What is the point of BBC Question Time being held in a different city each week if the audience isn’t representative of that city? The programme would be as well basing itself in London every week. It wouldn’t be any less representative than it is now, and besides it would make it easier for its favourite guest Nigel Farage to get home after filming.
This week the programme obstensibly came from Dundee, although you’d have been hard pressed to notice. On Thursday the National had a front cover showing the lost city of Cadzow, dug up by archaeologists working on the M74 improvements. We desperately need some political archaelogists to dig up the lost city of Yes Dundee, because BBC Question Time dismally failed to find it. What they found instead was some mythical settlement where yes voting working class Dundonians are as rare as unicorns.
It would appear, according to whoever it is that decides the audience for BBC Question Time, that Dundee is disproportionately inhabited by weel spoken middle class types of a decidedly Tory persuasion, and failed Labour party candidates. It was however marginally better than David Cameron’s visit to the Tory party conference the previous week in that no one felt the need to put on a Scottish accent. Watching the programme I was struck by just how much the Dundee accent had changed since my last visit to the city. Although to be fair, it was a terribly long time ago and linguistic change can happen at a surprisingly fast rate. I just hadn’t expected it to change that much since January this year.
My personal highlight was someone who looked suspiciously like the failed Labour candidate Kathy Wiles, presented to the viewing public as an ordinary punter, demanding that the SNP apologise. For you know, general SNPbadness. Kathy was forced to resign as a Labour candidate after making a comment on social media comparing young kids at a protest against BBC bias during the independence referendum to the Hitler Youth. She had to apologise for her offensive tweet, so clearly she’s an expert in apologising.
Another Labour staffer also asked a question during the programme. Since it’s well known that the Labour party in Scotland has a membership which is about one twentieth of that of the SNP, you’d imagine that there were 20 times as many SNP members in the audience. But no. There were 20 times as many Tories instead. This was clearly some sort of Dundee existing in a parallel universe which had fallen through a hole in the interdimensional fabric of space time in order to appear on the BBC. This is the best explanation you’re going to get for the composition of the audience, as some of the questioners were very clearly not of this planet.
BBC Question Time is a programme whose idea of a representative panel in yes voting Dundee is three Unionists, two independence supporters, and a Conservative journalist. Conservative journalists are obligatory whenever Dundee, or indeed any working class Scottish settlement, is the venue, because it fulfils the BBC’s notion of balance. After all, Scotland has more Conservative journalists than it has actual Conservatives. Just who the hell is Tim Stanley anway, and why should we believe that this Conservative journalist from Cumbria have any particular insight into Scotland?
Of course he doesn’t. His purpose was to make up the Unionist numbers and ensure that yes voters were heavily outnumbered on the panel. The BBC is more concerned about the criticisms made against it down south of left wing bias that it cares about the more justifiable criticisms made against it in Scotland of Unionist bias. Naturally the BBC is a Unionist institution. It’s one of the very few British institutions left. Westminster has sold off or privatised all the other British institutions, so it’s down to the BBC to prop up an ailing sense of Britishness amongst a population that no longer cares.
The BBC is institutionally incapable of giving a fair representation to the Scottish independence movement, a political movement which attacks the very foundations of Britishness. We are the enemy, and that’s very plain in Question Time’s composition and in the Dimbleby’s demeanour. John Swinney never managed to complete a single sentence without being interrupted.
So in a yes supporting city we had a panel on which yes supporters were out numbered four to two plus the clearly anti-yes Dimbleby, answering questions from an audience which seemingly was made up of former Labour candidates and imported Tories. BBC balance at its very finest. Still, at least it was representative of 55% of the population, just not the population of Dundee. Next week BBC Question Time will be coming to us from the Tory voting depths of Buckinghamshire, where there’s a greater chance that the audience will actually contain someone who comes from Dundee.
The programme was an example of full on metropolitan trolling, the sort we’ve come to expect from the BBC. It tells us that the proposals for a Scottish Six news programme are doomed to failure. That won’t be because of a lack of talent in Scotland, or because of a lack of potential stories for a Scottish Six to tell. It certainly won’t be because there is no need for a Scottish based and produced daily news programme giving world and national news from a Scottish perspective. It will be because BBC management will starve the programme of investment and resources and will use it to propagate the BBC’s brand of biased Britishness. The BBC is not in the business of putting Scotland in all her glorious diversity on the screen.
The BBC as an organisation is rapidly losing what credibility it has left in Scotland. It’s a top heavy, sclerotic institution driven by metropolitan concerns which makes lip service at best to the point of view where London isn’t. Question Time is a programme which is no longer fit for purpose, produced by a broadcasting corporation which is no longer fit for purpose. Scotland, and the rest of the UK, deserve a public broadcaster which truly reflects what we’re always told is the bestest and most perfectest union of countries in the history of the multiverse. And they only way to achieve that is for control of broadcasting to be devolved to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and for the BBC in England to be decentralised.
