On Question Time, Thursday 7 March, Amy Rutland, a regional Labour worker, pretended to be an average member of the public and took an opportunity to embarrass the Labour Party she supports by calling Diane James, the UKIP candidate, and anyone else who is concerned about the effects of uncontrolled immigration "disgusting".
As noticed by Political Scrapbook, she claimed earlier in the day to have cooked this up with Stephen Twigg, who was appearing on the panel. That probably explains why he was so smoothly ready with a prepared answer. Amy later protected her tweets. It has been suggested that these were merely boasting after the event and that Twigg might not have been in on it - in which case why protect them rather than leave them open?
Dimbleby, if doing his job properly, should have allowed Diane James to answer the original question of substance, which was about whether UKIP presented a threat to the Tories. Instead, he insisted that she respond to the insult. It has yet to be established if Dimbleby knew of the stitch-up; no doubt he'll deny it. It is very strange, though, how the microphone was able to go to an auburn-haired lady at the front who also appeared to be primed with the keyword "scaremonger". Were the women connected?
If you want to see the response by Diane James and the much saltier reply by Melanie Phillips which explained why UKIP are a threat to the Conservatives, the 5 minute clip is on Youtube.
But for the slow-learners in Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, let's play that old favourite Oh she's just a bigoted woman. You can see the moment his political soul leaves his body.
Kebab Time for Biased BBC has other fun photos.
5 comments:
Fair play to Labour, really. All good fun. I accidently went to a UKIP selection interview by mistake and was very surprised at the number of ex socialists there. For pop pickers the next election is increasingly baffling. I've been living under the assumption that Labour would just walk it but this Miliband fellow is amazingly disagreeable and if us Northern folk are preternatuarally indisposed to support the Tories but fine with Ukipping as either protest or representation of values then all the marginals come back into play.
Also, I guess, Ukip can only grow in the short to medium so it's all a bit variant to predict. It's kinda groovy, I guess. Not quite Italy but maybe?
I hope you're well and winter has been restful. Hmmm....I think after 8 years of treating my house as digs that capital investment is significantly required. Surely it's a waste of money buying a new kitchen but....phhhwwww.
"You can see the moment his political soul leaves his body."
Heh! Tempting to point out that a political soul is likely to be the only sort he possesses...
Well, to be fair, Melanie Philips seemed to kick all the ass that was required afterwards.... :-)
Question Time has long been allowed to be clappathon for the rowdy lefties, with a smirking Dimbleblob as the Enabler, so I gave up watching it ages ago, on the basis it wasn't worth getting angry over what is a fixed forum to begin with.
Someone in the comments of that video clip identified the vociferous questioner in the audience as a Labour activist, Amy Rutland. Posing as an 'ordinary member of the public'. Interesting.
It's the old cannibal question, Mr DtP: if you had to, which of 'em would you eat first rather than starve? Which ever it is, I would barbeque them outside that than cook them in a brand new kitchen.
It's amazing to me, JuliaM, that with a lesson like that they don't seem to understand that yelling 'raaaaycist' or any of the re-formulations is only going to drive votes away. At least this way we know what they really think of us.
Your are probably right, Mr Larkin, I ought to know better than to watch QT. But this week it was at least mildly amusing to see Bob Crowe and Melanie Phillips agreeing and declaring what was virtually a truce. Dimbleby seemed a little taken aback to find he had three Eurosceptics on the panel and was going to have to let them speak at least some of the time. Bob is becoming more and more like a Protestant declaimer; he might start banging a big stick on the ground and saying "Yae, woe unto the Banksters" soon.
I'm not surprised at the rigging attempts, Bill - but I wonder how far the BBC is colluding with it?
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