Jo Swinson was on Question Time on Thursday and she was fabulous. She really took on Tory minister Damian Green with pithy and sharp interventions.
Here she is taking about the awful Rape Clause:
.@joswinson says that the so called rape clause is evidence of a government moving in the wrong direction #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/GUQkMg2d2f
— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) April 27, 2017
And on hard Brexit:
.@joswinson says that despite #GE2017 being called for the benefit of the Conservatives, it could also provide an opportunity for change pic.twitter.com/zlid69JLM4
— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) April 27, 2017
You can watch the whole thing on iPlayer here.
Impressed? Want to see her back in Parliament? Then help her to get there.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
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11 Comments
I must admit she was a breath of fresh air blowing across a rather tired format over the past few years. It was good to see her dealing with Mr Green with his attempt at the slogan approach. I hope the fairer exposure in the media will allow us to show the passion and “righteous anger” about the Tory attempt at smothering anything that isn’t brexit. As a teacher myself I hope someone mentions the funding crisis in schools. It was also good not see a ukipper this time, a rare treat!
Have people noticed that last week and the week before QT had two Conservatives on the panel? This week there was one Conservative and a former Conservative peer who has become a crossbencher. QT continues to have a rightward bias in its panels and in its presenter.
BBC Daily Politics on Friday lunchtime had an extremely scruffy guy called James Delingpole from the’ Breitbart News Agency’. He vociferously defended this rape clause. It was never disclosed to viewers the far right sympathies of his news agency or that he himself is a self declared spokesman for right wing conservative libertarianism.
Possibly the BBC are doing something underhand, like… proportional representation? With the tories polling over 40% on every published national poll, two representatives out of five would seem to be about right.
By that criteria, the liberal democrats should be on about every other week.
The gentleman who bet his wife £10 that the Tory representative would fall into slogan and buzzword mode immediately was a star. I would hope that if the Conservatives do increase their majority or maintain it then it’s because people believe in their policies – the first task will be getting them to tell us what they are – rather than being able to recite the Tory slogan in their sleep and not wanting Labour.
This article is an important read for anyone eligible to vote in the UK: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/28/theresa-may-snowflakes-health-and-safety-election
“The 2015 Tory manifesto used the word “plan” 121 times, devoting a mere seven words to one aspect of this plan that would affect the lives of millions of voters. Namely: “We will find £12bn from welfare savings.””
Included in this manifesto was the policy of a EU membership referendum, however even on the morning of the successful leave vote there was no plan for that eventuality. We cannot have a government who have forgotten (or see the advantages of making the public forget) that debating the merits of policy and how this policy can be achieved are important pillars of politics and democracy.
Watched BBC TV news at lunchtime, Conservative, then Labour then UKIP, then nothing.
We pride ourselves on our “slick” press operation, but this scenario keeps happening.
Have we lodged an official comnplaint with the BBC, yet.
I get criticised for my criticism of the BBC , and the TV licence , as having gone down the drain , on the one hand, past its sell by date , on the other , but only very few do the criticising.
Most people who care about it recognise in recent years it has reached its rock bottom.
We certainly have the people but they’re not generally allowed to speak, unless it’s bad news of course! The BBC ought to remind viewers that the general news coverage is related to party votes or MP numbers and it doesn’t mean other parties have nothing much to say. Even the IRA used to get the respect of having the reporting restrictions upon it advised in the news bulletin. Perhaps time to question whether the portion of the licence fee that is for news might go to another organisation that can prove it’s impartial and not taking its editorial lead from ‘the papers’.
Tim Farron will be on Andrew Marr this morning.
so will Theresa May,the caretaker Prime Minister. Rachel Johnson is reviewing the newspapers, but does not know what a mugwump is. The Sun had referenced Harry Potter’s wizards.
An interesting interview with Tim Farron on Andrew Marr, in which Tim says that he is actually a bit of a Eurosceptic.