Jacob Rees Mogg pwns David Dimbleby over 'Eton' jibe

How lovely to see the sanctimonious David Dimbleby try to point out that Jacob Rees Mogg went to Eton, via a textbook playing of the Labour you're a toff card, only to have his snideness blow up in his face.

Absolutely delicious!

General Election Question Time this week

The recent Conservative improvement in the opinion polls means that, even more than might have previously been the case, the BBC will be desperate to boost Ed Miliband and denigrate David Cameron on tonight's Question Time.

We know that the audience has been split in a way that will reduce the right of centre voice to just 25% of those present.

Now will David Dimbleby be his usual impartial self?



Context here.

David Dimbleby got his tattoo wrong as well

Boing Boing reports that:

'Famous, respected UK journalist and TV presenter David Dimbleby, 75, recently got his first ink: of a six-legged scorpion. Unfortunately, scorpions are arachnids, with eight legs. The scramble is on to identify a face-saving species that the tattoo could represent: the best bet so far is the Whip Scorpion, which has six good legs and two crappy, vestigial ones used as feelers; and various scorpion-esque arthropods.'

Famous - yes, respected - not necessarily.

Question Time tonight 26 January 2012 features David '13 points' Lammy

Labour MP, and former minister, David Lammy is on BBC's Question Time tonight. I wonder if David Dimbleby would remind us of David Lammy's most famous TV performance, I am sure he would were David Lammy a Conservative politician...


13 points on Mastermind

The incredible general knowledge round starts at 4:22, or 5:16 if you'd rather miss John Humphry's adoring chat.
Q1: So easy - he got it wrong
Q2: Didn't know but would guess Jamaica
Q3: So easy
Q4: So easy - he got it wrong
Q5: Tricky
Q6: So easy - he got it wrong
Q7: So easy - he passed
Q8: Easy
Q9: So easy - he passed
Q10: Easy
Q11: So easy - he got it wrong
Q12: Easy
Q13: So easy - he passed
Q14: Easy
Q15: Henry VII succeeded Henry VIII, that's unlikely!
Q16: Tricky
Q17: So easy - he got it wrong

Defending the indefensible

Yesterday I received a comment on my old post entitled '
The BBC/Labour relationship in one video clip'.

Here's the comment from 'Anonymous'

'What was it that we're supposed to be annoyed about? She said something to him, and he then interrupted IDS, but you can't say that one led to the other. All David Dimbleby does on that show is interupt and challenge the speakers - that's what he's there for. He does it to everyone - well, to all the politicians anyway, he usually gives journos and business types an easier ride.

By the way, Dimbleby is not employed by the BBC, he's always been a freelancer.'

And here's the video


So let's see: can you really watch that piece of video and not see Harriet Harman tell David Dimbleby what to do and him acquiesce? Check Beeb Bias Craig for figures detailing David Dimbleby's lack of bias. And as for David dimbleby not being employed by the BBC, so what? They pay him and they broadcast the programme.

The BBC/Labour relationship in one clip

I have posted this piece of video several times but the more I watch it the angrier I get and the more disgusted I feel. Has anyone ever quizzed David Dimbleby about this extract and what was going on? How can he be made to account for his acquiescence to Harriet Harman's instructions?


For more on David Dimbleby's record of Labour bias take a look at Beeb Bias Craig's archive.

"Difficult decisions"

'no-one yet comprehends just how tough the next five years will be. For obvious reasons: we have not experienced anything like it in our lifetimes. We have been insulated from the full pain of the financial/economic crisis so far by unprecedented low interest rates and by the bank bail-outs. At some point, the anaesthetic will wear off and we will face a period of austerity that may well make the ruling party so unpopular that it effectively becomes unelectable for decades. There will be strikes; there will be stagnation; there will probably be a double dip of some variety. But this time the pain will be unmistakeably imposed by the politicians.

Tonight in the final television debate, my bet is that the most-used phrase from each of the party leaders (and particularly Brown) will be “difficult decisions”. But I wonder how much any of them understand just how difficult those decisions will be.'

