos=Politics_Carousel_Region_2&lid=ARTICLE_15416084_BNP_Poll_Boost_News_Of_The_World_Immigration_Big_Issue_Lord_Carey_Attacks_Nick_Griffin

A number of controversial British National Party policies on immigration, sex education and Islam have resonance with significant numbers of voters, a new poll suggests.

t found that almost two-thirds of voters feel the mainstream parties have no credible policies on immigration.

The ICM survey in the News of the World follows the controversial appearance of BNP leader Nick Griffin on BBC's Question Time.

The paper says the poll will give politicians a wake-up call about immigration and the BNP.

But while 10% agreed with the far-right party that there should be a halt to all future immigration, only 6% said the BNP had the best policies on the issue.

CM found a widespread belief that immigrants are getting favourable treatment over housing and other benefits.

Narrow majorities opposed the teaching of sex - gay or straight - in schools and agreed that Islam treats women as second-class citizens.

The majority of voters (54%) thought the show would have put people off the BNP, although 23% say it will win them more support.

The survey follows a YouGov poll for The Daily Telegraph which suggested that 22% of voters would consider backing the BNP in a local, European or general election in the wake of Mr Griffin's appearance.

Meanwhile, the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has called on Christians to "stand shoulder to shoulder" in rejecting the BNP and branded Nick Griffin a "squalid racist".

Lord Carey told the paper it was "chilling" to hear Mr Griffin claim to represent "Christian Britain" in his TV appearance and accused the BNP leader of trying to "hijack one of the world's great religions".

:: ICM interviewed 504 adults for the News of the World on October 23 and 24.

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=join%20bnp&geo=GB&date=today%201-m&cmpt=q

Like the 'bring Ireland into the UK' thing.

i dunno- some ilxors seem to be on dis ting already

Narrow majorities opposed the teaching of sex - gay or straight - in schools

What, like "how to do it good"?

"so now you know how its done...don't do it"

if they're gonna be doing something that isn't right, at least let them do it right

rmde at hugh hendry last night

What does that mean?

rolled my damned eyes iirc

this hugh fud omg!

Where did the BBC discover this guy? And why did they bother?

OMG I thought he was playing the heel for lols it was so ott. Hope somebody does a Trading Places on him soon and leaves him there.

I've never seen Question Time but i love the title. Short and to the point.

(xp) He was on Newsnight constantly and now he keeps popping up everywhere, who the fuck is he? It's like, why does anyone bother asking Kelvin McKenzie his opinion on anything? Who cares what he thinks? There's your indefensible misuse of the licence fee right there...

Hey, somebody needs to represent for entitled rapacious scumbags somewhere to the right Friedman.

to the right of

Could do without Simon Schama on QT too

Also LOL Nicola Sturgeon, I don't know if anyone's keeping a record but only David Dimbleby's been on the show more than her. Never mind they're being only two football teams in Scotland, there appears to be only one politician.

Schama is such a stupid tit.

I never watch QT as it angries up the blood, this week's viewing has confirmed that I'm making the right choice.

lol jack straw getting angry about broken tuition fee promises

BBC News says the Liberal Democrat Minister for Human Rights (!) Jeremy "The French chomp on onions and go 'hoh-he-hoh-he-hoh'" Browne was heckled for being a racist.

Jesus, what a pompous ass he was, enough to actually be a Tory... oh hold on

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2010/11_november/05/industrial_action.shtml

no career suicide libdem this week?

I assume Conservative Central Office will move heaven and earth to make sure Nadine Dorres is never allowed back on this. Also LOL @ Danny Alexander trying to explain the Lib Dem's position on the tuition fee vote and Livingstone's defence of Gordon Brown and the last Labour government ("... well, yeah, apart from that... and that... and that bit obviously."

it's political correctness gone mad

this is gonna be painful

Can't go Jane Moore. Or Billy Bragg. Watching QT only annoys me these days :(

mark littlewood is a haemorrhoid that's gone solo

it's almost as though being an ugly person on the inside makes one an ugly person on the outside but maybe it's actually the other way round ??

wtf is a 'jacob rees-mogg'?

an anagram of crabs jog me ego

i fell asleep

"But what if he's innocent? What about if the poor boy's innocent? There are lots of innocent people in jail! Didn't you see Coronation Street?"

Charlie Kennedy pissed as a fart on QT tonight.

Said the same thing here!

(I am still amazed there wasn't more apoplexy about the comment I related up 2 posts.

