Question Time

Thursday nights are fast becoming appointment TV evenings for me.

Question Time on BBC1 followed by First Minister's Questions on BBC Parliament (though I always miss Jack McConnell's questions as there's a 5 minute overlap)

But it was Question Time that was the highlight for me anyway.

Boris Johnson is quite simply a legend. To many he is a babbling buffoon but to those who matter he is surely comedy gold, and one that talks a lot of sense most of the time too. If the show is repeated at any point it's worth catching just for his asides, smirks and interactions with the panel and audience. He also had a good rant about the EU and why there hasn't been a referendum for so long. The rather weak argument that Thatcher never provided a referendum during her long period in power was swatted down with ease.

Christopher Hitchens was a man that I at first thought I wouldn't take to. His earnest, pock-marked and somewhat puffy face didn't suggest a man who could talk so eloquently and intelligently. I tend to prefer the non-Politicans on the show as they can weave across any political viewpoint without the fear of getting a dressing down from their masters in the morning. I wish I could remember some of the points he made but he is certainly an interesting and satisfying guy to listen to.

Peter Hitchens from the Mail on Sunday was his usual delightfully belligerent self. Giving it laldi with some anti-EU ranting and chat on Sir Salman Rushdie. He was 10 times more impressive than a read of the paper he writes for; can't say I agreed with everything he said (especially the comment that Britain is in Afghanistan in an Imperialistic way, though I think he just phrased it badly and did have a point somewhere), but he made some fine comments and I will have to check his columns on the web. I couldn't bring myself to actually buy the Mail on Sunday of course.

Tony McNulty of the Home Office for Labour did a pretty good job. One of the very few times I've seen a Labour Minister on that show who actually speaks his own mind. Seemed very relaxed and knowledgable on his areas, and accepted a bit of stick from the audience. Most noticably the ex-serviceman who commented that even if the Afghan campaign will take 30 years, there won't be many (any?) military soldiers who will want to spend 30 years serving in this part of the world. Though one of the Hitchens made a good point in this area, that we're going to have to fight these fights a lot of over the next few decades so to get some valuable experience in Afghanistan, rather than pull out, is worthwhile.

Personally, I don't think my brain is capable of assessing all the factors of such a complicated and global issue so I just enjoyed hearing the points without having any strong views myself.


Baroness Shirley Williams completed the group of 5 and she was rather poor to be honest. She didn't get off to a good start with a botched explanation of why giving Salman Rushdie a knighthood was a bad idea. And then threw hew toys out the pram a little bit when Christopher Hitchens called her self-pitying.



All in all though, some seriously good debating from the whole panel. I just hope I don't have anything planned for next Thursday (Ming Campbell, Piers Morgan, Michael Howard amongst others will provide the banter)