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Question Time

Ridiculous to choose an audience on the basis of the "current political picture".

So Liverpool overwhelmingly vote Labour and yet there are more Tories in the audience? Surely they should choose an audience on the basis of how an individual town or city voted and actually have local people who sound like Scousers or Geordies or what have you.

Totally bizarre.
 
SteveS1 said:
Still not getting your point, my failing I’m sure. What’s changed? That was always QT for me which is why I don’t watch it.
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My point is that there’s a connection between the awfulness of our political culture and the awfulness of our political media. Question Time is awful in lots of ways, which I’ve ranted about enough on this thread, over years now. But things can always surprise you by getting worse. In this case an audience hand-selected and primed to regurgitate the current talking points of the Tory press has become still more homogenous and still less likely to be interrupted by a perspective or issue that reflects a different kind of politics.

More generally the BBC has announced that it’s reworked the way it meets its public service remit to represent diversity. It’s going to do it in a way that favours the “winners”, the political “mainstream”, as defined by FPTP. This is the opposite of (IMO) more progressive interpretations of such a remit, which would be to favour voices which tend to be marginalised in mainstream discussion. It’s the BBC openly embracing the tyranny of the majority.

Neither of these things is really addressed by not watching Question Time, although I agree that that is a good thing to do.
 
Bob McC said:
Really?
Old people watching shite

Ike the masked singer?
Love Island?
I’m a Celebrity?
Come Dine With Me?
Naked Attraction?
Real Housewives of Cheshire?
8 Out of 10 Cats and its shite spinoffs?

And dozens of others aimed at the brain dead yoof market.
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Sorry, didn’t mean to imply that older people favour crap TV. My point is more that they are badly served when it comes to political programming. But as you point out they’re not unique in that either. The media isn't designed to encourage disengagement from politics but it might as well be. Focus of that has been the young for a long time but they're getting around to the rest of us, and MVV's position is symptomatic of a wider sense of weariness. Not 100% media-induced but the media accounts for a lot of it IMO. I've said it before but Question Time doesn't have to be the way it is: in other countries the format produces actual discussion and is much less dispiriting as a result.
 
Deej said:
So Liverpool overwhelmingly vote Labour and yet there are more Tories in the audience? Surely they should choose an audience on the basis of how an individual town or city voted and actually have local people who sound like Scousers or Geordies or what have you.
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I wonder if the BBC insisted on the national average of Sun readers in the audience too?!
 
Perhaps the BBC want to reflect public opinion and considering we have just had a general election etc.
It’s hardly surprising that the PFM faithful are having a good moan.
 
I’d love to see them run one from Belfast with an audience majority of Tory voters bussed in from the Home Counties, cheering on the border between N.I and mainland Britain.
 
doctorf said:
Perhaps the BBC want to reflect public opinion and considering we have just had a general election etc.
It’s hardly surprising that the PFM faithful are having a good moan.
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Simon,

It’s not a ‘good moan’. It is legitimate comment. The BBC is mandated to be impartial and should be so given the source of funding.

Yes, you support the tories and you dislike Labour, however your eyes are firmly closed to the degree of swing to the right by the current tory party. We are heading somewhere not very nice at all thanks to the tory party.
 
Brian,
I have always thought that the BBC are a load of pinkos, so I guess it depends on what side of the political divide you are on as to your view of the BBC.
My comment was a little tongue in cheek, but I have often wondered how the BBC sets its agenda.
Now we know.
 
I did enjoy it more with Dimbleby and when they had erudite guests like Christopher Hitchens but it’s now so tame and I get embarrassed by some of the audience questions and comments, never mind the Politicians and their sound bites. I thought the Con MP was awful, like an excited puppy with no detail or substance. We’re all being conned and these people insult our intelligence.
 
Tony L said:
I wonder if the BBC insisted on the national average of Sun readers in the audience too?!
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We should bombard the BBC with complaints until we get proportional representation on QT and insist on representative number of pfm (perfectly formed moderates) in the audience.
 
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I thought "the actor" was good.

Bruce does a very good job even without the decades of experience that Dimbleby had. Her opening preamble acknowledged awareness of the BBC representational aspects displayed in this thread.

Labour views were equally applauded but, of course, that could have been canned and added post edit.

Typically BBC. Its my favourite broadcaster.
 
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