Saturday 13 December 2014

My problem with Question Time

First post - politics!

On Thursday, 11th of December 2014 there was a particularly special episode of BBC's much watched show - Question Time. On this occasion, the show was being broadcast from Canterbury and included the following guests:

  • Penny Mordaunt MP (Conservatives)
  • Mary Creagh MP (Liberal Democrats)
  • Nigel Farage MEP (UK Independence Party)
  • Russell Brand (Comedian)
  • Camilla Cavendish (Times columnist)
Needless to say, its obvious why this particular episode was much anticipated and viewed. The coming together of two polar opposites was always going to be entertaining; and it is just that, I felt that this episode highlighted an underlying fault with the entire show (and in fact, political discussion in the UK as a whole).

It is inevitable that emotions will be running high when such sensitive and important topics are discussed, however an ugly debate presented itself on Thursday, and presents itself in almost every other televised political discussion or parliamentary debate.

In Parliament (and indeed regional legislatures), PMQs (or FMQs) lack any form of utility or respect within them. Questions posed to the premier are loaded either in a sycophantic manner by a government MP, or in an antagonistic manner by an opposition MP. Indeed in programmes such as Question Time there is a lack of patience, respect or control.

In particular of last Thursday's show, audience "participation" was strong, with a couple of instances where audience members heckled each other! The panel was full of jibes aimed at each other, dishonest answers, rude interruptions and a full scale failure on the part of Mr Dimbleby to chair the show.

Until these problems are addressed and remedied, I fear that political debates and discussions will never realise their true utility. 

QT 11/12/14 VERDICT: CAMILLA CAVENDISH WINS

Ms. Cavendish approached the discussion with the least amount of stubborn bias, and through some devil's advocate work, she brought about at least a bit of discussion.

This particular blog unfortunately reads like a bit of a rant, I promise not every post will be a rant. I do plan to talk about nice things too :)

Peace.

DB



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