A Scottish national broadcaster is long overdue. The farce of BBC Question Time only confirms that Scotland will not be reflected accurately or fairly on the television screen until Scotland, like every other self-governing nation, has its own dedicated public service broadcaster. The BBC is a colonial institution with an empire mentality. And all empires are overthrown in the end.
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[…] The lost city of Yes Dundee […]
Dearest Paul, that was your best article ever. It really made me realise that my fears of what the true nature of the BBC is, are much more real than I care to admit. I’m not a paranoid Jock from Jockistan, m a normal human being with a Bain and a sense of right and wrong. Thank you x
Urgh, proofreading fail 😦
*I’m
*brain
Just cos you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.
Ha! Indeed 😀 now please excuse me, I’m off to check under the bed for monsters. If I’m not back by
Reblogged this on pictishbeastie.
[…] Source: The lost city of Yes Dundee […]
The BBC, or, more accurately, the EBC is, and always has been a tool of the Unionist, English establishment. It has never represented the people in the “provinces”; not even the English “provinces”. They may, on occasions, reflect the minor differences between the Blue Tories and the Red Tories, but these particular differences only represent minor spats between the English establishment.
This same establishment will never countenance allowing the views of the Scottish people being taken into account, or allowing the Scots to have any meaningful representation on the airwaves. To do so would be to undermine their role as the propaganda wing of the English establishment. They need to keep overall control of the EBC to prevent the Scottish people ever finding out the truth about the blatant lies and distortions that emanate from London.
The English government have been stealing our money and resources for a very long time, and want to hang on to us to continue their theft and extortion. They did the same thing in all their former colonies, and Scotland remains the only profitable colony left for them to exploit; and, of course, as a ready source of cannon fodder for their adventurism on behalf of their American masters (currently by sending Scottish troops to Afghanistan).
Hopefully the Scottish people are beginning to wake up and smell the bullshit, and to realize that it is impossible to trust any English government, including one which, in its current form, is represented by a war criminal with a fondness for porking pig’s heads.
Saor Alba.
Dimbleby was a Bullingdon Club member when he attended Oxford, doncha know.
Shame on the ProudScotsBut qusilings on last night’s farce.
We are a financial basket case; thank the Chief that England continues to send money North to keep the SNP wolf from the door, bleats Marra, Davidson, and Rennie.
Never mind , Cosgrove is planning a Scotish Six of rock musics, ‘n’ ‘at. Sorted.
Disgusting little toadies.
I think a majority of The Scottish population see the BBC exactly for what it is. It is not fit for purpose. However, they do allow some inhabitants of Scotland to air their views, but only if they are yoons.
agree Guga – indeed I suggest northern irish and scottish people beware of the brexit referendum – there’s no guarantee there’ll be a border poll or Indyref 2 whatever the outcome https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2016/03/11/brexit-no-ukexits/
Thank god, I thought it was me!
I thought, ‘I’m getting worse, I don’t see any fairness, balance or a representative voice from what I thought was a Yes voting city. I need to stop watching this, or I’ll get no sleep at all!’, so angry and churned up did I feel.
I like politics, news and fair discussion. Where do I go on TV to find it? Nowhere. It’s a stacked deck. No voice for the wee Nats, eh? Let them eat cake. Well, not Dundee cake, that’s for sure.
The BBC as an organisation, long ago lost what little credibility it had left in Scotland.
Fixed that for you. Why so many Scots still pay them a licence fee is absolutely beyond me.
Agree 100%. Disgraceful lack of normal people on the programme.
Or dundonians 😉
Gave up watching that farce over two years ago – glad someone is brave enough to watch and provide a critique . Sadly it has obviously sunk to new depths of spin ,manipulation and downright lies since last I viewed. I’d dearly like to see the viewing figures for Scotland – you may be one of two who bothered to tune in Paul along with Irma.
Great post Paul and yes it does appear to have been a pretty poorly disguised ambush. The whole programme could easily be categorised under a big two fingered salute to the Scottish public. A Scottish six is desperately needed, but a Scottish six under current management doesn’t, shall we say, inspire confidence?
Last night was the true face of the Beeb unmasked. Contemptuous, condescending, arrogant and so fearful of true balance or representation they ensure the outcome of their ‘entertainment’ is never in any doubt.
