Comments on: BBC drops Lib Dems from Question Time, again #bbcqt

By: Any Questions: it’s not just BBC Question Time that’s the problem

Any Questions: it’s not just BBC Question Time that’s the problem — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 12:51:40 +0000

[...] covered before the habit of BBC Question Time of dropping a Liberal Democrat from the panel (three times in four weeks most recently) and also of loading up the panel with a far from politically balanced set of [...]

By: David Blake

David Blake — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 13:18:42 +0000

I too got exactly the same response as before. The BBC clearly isn’t listening.

By: The LDV Friday Five: 26 February 2010

The LDV Friday Five: 26 February 2010 — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 01:39:17 +0000

[...] Brown will start the TV election debates with an advantage over David Cameron (2) by Mark Pack. 3. BBC drops Lib Dems from Question Time, again #bbcqt (11) by Mark Pack. 4. The Saturday debate: Burkas – to ban or not to ban? (48) by Mark Pack. 5. [...]

By: Mike Falchikov

Mike Falchikov — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:27:05 +0000

I’ve now had 2 letters from the complaints office, quoting the QT “Executive Editor” Gavin Allen – standard form of words, the same as what everyone gets I suspect, meaningless and doesn’t answer questions such as “why and when did you dump Sarah Teather and MIng Campbell?”.
My follow-up letter to the Jo Swinson debacle which took a month to elicit a reply did offer a further possibility of
writing to the Editorial Complaints Unit @ White City. Has anyone tried this? Probably no use, but might at least
have nuisance value.

By: Alex Wilcock

Alex Wilcock — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:04:00 +0000

I’ve just published an advance photo of the full line-up from tonight’s show. Looks completely balanced… Incidentally, your full-page ads springing out and stopping me reading your articles, twice at a time on occasion, are now meaning I’m much less likely to stop by here. Just thought you should know what a wind-up they are.

By: roger

roger — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:09:01 +0000

Done. I see that Plaid got .6 of the votes in 2005 and UKIP a mere .8 and. Janet Sreet Porter 0.

By: David Blake

David Blake — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:07:56 +0000

Another thing which annoys me about QT is that they have the same panellists on time after time. I like a bit of variety and as good as they are, I don’t want to see Chris Huhne or Sarah Teather on the programme frequently. I also fail to see why they’ve have Peter Hain and Lord Falconer on several times in the past year.

We have a lot of MPs who have never been on the programme. BBC, will you please ask some of them to appear?

By: Painfully Liberal

Painfully Liberal — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:31:34 +0000

I’d say that Shappi Khorsandi marked the nadir in recent editions, though agree that Tom Conti inhabited a similar abyssal plain of quality.

By: sanbikinoraion

sanbikinoraion — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:53:04 +0000

Tom Conti was *awful*. The real nadir of know-nothing nobodies on QT.

By: Dale Cox

Dale Cox — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:31:38 +0000

DONE
_________________________________
Dear Sir or Madam,

I honestly don’t like writing in to the BBC to complain, as I hold your broadcasting as generally excellent, so it brings me some discomfort that I am forced to do so for the second time in the space of a month.

As I’m sure you are aware the BBC are broadcasting Question Time without a political representative from the Liberal Democrats tomorrow, this is both wrong and could (and indeed should) be considered biased.

I expect a stock reply telling me that the Liberal Democrats do get their fair share of representation but they only pull in 22% of the electorate… Well, to you I ask this when will we see a week without either a Conservative or a Labour representative? They’re not that far removed from the Liberal Democrats in terms of vote share, save for a landslide…

Once again there is significance to the week the BBC choose to show such bias, this week the show is, as I’m sure you will be aware, taking place in Wales. A place where our representation is second only to the Labour party (the Conservatives certainly aren’t on the same level) and a place that has benefited from many Liberal Democrat policies both in the Welsh Assembly and at local council levels.

I hope that the BBC will consider the points that I have made and strive to ensure that future programming is not dogged by such thinly veiled bias in future (I say this on the basis that our representation on, this, your flagship politics show has been non existent for three of the last four weeks).

Yours faithfully

Dale Cox

By: Joshua

Joshua — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:57:15 +0000

Dull celebrities don’t have any representation in the General Election yet the BBC still insist on bring some nobody or has been in every week. Tim Conti? Come on now…

By: Chris Jenkinson

Chris Jenkinson — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:37:10 +0000

I've complained on my blog.

By: Dale Cox

Dale Cox — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:14:38 +0000

Do you think we would have a better response if we were to contact the BBC Trust as opposed the the BBC itself…

By: Tina Louise

Tina Louise — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:59:27 +0000

I complained and got the same response I have read elsewhere – something about balance and representation. It was hollow empty words that did not convince me of impartiallity and fairness at all.