The Telegraph's Edmund Conway has written an excellent piece that should be required reading by all before tonight's BBC leaders' debate. I wonder if the moderator David Dimbleby will press all of the three leaders for real figures or even just an appreciation of the scale of the problems? Somehow I doubt that he will press Gordon Brown too hard, not on previous David Dimbleby evidence...

Question Time 4 March 2010

Just two questions: first how long on Lord Ashcroft and will David Dimbleby allow any comparisons with Lord Paul, Lakshmi Mittal, Sir Ronald Cohen, Sir Christopher Ondaatje, Sir Gulam Noon, William Bollinger or Mahmoud Khayami? Second will Lord Adonis be able to control David Dimbleby as neatly as Harriet Harman did back in last July? Here's a reminder of Harriet and her controlling of David Dimbleby

So do you think David Dimbleby looks like just the impartial person needed to moderate the last of the leaders' election debates?

The election debates - some points

Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson have pulled their last legal/moral card out of the pack by agreeing to a series of three live televised debates, desperate times entail desperate measures. Of course the BBC are doing their best to spin this story to Gordon Brown's advantage; as an example the headline on the BBC website for this story is currently "Brown to face three televised election debates", so it's just Brown facing the debate? What about David Cameron and Nick Clegg, do they not count?

The three debates will be shown live; the first on ITV, the second on Sky and the last one on the BBC. As I feared when the prospect of such a debate was mooted some months ago, David Dimbleby will be the BBC's moderator. Here's a reminder of why I consider David Dimbleby is not fit to be the impartial moderator of the debate...Any potential moderator who allows himself to be controlled so easily by Labour's Harriet Harman has no place being the impartial moderator of such an important debate where his impartiality may be key.

Question Time - 24 September 2009 (update)

Unfortunately I could not watch this live last night, well past my midweek bedtime so this is as-live from iPlayer...

Fraser Nelson is editor of the "right wing" Spectator; are journalists like Kevin McGuire or any from the New Statesman or Guardian described as "left wing" or even "Left of centre"? Where is the centre in the BBC mind?

1st question is on the Obama snub and linking to al-Megrahi.
Why is it that when Harriet Harman speaks I get so irritated, it's an incessant whine of righteous indignation with scarcely a pause for breath. Fraser Nelson asks the questions that David Dimbleby should ask but Harriet Harman ignore them.
Lord Heseltine who has a great understanding of how things work seemed to put his finger on the al-Megrahi release factors and on the fiction of the "special relationship".
David Laws speaks sense on the reality of Libya.
Fraser Nelson again asks Harriet Harman the question about releasing al-Megrahi, David Dimbleby re-asks it, the audience demands an answer but Harriet Harman plays the UK government minister cannot comment card. Michael Heseltine points out the stupidity of that line but Harriet Harman sticks to her line despite having it pointed out that Ed Balls had done so. Michael Heseltine calls it a Labour split.

2nd question is on whether Baroness Scotland should lose her job
David Laws remind everyone of Harriet Harman's attempts to exempt MPs from FOI legislation and says yes she should go.
Lord Digby Jones agrees and spots the disconnect between the governed and the governers.
Harriet Harman tries to justify her colleague staying in post as it was just a "mistake", "no financial gain", "administrative error". "Lawmaker can be lawbreakers"? from DD?
Michael Heseltine has known Baroness Scotland for a long time but points out that she is the architect of this law, good point, and he is right that she should have gone for the purposes of accountability.
Fraser Nelson brings up the disconnect point.
Angry lady in audience and Harriet Harman shows she doesn't even know the fines for the crime, you might have thought she would have done a bit more research.

3rd question on whether Nick Clegg's conference speech has furthered Lib Dems prospects
Lord Heseltine lays into the "mansion tax" and points out that £1 million is not the cost of a mansion in London but a normal house.
David Laws makes a totally fatuous point about only paying only if over £1 million. But does then attack Lord Heseltine for the Council Tax.
Lord Digby Jones supports the taking out of tax of the low paid, quite right too; isn't that part of IDS's policy?
Harriet Harman despite being reminded of the question.
Fraser Nelson shows his speed of thought by replying to David Dimbleby's calling him "Nelson" by calling him "Dimbleby". DD takes it quite well.

4th question is on the closure of the Jungle camp and reducing illegal immigration into the UK
Question about what is being done about illegal immigrants already in the question and daring to mention the BNP. Harriet Harman evades the question and attacks the questioner for quoting the BNP favourably. Harriet Harman gets very indignant and refuses to have "any truck with the BNP" and so avoids answering what the government is doing about illegal immigrants already in the country.
Fraser Nelson makes the point that I made the other day.
Another question from the audience about the benefits given to immigrants.
Lord Heseltine points out the lack of effective border controls that exists and that the people are mostly economic migrants, much to the upset of David Laws who gets on his Lib Dem high horse.
Digby Jones knows what the French are up to in Calais area and he is right.

Question 5 the "funny one"
Or not...

Question Time tonight - 24 September 2009

Panellists tonight are:
Harriet Harman (Labour Cabinet Minister and potential candidate in any Labour leadership election)
Lord Heseltine (ex Conservative Minister and Euro-enthusiast, usually invited onto BBC programmes when mischief over "Tory splits" over Europe are required to take the attention off of the collapsing economy, Gordon Brown's latest PR disaster and/or the latest ministerial scandal/resignations)
David Laws (Lib Dem MP for Yeovil)
Lord Digby Jones (Ex Director of the CBI and one of Gordon Brown's GOATs. He was the man who said of his brief time in government that it was "one of the most dehumanising and depersonalising experiences" anyone could have, and that he had been amazed by how many civil servants he thought deserved the sack)
Fraser Nelson (Editor of the Spectator and one of the few journalists with the balls to ask Gordon Brown a difficult question and push the point)

When the Question Time panel has two right of centre politicians (if Michael Heseltine is indeed right of centre) then there is always a reason. Watch Harriet Harman and her occasional puppetDavid Dimbleby try and expose "Tory splits" so as to take the attention off of Labour's problems.

I wonder how the Question Time audience will be made up tonight...

Here's Fraser Nelson asking the difficult question and Gordon Brown answering a different question.



And here's Harriet Harman controlling David Dimbleby...

Is the Question Time audience biased?

With Question Time returning to our TV screens tonight, a comment made by host David Dimbleby in a Sunday Telegraph interview caught my eye.

"And no, he insists, the audience isn’t biased. How can it possibly be when it is carefully selected to represent as broad as possible a cross-section of society?

For the 150 places on each programme there are an average 500 applicants. These applications are then vetted by a ‘professional woman’ who spends an entire week sifting through them.

First, they are divided on party political lines; then by age, by sex and by ethnic make-up (the last weighted according to the broadcast location: for example, more blacks and Asians for an inner-London programme than for one in Cheltenham). "

Let's examine that defence quite carefully.

"the audience isn’t biased. How can it possibly be when it is carefully selected to represent as broad as possible a cross-section of society?" - On what basis is it selected?

"For the 150 places on each programme there are an average 500 applicants. These applications are then vetted by a ‘professional woman’ who spends an entire week sifting through them." - Just one woman, what information is she in possession of in order to select the chosen 150?

"First, they are divided on party political lines" - On what split? On basis of seats in the House of Commons at the last election? This seems unlikely with the composition of audiences during the years of Conservative government when the audience was clearly anti-Conservative and pro-Labour. On the basis of the percentage of the popular vote cast at the last general election? Again seems unlikely for similar reasons to above. On the basis of votes at the last major elections? This seems unlikely as otherwise there would be a strong Conservative/UKIP majority in the audience. On a 30% Labour, 30% Conservative, 30% Lib Dem and 10% other basis (or similarly ad-hoc percentage split)? If so why? This guarantees a majority left of centre audience; oh hold on that might be why. If the audience is meant to be representative then how many UKIP and BNP supporters are invited as compared to Greens?

"then by age, by sex and by ethnic make-up" - Based upon what factors? The last census or what?


But what of the man himself, where do David Dimbleby's political loyalties lie?

"Does this mean that over the years he has managed so perfectly to hone his position of neutrality that he no longer has any political views of his own?