I think it was David Agnew posting on here the other day said that unionists are killing the union, which fits neatly in with my own Westminster will be Westminster theory of what will end the union. Its just been seen on display over the past four days and hasn’t it made a pretty picutre? We’ve seen Scottish and not so Scottish politicians rejoice and revel in what, ‘on the face of it’, you’d think appears to be bad news for their country, their own fellow countrymen and women. We’ve seen print media beat themselves into a froth of anti independence SNP badness, their W1 apologists (cough) journalists, taking to social media to have a wee shout at folk. Y’know, just in case folk aren’t picking up their toilet paper at the news agents anymore.
Now, just when you thought they couldn’t get any worse, the viewing public are treated to a QT from Dundee which was so overtly a contrived ambush its lit up the social media and interwebby with some deeply and quite rightly upset folk.
For the cataclysmically hard of thinking yoon political types ‘we know’ scan these sites. Can you even see what it is you are doing wrong? Can you see why the vote is slipping through your fingers? Can you see why there is NO WAY BACK for you now?
Could have been a lot different you know? Nature of the species n’ all that. You simply can’t help being what you are.
They are all full of bullshit and Carmichaels.
They just are what they are. Analogue politicians in a digital age. The last of the dinosaurs watching mammals overrun their world.
They feel that brute force, insult, lies, smear, all the shit that worked so well in past times when they had total control of the routes of information and communication, will still work in today’s world.
The public has outgrown them and raced past them while they stood still, smug and overconfident from years of unchallenged entitlement. Clearly the establishment politicians felt all they had to do was wave a big stick, make some noise and their problem would disappear back into its box shaking and terrified for daring to annoy the big bad. Their problem is how do you hit something so determined and that moves so fast which continually evolves and grows even as it’s moving?
Well their answer apparently, is to rinse and repeat, wave a bigger stick and make more noise. That’s worked out so well for them to date. Threatening folk always makes them love you more. (sigh)
Agreed and your comments makes me feel better. Thanks.
Sometimes the yoon politicians just leave me angry and with a feeling of despair.
Paul waited up past my bedtime to watch qt Dundee and was utterly bemused by what I saw it was utter pish you would have thought Dundee was a bastion of torieness FUCKING DISGRACE
Excuse my language turned telly off after 20 minutes of this drivel BBC has reached rock bottom of the lowest bottom of a septic tank,was it just me or did Jenny Marra look completely embarrassed?
After last nights QT makes the leaders debates look interesting , will Beeb load questions and audience with obvious plants and unionists , dare they risk another shambles like last nights QT
It was a bear pit, designed by the BBC, for John Swinney. If that was supposed to represent debate, they should be ashamed of themselves.
I hope as many people as possible will put in a complaint, it’s easy online –
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/
…..and spread the word and ask people to watch that QT, to see what the BBC are doing to Scotland!!
Complaining to the BBC is a waste of time – they know what they’re doing and they don’t care. Complain instead to your MP and to the Culture Minister. The BBC’s charter is up for renewal and the Tories would love to see support for abolishing the licence fee.
Question Time is a Scootish block programme. That makes it worse.
Scottish, even.
@joe McFarland says 9:06 am
Joe they don’t care any more. They are going for broke and to hell with the consequences, all damage (in Scotland) is acceptable. TOTALLY DISGUSTING!
Completely agree with your well-written article. The BBC is a disgrace. I have sent in a complaint but know it will be ignored.
Go to You Tube and search for Dundee Street Poet. Sorry can’t post a link. Gary Robertson – Dundonese as it is spoken in the toon.
Surely it is time to withhold our licence fee…
The BBC Now act like a propaganda unit for a South American dictatorship
Just cancel it, unplug your aerial. We ditched tv years ago, our aerial inaccessible couldn’t be fixed. Never looked back, but I have to say, thanks for all those who do have to watch to keep up to date on the tactics being used to demonise the SNP and YES voters.
The worst insult this programme delivers is that it is, notionally, a BBC Scotland production. It counts as a significant part of Pacific Quay’s contribution to national broadcasting and uses its budget and network time to repeatedly insult, belittle and undermine us.
This is also why I think a Scottish six would be a complete and total waste of time. They simply can’t be trusted to get it right. But do you know what? Their is no law saying you have to take this shit lying down. Complain officially. Write angry letters to local papers. Attend meeting etc etc. Or like me, you leave the room, cancel the license and watch call saul on netflix instead.
David, I agree that a Scottish Six will be no better but I would like to see it happen because it will erode London’s influence. People perceive Holyrood as our parliament and government more and more and that would happen with this as well. I’m convince that’s why the idea is being rubbished by Tories more than anyone else. (I live in that blue blotch in the south east of Scotland that we will fight to colour blue in May so I have more exposure to Tories. You are allowed to feel sorry for me!)
Arrrgh I should have said – The south east of Scotland …… we will be fight to colour yellow in May…
On the money again, Paul.
