IT’S long past time that the BBC were honest about their flagship debate show Question Time and renamed it Platforming the Hard Right Time: The Nigel Farage Show.
The former Ukip leader is set to appear on the programme for the 37th time this evening even though he is not standing in next month's general election.
As if that wasn't obnoxious enough, the panel will also feature Piers Morgan, because the BBC.
Rounding out the panel are Labour's privatisation loving shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, Tory education minister Damien Hinds, and the Anglican bishop of Dover.
Yet again Question Time has snubbed left wing and pro-EU voices in favour of the Conservatives and the right wing. Farage is on yet again, but anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller is not, even though she is actually standing as a Westminster candidate in the constituency the programme is being broadcast from.
The programme has consistently platformed right-wing voices at the expense of those on the left.
READ MORE: BBC Question Time: Who is on tonight's show in Epsom?
This is a long standing pattern going back many years. Ukip representatives have appeared on the programme more frequently than the Greens despite the fact that Ukip never succeeded in getting any of their candidates elected to Westminster while the Greens have consistently returned an MP in every general election since 2010 with Caroline Lucas increasing her majority each time.
The Green Party of England and Wales currently has over 800 councillors in England and Wales plus three members of the London Assembly.
The separate Scottish Greens are one of the largest parties in Scotland, with councillors across the country and double the number of MSPs as the Lib Dems.
The Greens have consistently out-performed the minor hard right parties electorally across the UK yet a study of the composition of Question Time panels in 2018 found that – incredibly – Ukip had been represented on Question Time more than three times more often than the Greens.
An analysis carried out by Huff Post UK of the 258 regular Question Time shows between May 6 2010 and February 16 2018 showed that the hard right anti-immigration and anti-EU party had a representative on 24% of the programmes.
A representative from the Greens was present on a mere 7% of the shows.
This pattern of preference to the right wing has if anything only worsened since 2018.
The recent edition of the programme from Aberdeen had a panel which was 40% Tory.
The Conservatives have not had 40% representation in an election in Scotland since the early 1960s.
Similar issues have been raised about the composition of the audience, which is likewise believed to preferentially select those with right wing views.
On numerous occasions Conservative plants have been identified in the audience, posing as ordinary members of the public when they are in fact councillors or party officials.
Concerns have also been raised about the behaviour of the host Fiona Bruce, whose own Conservative sympathies are ill disguised.
READ MORE: John Swinney tears into Labour over NHS privatisation plans
She has frequently been observed to repeatedly interrupt and talk over SNP and left-wing panellists while allowing those from the Conservatives and right wing publications or think tanks to talk uninterrupted at length.
Complaints about the programme's intelligence-insulting right wing bias have been raised with the BBC for many years, often accompanied by rigorous statistical analyses of the composition of the panels.
The BBC has consistently rebuffed these complaints.
Question Time has been instrumental in pushing the Overton Window of British politics - the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time - further and further to the right.
We now have a Labour party which espouses policies which were at home on the right wing of the Conservative party in the 1990s, while the Tories are close to completing their transformation into a hard right authoritarian Anglo-British nationalist party.
This rightward slide of British politics has been considerably aided and facilitated by BBC Question Time.
Scottish Labour leap to defence of UK candidate
In yet more evidence that the Labour pParty in Scotland is not, as it likes to pretend, an autonomous party called Scottish Labour, but is in fact a wholly owned and controlled subsidiary of Keir Starmer's centre right Torification project, a pro-Starmer candidate has been imposed upon the safe Labour seat of Makerfield in Greater Manchester.
Director of the Labour Together think tank Josh Simons has been imposed upon the constituency.
The think tank was instrumental in steering Starmer's campaign for the leadership of the Labour Party in 2020 and has been highly influential in helping Starmer shape ever more right wing policies and ditching the progressive promises which secured him the Labour leadership.
Simons was the centre of controversy for an interview he gave to LBC in which he said "Why don’t you send the smuggler gangs and put them on the barge, and then ship the barge to the north of Scotland for all I care."
He also insisted that the real problem with the government's abhorrent Rwanda plan was not that it's a gross breach of human rights and international law, but that it costs too much money.
READ MORE: Scottish Greens: John Swinney must halt grants for Israel-linked firms
Discussing the findings of a key parliamentary committee which said the government's Rwanda plan is “fundamentally incompatible” with the UK’s human rights safeguards, Simons said: “My main concern with Rwanda is not actually the human rights implications of it and the focus of this report. My main concern is that it’s a complete waste of money and it won’t work. It won’t stop the boats."
The Labour Party in Scotland quickly tried to distance itself from his comments.
One Labour source claimed: “I’ve no idea who he is but he should f*** off.”
Anas Sarwar insisted that Simons at the time, that Simons "Does not represent the Labour party."
Well, he does now. Diane Abbott and anyone left wing out, the likes of Josh Simons in.
This piece is an extract from today’s REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug.
To receive our full newsletter including this analysis straight to your email inbox, click HERE and click the "+" sign-up symbol for the REAL Scottish Politics
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel