24 January 2019
Diary of a Corbynista
Questionable Question Time
by Don Urquhart
17 January
Jeremy Corbyn insisted that no deal be taken off the table before he would meet the Prime Minister to discuss the Brexit way forward. By doing this he has hijacked the agenda and made clear his lack of confidence in the PM’s motivations and abilities. The people creeping in to meet the PM or, more likely, her acolytes are coming out disappointed at best.
18 January
Newsnight turned up at a Leave Means Leave event and interviewed people in the queue. One of the ladies there invoked the memory of Enoch Powell. What has that got to do with the European Union?
A General Election is in the wind. How do I know? At the drop of a hat Tory politicians are throwing in Hamas, Hezbollah, the IRA and anti Semitism. I miss Venezuela but I guess that will soon be back as well.
19 January
The Sun has a February 28th election as a possibility. Further confirmation was provided by Any Questions where Jonathan Dimbleby mentioned Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iranians out of the blue. The Iranians might have been a misreading of IRA which would have conformed to the standard script.
20 January
I will watch Question Time carefully this week. In last week’s programme I thought it was odd that there was a highly vocal Tory and Brexiteer majority in the audience and I was surprised at Fiona Bruce’s out of context digs at Jeremy Corbyn. Later I read Tom Rogers’ article in Evolve Politics:
BBC Question Time Staff accused of whipping up audience against Diane Abbott before filming.
In a pre-recording warm-up Fiona Bruce had for a laugh referenced Diane Abbott’s personal relationship with Corbyn. Another eye opener is that they have a practice before transmission and that Fiona selected in the live transmission audience members who had proven hostile to Diane in the practice.
21 January
The most astonishing aspect of last Thursday’s Question Time was the alliance between Fiona Bruce and right wing lobbyist Isabel Oakeshott to shout down Diane Abbott’s accurate statement that Labour and the Tories were about equal in the various polls. The Canary reports it here.
22 January
Theresa May made yet another Brexit statement yesterday and took questions. She dismissed every option apart from her deal and failing that no deal. She characterised a second referendum as threatening social cohesion and when Stewart McDonald, MP for Glasgow South stood up we learned more about this concept. The Prime Minister expressed sympathy for him as he had been subjected to intimidation by thugs. Further investigation reveals that the MP had been penned in his surgery by Tommy Robinson and friends.
Put simply are we going to let Tommy Robinson determine the outcome of Brexit negotiations?
23 January
Sir James Dyson is moving his company’s Head Office from the UK to Singapore. It is bound to be a sound business decision and as he says Dyson is now a global company. Why do I feel uncomfortable that he is moving his assets out of the UK despite being the recipient of many grants from our government and a knighthood from the Queen? Apparently he has strong views on Brexit but I suspect that he is expert only in the manufacture and sale of vacuum cleaners for personal enrichment.