As always your sharp incisive wit never fails.
If I’d missed the start and hadn’t realized the programme was from Dundee, I would never have guessed. And I’m a Dundonian.
The Courier follows the same pattern, loading it’s letters page with anti-SNP comments day after day. At least DC Thomsons throw in a few pro-SNP/independence letters for ‘balance’ from time to time.
The editor claims it reflects his postbag. Aye, right.
My average is one in seven letters printed. Yet some, who will be well known to other Dundonians, get at least one or two printed each week. Sometimes on consecutive days.
They obviously take us all for idiots. That results show how ineffective this agenda is tells us who the real idiots are.
The fear and loathing from the so-called winners of the referendum is leaving an increasingly bad smell in Scotland.
As someone who has advocated independence my whole adult life, I always felt the British state stank.
When, or if I watch another similar programme, I may put some Vicks under my nose to mask the smell of it’s rotting carcass.
[…] ar Wings over Scotland a Wee Ginger Dug heddiw. Rhaglen Question Time neithiwr yw’r […]
I thought it was a fascinating documentary:
http://moflomojo.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-lost-city-of-dundee.html
If the SNP are going to be fighting their case on how good they are in comparison with England or Britain then at least they should know what the situation is with regards to the British Government situation for example with debt and finances. They rather strike back showing how poor the other sides are.
A very sad programme and one can only wonder whether the financial and economic basis of the Independence Campaign is now drawing to a close.
I think you may have wandered into the wrong forum. The case for independence is extremely strong. If you read the blogs a bit longer, and with an open mind you will realise that you have been spoon fed bollocks all your life.
The economic case for independence is beyond doubt.
It may just have been low expectations based on his profession and accent, but I found Tim Stanley to be surprisingly not-objectionable.
He came across as someone whose opinions and principles may differ from my own, but his manner of expressing them was done so in a manner that we could respectfully disagree. The same could not be said for the supposedly-great Ruth Davidson (who was like an angry terrier shouting at squirrels) or does-his-carer-know-he’s-out-this-late Willie Rennie.
Even Swinney was not that great. His style and manner is not well suited to an environment where he’s interrupted and contradicted on a regular basis. He’s very good at his job and definitely the sort of person you want in your government, but he’s a bass-player, not a front-man.
By this, I mean the Steve Harris/Geezer Butler type of bass player, not the guy-in-the-highschool-band-who-couldn’t-master-guitar type bass-player – writes half the songs and holds the whole thing together, but not shining in the limelight.
I lived in Dundee until recently. It is a university town with a significant student and middle class population born outside the city due to this and the presence of Ninewells, one of the worlds largest teaching and research hospitals. It is these people who are typically more politically engaged than working class people who have never left the city they were born in.
It’s hardly a surprise that QT, which selects a politically engaged audience, would reflect this.
One thing I enjoyed about my time in Dundee was the welcoming attitude people from there had to this population. They very much recognised the skills, cultural and economic contribution they gift the city. It’s a shame some Scottish nationalists do not share the same attitude and would prefer to paint people who have chosen to live in Dundee as unrepresentative of that city and of Scotland. It’s narrow minded and has a nasty undercurrent of blood and soil nationalism
Good grief, why on earth are you posting useful facts on a blog which clearly thrives on unproven assertions. 🙂
No-one else here wants to acknowledge that 43 per cent of Dundee did not vote Yes
Nor that the BBC, like all broadcasters, has to organise audiences according to a range of political views, not just those favoured by the SNP.
As for the Scottish Six; it’s not going to be starved of funds because it’s a Scottish Six. It’s going to be underfunded because that’s happening across the BBC already. Witha shortfall of 720M, all programmes are going to be cutback and underfunded – there’s already evidence of this in sport and entertainment comissions.
True, a Scottish Six is being offered as a ill-judged sop to the SNP. But scottish audiences of all hues are rejecting it .
There you go – something we can all agree on
If you want a fact, here’s one. The producers of Question Time have admitted that the audience was selected so that it was 50%/50% in out with regards to the EU referendum. If Dundee actually votes 50/50 in June, you’ll have a point. But all opinion polls show a strong in majority in Scotland, especially amongst yes voters. That means that no voters were grossly disproportionately represented in the audience.
A possible explanation for there having been a dearth of independence supporters in the audience is that there is such a total mistrust of BBC current affairs that independence supporters didn’t apply.
The BBC have a statutory, legal obligation to be balanced. An easy way to be seen to achieve this on political discussions is to ensure that QT audiences accurately reflect the distribution of public opinion on the main issue under discussion. Given the close polling nationwide over the EU referendum then a 50/50 audience split does not seem unreasonable. Bear in mind that the BBC broadcast to the whole of Britain, not just Dundee and its suburbs.
