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Showing posts with label Jonathan Dimbleby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jonathan Dimbleby. Show all posts

Friday, 13 February 2009

Who's to blame?

Any Questions - Radio 4 tonight and repeated on Saturday at 13:10 - listen to Denis MacShane waffle and not like being cornered by Jonathan Dimbleby, Janet Street Porter and Jo Swinson and definitely not apologising or calling for Gordon Brown to apologise over the regulation of the Banks.

You can also hear Denis MacShane have to defend Jacqui Smith's housing arrangements and waffle. He does not actually defend the £24,000 a year for a room in Peckham and nobody challenges him.

And then they turned to Geert Wilders:
Janet Street Porter - banning lead to far more media coverage than just letting him in, as is always the case. Banning is bad, free speech is good; "let him speak" - polite applause
Denis MacShane - "There is right not to be offended" - He does point out that nobody tried to ban Jean Marie Le Pen who is an anti-Semite. Denis MacShane stands with Voltaire - slightly less polite applause
Jo Swinson - Agrees with Denis MacShane and thinks that free speech ends when it incites violence. She describes the film as "vile", was the film vile or the words and actions contained with in it. Apparently you can make such a film from any text and the film's claims are rubbish - polite applause
David Davis - Does bring up the 10,000 Muslims on the street comment, public debate is the answer - loudest applause.

Audience hand vote - unanimous (bar one) view it was the wrong decision taken by Jacqui Smith.


Listen to the show here or repeated on Radio 4 on Saturday at 13:10, maybe call in to Any Answers after the Saturday repeat.

Thursday, 11 December 2008

Any Questions tomorrow may be worth a listen

Radio 4's Any Questions on Friday may be worth a listen. As well as Pauline Neville-Jones for the Conservatives, Fraser Nelson will also be on the panel. I wonder if Jonathan Dimbleby will feel obliged to support Labour's Phil Wollas who may feel outnumbered. Hopefully Fraser Nelson will be allowed to put forward the views he has been expressing recently in The Spectator. Challenging Phil Woolas over Gordon Brown's odd National Debt claims would be a good place to start, although I am sure Phil Woolas will have learnt his script well enough.

Wednesday, 29 October 2008

The most important news story?

Is the story of Russell Brand's resignation and Jonathan Ross's apology really the biggest news story in the UK? The BBC certainly think so as it accounted for over half of the Radio 4 7 o'clock news complete with serious tones of voice. Surely the fact that the US has cut interest rates by a third from 1.5% to 1% is of rather more importance, let alone Gordon Brown's dire performance at PMQs today when he refused to answer a single one of David Cameron's questions.

Friday, 24 October 2008

Any Questions Friday 24 October 2008

Well worth a listen to the start of the programme as Lord Adonis tries to defend the indefensible about Gordon Brown's responsibility for the economic situation and Lord Fowler and Lord Digby Jones and Jonathan Dimbleby seem incredulous. Listen online or on the Saturday repeat and prepare to be staggered...

Friday, 11 July 2008

Any Questions

I am in a slight state of shock at the composition of tonight's Any Questions panel, it is not stuffed full of left leaning panellists:

Professor ROBERT WINSTON, Labour peer - Should be interesting on abortion debate

LORD (NORMAN) TEBBIT: Conservative peer - Not exactly a "Cameroonie"; maybe the BBC have invited him on to embarrass David Cameron but I think he should be too astute for that

AMANDA PLATELL: columnist and broadcaster - Her politics are varied, a Labour supporter who became the press secretary for William Hague before writing a less than complimentary election diary.

JOHN HARRIS: Guardian columnist and writer - Also a self-confessed active member of "Compass" since 2005 and in June a believer that Labour culd be saved.

So no Lib Dems on tonight's panel.

I have no doubts that Amanda Platell's links with the Conservative party will be mentioned by Jonathan Dimbleby. I am somewhat less certain that he will mention John Harris's political allegiances, after all aren't all right thinking journalists Labour supporters?


UPDATE:
Lord Robert Winston - Labour
Lord Norman Tebbit - Conservative
Amanda Platell - Links to William Hague
John Harris - Disillusioned Labour
Fairer than I feared.