And another thing…

Sorry to be a pedant, but the facebook status clearly says it was an update delivered via Twitter.

She therefore broke the news on Twitter, not facebook.

Difficult to believe that a senior minister could tell an untruth. Name and shame? I doubt it.

“You do not seem happy . .

“Is this the right place for you to achieve your ambitions . . ?

“While you decide I’ll just go on signing these papers . . .”

(After the Late Great Jules Feiffer.)

“Thanks, Tom, we’ll make it up to you,” I was told. Weeks later I was sacked.

So they were true to their word then!!!

(Kept you out of the firing line didn’t it?)

Not to worry, you have one of the most popular Labour blogs on the interweb, even Johnny Norfolk has previously said he thinks you’re not too bad for a Labour MP; revenge is sweet eh?

Whats your take on Climategate?

Jo Swinson = Mogadon Woman
Julia Goldsworthy = Valium Woman
Sara Teather = Temazepam Woman.

Lib Dem women on QT are soooooooooo boring. All they ever do is agree that everything that’s good is good and everything that’s terrible is terrible, while never expressing a view on anything that falls in that inconvenient grey area between ‘good’ and ‘terrible’ in case they upset anyone.

Anoneumouse
Whats your take on Climategate?

As you’re asking… nothing to see here, taken out of context, 30 days to save mankind, next.

Funny, watched In the Loop where Malcom Tucker stops a minister going on question time for going off message. “You’re disinvited” Thought it was unrealistic.

That’s Labour for you. Equality running right through them. They’ll stab their own MPs in the back as easily as they will us proles.

How refreshing.

Never mind, eh, Tom? I’m sure the gold-plated pension, expenses pot and over generous salary will console you in your pain.

Perhaps you should have grown a set, it’s hardly like you didn’t know they’d knife you in the end.

Everything about Question Time is veted.
Whos on the panel. Whos in the audience and what questions are asked. They make sure there are never very many Tories in the audience as you can see from the responce from them.Even the chairman is always more strict on Tories.So you would not have had much say. We must not have people that rock the boat for the labour party.

They do fantasy in Norfolk then . . .

How much does Johnny have on the BBC’s Chief Political Editor being a former leader of the Labour Party Young Socialists and which cartoon does his bookmaker hail from?

I stopped watching BBCQT yonks back – with about 20 mins worth of exceptions this year.

The audiences do tend to be unrepresentatively Tory, not least because the programmes are disproportionately set in county towns.

And as is whinged about online ‘they’ tend to choose those Labour figures with less televisual impact – ask Tom Harris . . .

Oh, and Bumblebore is a former Bullingdon & press baron whose treatmment of his workforce was widely viewed as a disgrace, and now poses as a neutral.

Come on, Mr Harris, let’s have your opinion on Climategate. Your leader, the PM, has said that we have ten days (or whatever) to save the planet. His opinion is based on discredited ‘expert advice’.
Do you not think that the main objective of the Copenhagen summit should be to set up a system of temperature stations over the surface of the world of which the observations would be FREELY AVAILABLE via the internet to any interested party? After all, even climatologists do not claim that there is an immediate urgency – they talk about 50 to 100 years.

In the House, ask this question, “Is the PM aware that the CRU projections for global warming have been discredited, and will the PM take into account this fact when he goes to discuss these matters in Copenhagen?”

Tom If you do not allow Blairs name to be corupted on your Blog why do you allow Camerons.

I thought you more even handed than that.

Anyone would think this is a Labour blog.

I don’t know about the audience of QT being ‘vetted’ – they were an invited audience back in the 80s when Robin Day was in charge, and as far as I know there was some attempt to get an even mix of political persuasions. My husband went to a QT two years ago in Cambridge, just by applying for a ticket on-line – I don’t think he had to say which party he favoured.

It’s probably inevitable that people who get themselves in a lather about what they see as government failings are probably going to be motivated to want to be in a QT audience. It certainly seems that it’s the panellists who criticise the government who get the most enthusiastic applause.

Last night (in Edinburgh) it was Charlie Falconer who was the object of the audience’s derision. Nicola Sturgeon was first off on a pious little rant about Tony Blair and Iraq. Falconer responded by saying she was talking ‘rubbish’, which although undiplomatic was accurate. Nicola looked like she might explode, but bit it down with a tight little smile whilst her cheeks burnt crimson. Then Marcus Brigstocke, and David Davis (who voted for the invasion!) made themselves popular with the audience by pronouncing against Blair.

Melanie Phillips, however, supported Falconer’s argument, which seemed to take the audience by surprise. And she was able to bring some considerable factual evidence to support her case.

Mr Cameron has been though sufficient phases in his politics in a short space of time that Chameleon is a fair name to reflect his green, blue and now red political colours:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/nov/27/respublica-launch-simon-hoggarts-sketch

Tony Blair was not found to have lied, as those who abuse his name aver, by several independent inquiries.