Anyway, assuming audience distribution was an artefact of selection for Yes/No on the EU referendum, as you argue here, that undermines your original post entirely in which you argue that this was wilful discrimination against nationalists.
As a Dundonian, I find your comments both offensive and narrow-minded. You state that people who work at Ninewells and in the University are “more politically engaged than working class people who have never left the city they were born in.” How patronising. You see these people as “your” people, who will, by your definitions, see things in the same way as you. You are wrong. Yes they are politically engaged but they are increasingly pro-independence. You are the one who is being parochial and demonstrating undercurrents of middle class crass British nationalism. The audience on QT last night was unrepresentative of Dundee. How do I know? Because I, and fifty to sixty other people I know, (many of whom work at Ninewells or Dundee University) who applied for tickets, got none whatsoever. That isn’t chance, that is bias.
Oops. I withdraw my previous post.
Paul, it is a simple fact of electoral turnout that DE social classes are less likely to vote.
(my posts with links are blocked, but there’s an Ipsos Mori poll from August, 2015 looking at who voted at the general election)
It is not helpful to project your personal prejudices and assumptions in lieu of looking at the data.
You owe Paul an apology G. Your comment is definitely offensive.
You miss the point entirely, G.
Dundee indeed has many sides, but it is a city with a left wing, working class heart that has voted for SNP representation across the political spectrum.
That side was patently under represented on Thursday.
No-one is suggesting the people you mention shouldn’t have a say. It is the lack of balance that irks, even among friends of mine who support the union.
Your final sentence should be retracted and apologised for. It is wrong and incredibly insulting.
KenC, I’m fully aware of both Dundee’s history and how it is today. But don’t kid yourself into thinking that just because it has a left wing, working class history (although the Jam, Jute and Journalism aspect made a lot of people middle and upper class) that that justifies anything to do with independence. It may be the Yes city, but only just, nearly half of the people living there rejected independence, and at a time when support for independence was at its most popular, who is to say what it is now? And who is to say that the people who voted independence were left win or working class. The demographics of pro-independence groups are as mixed as the unionist side. There is no obvious bias towards left, right, working or middle class, or even young or old.
As you seem to have taken up residence on this particular blog site perhaps you could answer a question , the next venue will be in England , What are chances of the first question being posed by a member of the audience being Irish – Welsh -or Scottish and the three subsequent speakers being Irish -Welsh – Scottish and this mix continuing throughout the programme ? You are intentionally missing the point of the question many people are asking ,namely was this a poor attempt by the BBC to prop up this failed Union ,by loading the audience with people unrepresentative of the area , I think you and your other supporter are in the minority , because of the total lies most of us experienced during the referendum we can smell shite a mile away and this episode of QT stinks .
Given there are over 10x as many English people a Irish, Welsh or Scottish combined, I would say the chances of the situation you describe were pretty low.
I’m curious though, how can you tell the national identity of someone by watching them on TV if they don’t tell you?
On your second point, no I don’t think this was a conspiracy by the BBC to prop up the Union. Quite apart from the absurdity of thinking that BBC executives would be capable of this kind of conspiracy, but that their chosen method was to rig the audience of a niche political programme only on TV after most folk have gone to their beds really beggars belief.
Besides, a clear majority of the people in Scotland are unionists, in any gathering outside of SNP conferences it’s really no surprise to find that most people would be unionist.
Self opinionated rubbish. Gee G. Give it a rest.
…… and get off your high horse.
What do you disagree with and why?
Previous to the commencement of the battle of Austerlitz, the allies attempted a flank march in column to turn the right flank of Napoleon. He restrained his marshals, who were eager to attack, saying, “the enemy is making a false move, why should we interrupt him?”
Won’t do any good, but I’ve written a complaint to the EBC! Suggest that everyone does even if only to choke their emails!!
I feel relieved I’m not British.
As I’ve said before the bbc has given up trying to be balanced in its attitude towards Scotland’s politics. Like britnat newspapers its paramount purpose now is to concentrate on fellow britnats by feeding them with more and more too-wee-too-poor-too-stupid propaganda.
Don’t pay the licence tax.
If the bbc was ever to make a show about Oor Wullie yet can bet they’ve give him story-lines showing how Scotland was too wee, too stupid and too poor to be an independent nation. They’d probably chose James Naughty or Andrew Neil to be the voice of Wullie.
I no longer watch the BBC so thanks for this gruesome account, Paul. It sounds to me like a completely desperate attempt to discredit the SG. Maybe their secret polling figures show an even greater SNP vote in the forthcoming elections.
This nonsense didn’t work last May but they don’t seem to be getting the message, so long may it continue. Don’t get mad, get even, folks. Even though I don’t enjoy it much, I feel I have a new enthusiasm for canvassing next week after reading all the above.
