BBC Question Time Live Chat - 26th November 2009 - #bbcqt
It's #bbcqt day again and as usual the Live Chat on this blog will start tonight at 10:30pm.
For the second time in four weeks the panel will not include a Lib Dem. This has caused someconsternation in the Lib Dem blogosphere, especially as Jo Swinson was dropped at 48 hours notice and in the week that the Iraq Inquiry has started (of course the Lib Dems were the only one of the three largest parties to oppose the war). Caron has commented on it and Liberal Revolution had a couple of posts (here and here) as well.
The panel will however include the Labour peer Lord Falconer, the former shadow home secretary David Davis, the Deputy First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, the columnist Melanie Phillips and the comedian Marcus Brigstocke.
Join us from 10:30pm below.
Posts
5 comments:
Perhaps:
"Lib Dems were the only one of the three largest parties to oppose the war"
should be rephrased to:
"Lib Dems were the largest party to oppose the war"? ;)
Playing devil's advocate I can understand to a degree having Phillips (outraged right), Brigstock (humourous left) to balance each other out with the two major parties, plus the Scots - as it is in Scotland.
Maybe it's just an unlucky coincidence, but being dropped is never nice.
Perhaps a brave audience member will shun convention and ask this very question of Dimbleby.
TIB - As someone pointed out earlier though, we have 12 times as many MPs in Scotland as the Tories and seeing as Jo seems to have been bumped for a Scottish Nationalist (presumably because it is in Scotland) it seems bizarre to have bumped the Lib Dem. Especially as we didn't have a slot 2 weeks ago as well.
Shall I expect you for the chat at 10:30 then? You'd be very welcome.
Very fair comments.
I guess it depends on what QT is there for? Is it a show for the entire country that happens to be based in a particular location or is it a show for the locality that the rest of the country can watch? I guess it's a combination, getting the balance right is hard.
Personally I feel there should be a LibDem on there because as pretty much everyone has already outlined:
a) They were against the war
b) No Lib Dem for 2 / 4 weeks
However I suppose QT's producers will almost certainly make the case that the SNP/Brigstock will almost certainly provide the anti-Iraq line. (Insert joke about two comedians being against the Iraq war here).
Thanks for the invitation, I would love to join in, however my wife is about to come off a long shift at work and will probably be watching some America's Next Top Model spin off show while I have QT Skyplussed!
steve
No worries. You can always do the "play again" thing on the Live Chat when you are watching the Sky plussed copy later on so you can see what we thought if you like.
Enjoy the America's Top Model spin off show!
Thanks (I certainly won't!)
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