Some prefer words to refer, however obliquely, to the real world, or at least some reflection of it.

re QT amazing was it not the gasps of horror among the audience when Melanie suggested that they might be being ’spun a line’ on climate change – some people really do deserve to be taxed back to the stone-age. (Of course, one thing the Scottish nation is not…is taxed.)

And as for the as-hilarious-as-root canal-surgery without-anaesthetic Marcus Brigstocke – an expert on climate change because he’s been to Greenland twice. Big whoop, I’ve been to the Sahara twice but I certainly don’t feel qualified to go on telly and bore everyone about the volume of sand there.* But that is the climate change religion for you.

*Although having said that, the second time I went there it just felt that little bit, you know, sandier.

Mr Harris, how many psychotically Tory-obsessed, off-topic postings is Quietzapple allowed per diem?

“I was still a minister at the time, and wanted to remain one. So, cravenly, I submitted and withdrew.”

Ahh, nothing like a modern politician. Tell me again why people detest MP’s ?

BannedHorse
Mr Harris, how many psychotically Tory-obsessed, off-topic postings is Quietzapple allowed per diem?
*****************************************

What, you’re not carried away by (what he fancies is) quietzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzapple’s enigmatic wit me neither.

Poor Horse, looks like I am being cyber stalked by an obsessive with nothing to say again.

I shall have to watch out for the junkies in Waitroses again I suppose . . . .

‘Tony Blair was not found to have lied, as those who abuse his name aver, by several independent inquiries.’

Tony Blair can be judged either to have lied, or to have been far too naive to be running the country. In the words of Tom Petty, I can’t decide which is worse…

Brudie offers a criticism of Tony Blair of such vapid generality that one wonders something or other about him himself . . . .

Quietzapple – I think you’ll find that many QTs are held in “county towns” because the UK has only eight cities…
That, in itself, hardly explains why the audiences should be disproportionately Tory. I was a member of the audience of QT in my local town situated in what Labour likes to imagine is still its heartland. I doubt, however, that many of the audience was Tory, just anti-New Labour. Do you see that there can be a difference?

Howled with laughter at Marcus instant-expert-climatologist Brigstocke the other night. What a comedian that lad is!

@Jay: Firstly you may have noted the rise in Labour’s support and corresponding fall in the Tories’ support, which seems to be a trend at the moment.

Secondly you might care to note that, with the exception of a few years early in this Labour Government, people are generally anti HMG whomsoever runs it.

Thirdly most who trouble to prattle anti HMG at the present are effectively tories, whatever they say their intentions are. People dissemble.

Fourthly I think we might smile at your assertion that the UK has 8 cities:

“There are currently 66 officially designated cities in the UK, of which eight have been created since 2000 in competitions to celebrate the new millennium and Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee in 2002.” – WIKI

Aware that whomever corrects another falls victim of his own errors I shall leave any appropriate defence of Brigstocke to those undoubtedly more expert in global warming than either you or I.

@ QT – yes, I made a mistake about the number of cities – I think that there are ten (I excluded those which are cities by virtue of having a cathedral, such as York, since in other respects they have the characteristics of a town, and those which have pleaded for city-status (probably to be eligible for more money) such as Middlesbrough, which nonetheless retain the characteristics of towns).

You still haven’t resented a case for your assertion that QT audiences are predominantly Tory other than your idiosyncratic definition! Why don’t you suggest to the LibDems, UKIP, the Greens and the BNP that they form a coalition with the Tories – they surely won’t mind!

@Jay:I have no intention of checking the BBC’s records of who is invited from where to QT.

My recollection from when I used to watch this programme that it drew from rural audiences almost as regularly as Gardener’s Question Time does.

Most of us live in built up areas of considerable extent and your adjustment from 8 cities to 10 is another hoot.

Many of QT’s audience similarly live in the fascinating medieval age . . .

QT – First it was ‘county towns’ now it’s ‘rural areas’ (with the implication that only Tories live in both)!

Can’t be bothered pursuing this.

Silly Jay, county towns are perforce in rural areas.

Hold QT in Whitby, Dorchester, York and they will flood in from surrounding areas.

Grace when you give up pls.

What I meant QT was that in order to have a rational debate we would first have to agree on definitions and from there argue our respective case for the predominance of Tories in QT audiences. I just don’t think that the argument is worth pursuing.

@ Jay:

If you don’t believe that there is a disproportionate number of Tories who live in county towns and their usually rural surrounds then you can check them out via Wiki election results, no need for me to source.

My recollection from when I watched Question Time is that, although most Britons live in cities – most of which have sprawled like Manchester – QT is held disproportionately in county towns.

The argument doesn’t really need any funny definitions, it just takes you to argue to no whit to exist at all.