Once again, the BBC has managed to assemble another right wing line up for tonight’s edition of Question Time, which is yet another nail in the coffin of the myth that the BBC is somehow left wing. What a joke that is.
Tonight’s line up is as follows:
Amber Rudd Tory MP
Isabel Oakeshott Right Wing journalist
Nigel Farage Ukip (YET AGAIN!)
Baroness Brinton Lib Dem peer
Shabana Mahmood Labour
The political make up of that panel runs from Centre Left (Mahmood) and then, straight across the centre ground, to the Lib Dems who propped up the last Tory government (centre right I’d call the Lib Dems) to two panelists of the right and one of the far right (Farage). What the hell is that all about?
It is not the first time that the BBC has packed the panel with right wingers. In fact, it seems to be the norm these days and they are plainly making no effort whatsoever to provide a level of balance to the show.
I’m not making up the right wing bias of Question Time. I have looked at the panels from the last year or so and since the panel was expanded to five (why?) it’s always one Tory, one Labour, sometimes a Lib Dem and almost always a right wing journalist and a Farage type figure, often Farage himself.
I dread to think what tonight’s show will be like. The fact that Farage will be there will mean there will be plenty of borderline if not actual racism and endless xenophobia. We will hear, once again, how Johnny Foreigner is responsible for all the ills of the country and quite probably the entire world too. Like the cheap right wing tabloid journalists from the red tops like Hopkins, Littlejohn and Clarkson, Farage has the easiest job in the world, playing on people’s fears and concerns, confirming their prejudices and pouring on the hate. And with only one left of centre figure on the show – and at least she is a British born Muslim, so that might cramp Farage’s lack of style, but don’t bet on it – Ms Mahmood will have her work cut out.
We will have to rely on the studio audience to hold the right wing panel to account because no one else can. I am not sure if I would be much use in the audience because I’d be losing my temper too much because even though in the ‘new politics’ of Corbyn I am painted as a Tory, the constant onslaught of right wing bile makes my blood boil and no one makes it boil more than Farage. There is so much competition as to who is the most odious person in politics that Farage isn’t even in the top three (Iain Duncan Smith, George Osborne and Priti Patel lead my list at the moment, but it can change). One thing is that he is not the anti-establishment figure he pretends to be and how could be? Private school educated ex merchant banker, dedicated Thatcherite and fox hunter. Some rebel.
I am not sure I will be able to bring myself to watch it, such is my disdain for the whole programme as it is currently constituted. And I know for sure that much of the subject matter will come from the far right and those endorsing it will be arguing from the same position as Britain First and Nick Griffin. Isn’t that right, Nigel?