“Last night was the true face of the Beeb unmasked. Contemptuous, condescending, arrogant and so fearful of true balance or representation they ensure the outcome of their ‘entertainment’ is never in any doubt”
Spot on as usual, Macart. And programmes like these will convince more and more Scots this is true.
The BBC is shameless and shameful but……….
Vinceremos!
Fortunately I neither pay the BBC nor watch TV but I foolishly began to listen this morning to a programme on radio called The Big Debate. An Absolute Disgrace would be nearer the mark. But I ought to have known better – Gordon Brewer was at the helm. Even that pour soul’s voice is a boring whine…. and it should be obvious that an interesting voice is essential for radio.
So, it seems the empire lovers are gathering steam in readiness for May but Paul is right. History dictates that all empires eventually bite the dust. Unfortunately the Brits are slow learners. The light, however, will eventually dawn. It always does!
only watch qt last night as coming from dundee..what a shambles thanks to the blatant planting of unionist audience members that dont represent this area whatsoever…its not even subtle, its full blown propaganda that reeks to high heavens…time the snp gave thought to whether it wants to continue appearing on this charade, or withdraw and boycott the whole event..dont think it would dent their popularity in anyway. patrick at least proved a counter balance when he was allowed to say a few words, against tim, nice but dim. why do we need his ramblings…feeling totally miffed…
You do know that the BBC researchers who make-up the audience participants use google maps and voting trends in wards to skew the audiences according to their own political agenda. SO you can bet that nobody from Kirkton – St Marys – Ardler – Whitfield – and other areas where high council housing stock would have even been considerd for a ticket to the Unionist-Fest last night!
An absolute disgrace, a bunch of Yoons trolling Scotland and praising the money auld Lizzie brings in. Eurodisney brings in a lot of money to France but there not planning on making Mickey Mouse head of state.
I don’t care what Ken Macintosh says, Icelandic telly has to be better than this shite.
Sorry it should be they’re not there!
“Eurodisney brings in a lot of money to France but there not planning on making Mickey Mouse head of state.”
Comment of the week. 🙂
Tim Stanley wore a corn beef tartan tie for his Scottish sojourn so what’s not to like!
I have been to a couple of these BBC occasions and I can vouch for the fact that the producers have a mind to create conflict where possible. In fact you are asked to submit a question if you want. I did and when I arrived I was given a typed question which bore no resemblance to the one I had submitted. In fact it was the complete opposite from my political beliefs. No matter, I still asked my own question.
Reblogged this on Bampots Utd.
perfect summary, paul. I was raging last night. only lasted 5 mins but I thought the EBC shot themselves in the foot, yet again, as they do every single day when it comes to North Britain. with the SNP at 60% in the polls, their S……h audience would have had seen them stripped bare in their efforts to educate the RuK to the unpopularity of our failing government & the SNP. we know whats going on in our country & we know what they are up to. I despair every single day. they must be losing telly tax rapidly up here. Well past its sell by date now & unfit for purpose in Sc….nd. the other representatives from our government who were on the panel were totally unwatchable & embarrassing, in a primary school playground kinda way. Willie Rennie FFS..let me, let me, let me say my line !! so bviously well rehearsed
Yes, at best it was a poor showing from Mr. Dimbleby as Chairman – all panelists should be given the opportunity to speak and not be interrupted, spoken over or indeed barrated.
When Question Time is next hosted to the north of the North, the Chairman might want to pose some salient questions, more in tune with the current political reality, to the panel, including:-
Patrick/John – are you perhaps getting a little frustrated at the Westminster government/the Conservatives / Ruth’s lot, …(points an accusing finger) ….given their recent failure to allow further investment into renewable energy sources in Scotland? ..you have been going great guns…Only a few weeks ago, one blowy night it was rumoured that 70% of Scotland’s energy was generated from renewable sources- or is that just hot air….?
but as little as 20 years ago ‘we were told’ that renewables could only ever constitute a maximum of 8% of the country’s energy.
Willie: you say that … but why do you think now there are so few Liberal MPs and MSPs – do think perhaps promises made by your Party… like failure to uphold promises made on University Tuition fees and alliances over the years with the Labour Party and most recently in coalition with the Conservatives have played a part? … true Liberal values ? you seem to have lost your way haven’t you?.. surely with such a right wing government in power in Westminster, people should be flocking to your banner…? … do you think the electorate has lost trust in your Party and its representatives in Scotland?
You only have one MP in Scotland – why is that?… why is that?
Kathy – in a democracy do you feel it is right that the people have a right to express their displeasure peacefully with their state broadcasting company ? I suppose I should pose that question to to you all? – (looks up and addressing the question to all tuned in)…..