Not sure why Charlie Kennedy was allowed on television last night or who to blame, the BBC or the Lib Dems. Have the Lib Dems given up on the election or merely given up on Question Time?

Yes, heard a bit of QT on the radio last night (its now broadcast simultaneously on Radio 5) and Kennedy's slurred speech leapt out. Wondered if he had possibly suffered a stroke or similar - he seems to have been away from our screen for a while - but intoxication prob the more likely explanation.

I caught about 15 mins of this, there did seem to be something wrong with him...on whether there would be a coalition between SNP-Labour he:

1) called out everyone was talking a lot of claptrap for the last five mins on the question
2) asked Dimbleby to repeat the question
3) was adamant there would be no coalition - which was actually agreeing with the Labour answer
4) did not give much of a reason why he was so sure - amazing that some form of coalition is the likely outcome, given the polls and that we have just endured one for the last five years.

Have the Lib Dems given up on the election or merely given up on Question Time?

The forecast is that they'll get about 20 seats?! A Labour - SNP - Libdem coalition could be an outcome?

everyone was talking a lot of claptrap for the last five mins on the question

Which puzzled me, because for that previous five mins maybe more, nobody had managed to say anything grand that got the audience to burst into applause at all.

First up on this week's Question Time in Birmingham is 'Spoons founder Tim Martin. #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/MDprie9A1c

— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) June 20, 2018

Tim ’Wetherspoons’ Martin and yet another member of the Spiked extended universe on the show this week.

Beatrix Von Storch of AFD on Newsnight yesterday. It’s a shame Tommy Robinson is otherwise occupied as he’d have his own mid-morning show at this rate.

T Robinson/creatures from Right Wing think-tanks like Kate Andrews/Spiked arseholes for some "balance" is pretty much the future (and mostly the present tbh) for BBC current affairs shows.

It's called populism because it's popular, sez BBC.

His face looks too small for his head.

Didn't the host say he was leaving recently? Will that change anything?

I don't even think such a total wanker an august old fellow as Dimbleby has much of a say on the guests/editorial direction, but I might be wrong.

Still lmao at the thought of Wetherspoons champagne sales figures.

So Ella Whelan casting doubt on the authenticity of some of the photographs of children in detention centres in the US - you would have thought Living Marxism types would know better than to speculate on photographs of people behind fences.

lol

They really are scum.

Has the BBC ever given any kind of reason for having a tiny, hard-right corporate front outfit with a smaller readership than Model Aircraft Today on speed dial?

They're all middle class right wing cunts?

It's good television, innit.

As it seems aside from the BBC and Talk Radio producers that have them on speed dial, no-one much else cares about them, who funds these wasters? There seems to be more transparency at the Taxpayers Alliance ffs!

I wonder what proportion is that and what proportion is Good Liberals imagining the public is vastly more right wing than them and giving the audience what they think they want.

Even so, when you have actual Tory politicians and Brexit campaigners on the show, idk what the imagined audience for contrarian fash/ libertarians would be.

(xp) You're wrong there, they're on Sky all the time too, Brendan O'Neill virtually lives at Sky News studios.

I never watch it tbh, thank fuck!

(xxp) Pretty sure all they're interested in is entertainment.

Newsnight continuing to do the noble and important work of sorting out the good Free Tommy people from the bad elements:

"This isn't us, this isn't the Free Tommy movement... I'd say this is far-right" - this woman explains that the majority of Tommy Robinson supporters were protesting peacefully #newsnight pic.twitter.com/SnLwgIJb4v

— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) July 18, 2018

Also good to give Gerald Batten plenty of time to explain why Robinson isn’t similar to Nelson Mandela, he is actually better, under robust questioning like ‘haven’t you misjudged this?’.

the BBC want socialism for their corporation, neo-fascism for their license payers. At least they are consistent on this line!

Our fourth and final audience question is about the Labour party. #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/WDe4PsieG6

— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) September 26, 2019

Our third audience question is about a future withdrawal agreement. #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/iFBxqKawUl

— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) September 26, 2019

Here's our second question from the audience tonight. #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/kUucyT8vxX

— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) September 26, 2019

Seem like good questions imo.

'we all break laws on a day to day basis'

send the rozzers round to this audience member's house asap

The guy who asked the question was a policeman!

... so, yes, a reactionary right wing twat, PC Gammon in fact.

PC Bacon

PC Gonemad

wtf

I didn't see the show last night, but surely the format means these questions get comprehensively twatted by most of the panel?

Damn I should start watching Question Time again pic.twitter.com/R58KJAKJ2J

— Clee (@jmsclee) September 27, 2019