‘I do have very strong political views,’ he says. ‘But as with most people, I’m a muddle of opinions, with views that don’t tally precisely with those of any particular party. I never tell anyone how I vote. Not my children. Nor my wife.’"

Whilst I do not know how David Dimbleby votes, I think it safe to assume that he either doesn't vote Conservative or is desperately over-compensating for doing so.


Here's some video of the great Question Time presenter being controlled by a Labour cabinet minister and obeying almost immediately...

Question Time is back for a new series

To celebrate, the BBC have put up some video of "Question Time's top comedy moments". Apparently containing:

"Some comedy moments from the last 30 years of Question Time with Boris Johnson, Bernard Ingham, Jo Brand, Ted Heath, Alan Taylor, Arthur Scargill, Shirley Williams and Alan Clark."

Now the line from Alan Taylor is priceless

"To tell you the truth, I don't think anything about it at all... No if you think I'm going to start thinking about this problem, you're very mistaken"

The BBC also link to some recent programme highlights but not to the most revealing piece of Question Time video ever seen, which I first blogged about in July and repeat here in all its glory. It is Harriet Harman instructing an obedient David Dimbleby to try and stop Ian "A quiet man" Duncan Smith from embarrassing the government.

Now that's a video, that whilst not "comedy", certailbly bears repeating.

Brown v Cameron - The debate

Even though Gordon Brown has nothing to lose, I still think that he won't have the courage to enter into a debate with David Cameron; as the PM is, above all else, a monumental coward.

What interests me is who will chair/moderate the debate, because that role will have a large part to play in shaping the debate. The BBC would be the natural home of such a debate and David Dimbleby the obvious choice as chairman. If David Dimbleby is put forward then David Cameron's team must veto the choice. The video of Harriet Harman controlling David Dimbleby was one of the most eloquent insights into the relationship between Labour ministers and senior BBC journalists/presenters that I have ever seen. The video shows Harriet Harman silently but firmly using touch to instruct an obedient David Dimbleby to try and stop Ian Duncan Smith from embarrassing the government. Absolutely disgusting and I know that I have seen that sort of thing before on Question Time, if only I could remember when; I think it was Harriet Harman that time as well.

Here's the video again, it deserves wider playing... Maybe someone could ask David Dimbleby about it at the next Question Time...

The BBC/Labour relationship in one video clip

Harriet Harman instructing an obedient David Dimbleby to try and stop Ian "A quiet man" Duncan Smith from embarrassing the government.

Absolutely disgusting and I know that I have seen that sort of thing before on Question Time, if only I could remember when. I think it was Harriet Harman that time as well.

BBC coverage of the Euro Election results

Even Mrs NotaSheep can hardly believe the tone of the BBC coverage tonight. Any casual observer might think that the Conservatives are having a disastrous evening as their vote is down on the last election and UKIP are taking their votes. David Dimbleby also seems very keen to paint the Conservative's proposed allies in the EU Parliament as racist and/or homophobic. William Hague is doing his best to counter the attacks and dispel Nick Robinson's arguments. Harriet Harman seems to be saying that voters blame everything on the expenses issues not the economy.

Can't watch any more, off to bed.

What a disturbing thought

Margaret Beckett is fingered by The Telegraph...

"I may take my clothes off but I'm as smart as David Dimbleby"

So says Konnie Huq in The Mail. Two thoughts, first that that is a rather limited ambition and second that Konnie Huq is possibly even more pro Labour than David Dimbleby.


Here is some rather more positive (un)coverage of Konnie Huq.

Impartial, my ass!

Impartial my ass, to paraphrase Gil Scott-Heron, would seem to be the verdict on David Dimbleby's chairing of the London Mayoral Question Time. Read this for more detail.

I fail to see why anyone is surprised that a BBC big beast is biased towards his masters at the Labour party. What about Humphrys and Naughtie doing their best to set the pro-Labour agenda every day on the Toady programme. Then there is Victoria Derbyshire and Simon Mayo with their Labour love-ins on Radio 5-Live. Pro-Labour bias at the BBC is endemic and probably not removable.