Ruth – I’ll come to you in a minute…..
Tim – you have been quite well behaved tonight… compared to this lot anyway..(casts glance of displeasure at the assembled panel) ….so I might just invite you again.
You sir in the audience – yes you, you say you have moved from the picturesque Lake District to this City of Dundee….that voted Yes for independence.. to be part of what is happening in Scotland — that is most interesting and must be a concern for Westminster that the north west of England, the north east of England and indeed it seems most of England it seems is not satified with what seems to be one way traffic of the country’s wealth being channelled to London and the South East – so Ruth, not much ‘pooling and sharing of resources’ we are hearing … this gentleman has moved out of choice …from England to a country run by (points another accusing finger) …. by the (bad)….SNP.
Ruth – I have a few questions for you, you will appreciate as you seems to want to portray you and your Party as the saviours and upholders on the the Union.
Why is it Ruth that at the last Westminster election Scotland returned 56 MPs out of a possible 59 representing (points yet another accusing finger, but this time with accusing stare…towards John Swinney) ….Scottish National Party … yet your Party only returned one MP?.. when people could have simply voted for your Party and secured the Union?
Your Party returned only one MP with a slender majority… and he is imposed on Scotland’s electorate as its Secretary of State for Scotland … with Labour (also with just one MP) and as the Deputy!! ..do you feel there is perhaps something wrong with that situation? or is this what was meant by the ‘most devolved Democracy in the world’ ? ..so much power, devolved, … to one MP… if say 59 MPs are elected next time as SNP MPs – is there then an SNP Secretary of State for Scotland?- or that the only circumstance when one would be ‘tolerated’… or would it be ‘tolerated’ at all?.. what exactly are the people of Scotland ‘allowed’ to have in this Union?
Is there perhaps something they (points an accusing glance up at the camera/the elctorate) …don’t quite like,? can see through? or distrust? .. is it perhaps the Austerity your Party (…not John’s….)…. but your Party… imposed on Scotland, and.. England …and Wales and ..Northern Ireland
What do you actually make of such a sea change in politics in Scotland?..your Party was once the majority party in Scotland.. what do you think has changed..?..
Will you keep us informed of the postal votes this time as they come in this time?
Do you anticipate a large postal vote and (say) around ~70% in favour of the pro-Unionist parties/Conservative party in May this time? or might the postal vote this time represent what may happen at the exit polls – there will be an exit poll this time won’t there?..
How many people have applied for/are likely to submit a postal vote on this occasion in May? How many people are registered to vote in Scotland?
Once the elction is conducted, if there are any formal complaints/irregularities, do you anticipate the presiding Electoral Officer will formally report back and verify the outcome of each registered complaint as may arise and validate the election result publicly in the weeks following the election. I ask you these questions as you appeared ‘up to speed’ during the last Referendum you understand.
Do you feel Westminster is ‘listening’ to Scotland?.. so many questions….
These, and the answers to lots more interesting questions, will no doubt unfold in the coming weeks, in next weeks’ …Question Time.
Now I understand why you use the phrase you do for your monniker 🙂
Have just read at judicialcat.blogspot.co.uk 6 May 2012 – BBC Question Time – Tips for appearing in the audience . Interesting …
Can’t wait to see Lib Dems + Tories annihilated in Scottish May elections then Willie Rennie & Ruth D will be totally irrelevant at last
Amen to that!
What is wrong with getting rid of Labour party as well
They’re already irrelevant james
In the 1950s some of us were desperate to get our message out. I remember putting on long troosers and shivering on the top of a makeshift pedestal on a Sauchiehall St. while attempting to engage the attention of indifferent Scots going past. Robert Curran, the SNP National Secretary and friend of mine who had a Glasgow office, suggested I might gain the attention of BBC folks – but my inquiries there having been blatantly ignored, I hitch-hiked to Paris and found the French willing to give me a slot on their English language short-wave radio service. Predictably (I suppose) I never subsequently heard from anyone who heard that programme. Back home, Robert put me in touch with activists who wanted to “waste” guns that were represented as “keeping the peace” (i.e.) useful in keeping nationalists from appearing in noisy demonstrations. We got a pile of guns from the Johnstone Cadet’s armoury and buried them. Another friend, Bill Brown got arrested for this (but you’d never have known about it from the brief reports in The Herald). Robert,finding himself unpopular with the SNP and at risk of arrest, scarpered to New York, while I avoided British Army contingencies in Europe and got myself a job working for the Yanks in Occupied Germany. I went back home once (you can read about this in my 2011 memoir, RETIRED TERRORIST) and – finding myself unwelcome at the SNP, went back into what turned out to be lifelong exile. However – always a glutton for punishment – I tried to maintain my Scottish roots. Back in New Zealand, I bought a ticket to a “Summer Burns Celebration” where nearly 300 people gathered to demonstrate their Scottishness. I was stopped at the door by 2 officers the organization who told me they knew who I was and said I would be admitted ONLY IF I MAINTAINED ANONYMITY AND DID NOT SPEAK OF MY BOOK TO ANYONE! I remained in the hall briefly, watching my fellow countrymen drink and sing about things long past (perhaps unaware that their officers had to go to such lengths to maintain the myths of the past). I write now to point out that the BBC (and their ilk) perhaps should not bear all the guilt for keeping Scottish stuff out of their reporting. Scots themselves make it only too easy!
This type of bias, and ebc propaganda is also designed to undermine the Scotgov for the benefit of rUKok. They love it down there, and believe that Scotland is a parasite, that is fed to them whenever Scotland is mentioned in their britnat media.
The ebc know that most people in Scotland have seen them for what they are, even my no voting friends ditched the ebc recently!
Preparing the ground for whatever it takes to stop the SNP from becoming any more popular, and attempting to mask the fact that the SNP are in fact what many, probably most people, in england would actually give their eye teeth for right now.
This was the worst episode of QT I have ever seen. The constant clapping every time one of the yoonie lot made some generally (irrevelant) point was so contrived it was embarrassing. Do that lot and the BBC think the Scottish people are so stupid they wont see what was going on. I was so angry watching this I literally threw my Tv remote across the room .QT has finally lost me as a viewer. I will now find something more interesting to do during that hour. Watching paint dry seems a good option.
As QT has more retired colonels from Tunbridge Wells as viewers than Scots it makes sense to use the Scotland money to make programs for an English audience. Audiences can be very upset if something “new” is shown; compare “Cathy come home” with “Dad’s Army”.
Go after BBC Scotland for failing to QC QT; that is something they cannot deny.
Take it you caught the First Minister’s speech today Paul?
Two real biggies in there for those paying attention. 😉
The lady did good.
Well…there you go. Set up and sat up for what followed. Sheesh…when will your illustrious leaders ever learn that anyone from the SNP will only ever be presented on anything remotely connected to the BBC as little more than the prime outline on a rotating fairground duck shoot. It grieves me, nay infuriates me to see such televised -and alleged- ‘free speech’ sessions being so clearly staged as a set-up for the next hapless Scottish representative. This has been going on for the past three to four hundred years…so when are you going to wise up, or ‘cop on’ to the fact, and thereafter learn to outbox and outfox a Westminster controlled system?
Ye Scots have your destiny in your own hands…the trick is in learning how to sense it, then feel it and ultimately believe in it.
Based upon your historic passion and intelligence as a nation…what the hell is your problem, and sort yourselves out ferchrissakes!!!
P.S…this message comes from an Englishman who, perhaps surprisingly, doesn’t live in Scotland.
YES! Sc govt calling for a federal bbc and fair share of scootish licence fee spend in scotland, aling with morscottish based commissioning powers … they did this 3/4 weeks ago.
Mild nitpick- Tim Stanley isn’t a Conservative journalist- he resigned the party a couple of weeks ago cause he saw Cameron et al as too left wing. Pretty smart guy despite all that IMHO
SNP x 2
Am I the only person in this bonnie land that wants to give wee Ruthie a guid hard skelp. I cannae bear the birkie.
This is the answer I got from the BBC. They didn’t address my point on the two former Labour candidat6es not being so identified. I have asked them to address this.
Dear Mr ******
Thank you for contacting us about Question Time held in Dundee on 10th March 2016.
We gather some viewers were concerned that the audience was not representative of Dundee and that therefore the discussion was biased.
The programme, as with all editions of Question Time, was open to people from surrounding areas as well as those living in the city where it took place. We do aim for a wide variety of views on different subjects to be heard on Question Time. The audience included SNP, Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrats, Greens, UKIP and Scottish Socialist Party voters, reflecting political opinion across Scotland. On the question of the EU referendum the audience was balanced with equal numbers of ‘leave’ and ‘remain’ supporters and a fewer number of undecided people. The BBC is obliged to cover the debate around Europe in a balanced and impartial way at this time.
There was plenty of applause for all sides in the debate. Whoever speaks from the Question Time audience is down to the dynamic on the night; who puts their hands up, who claps loudest and so on.
This means that though the audience was balanced; viewers may have felt that those asking questions represented the view of the complete audience. This is not the case, but we appreciate you contacting us with your concern in this matter.
Kind Regards
BBC Complaints
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints
NB This is sent from an outgoing account only which is not monitored. You cannot reply to this email address but if necessary please contact us via our webform quoting any case number we provided.
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