Oh dear, oh dear …

I regret this post is another dispatch from the General Election front line – albeit hopefully a brief one – following my dipping in and out of the special edition of Question Time (chaired by Fiona Bruce) that was broadcast last night on BBC1 at 9.00pm.

The format was that the leaders of the major political parties were subjected to 30-minute turns to take questions from an invited audience.

[In keeping with the unique and perhaps challenging approach of this organ, for transparency and accuracy I shall here reveal that I came to the programme late – about ten minutes into the appearance of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – and throughout was switching back and forth between it and bouts from an International Fight Night being broadcast live on Sky Sports (channel 527 on my Virgin Media box if anyone is interested), largely whenever passages of Question Time were becoming tedious or – the bout in progress having reached the end of a round – Sky Sports temporarily flicked to showing commercials.]

Frankly, this edition of Question Time starkly and disappointingly illustrated the mess that UK politics has got itself into and everything that it wrong with our politicians.

It also confirmed me in my view that all such staged “General Election set piece interviews, discussion panels and Question Time-like set-ups” are counter-productive, show everyone involved – particularly the politicians – in a bad light and, as far as the public are concerned, actually serve not only to reduce any residual respect the UK public ever had for those who represent us in Parliament but also for our entire political process.

My recommendation to all politicians is that the first thing they do when returned to Parliament (if they are) is – for their own good and that of our unwritten constitution – bring forward immediate legislation to ban politicians from appearing on television or radio during Election campaigns, period.

Here’s my review of the performances of the politicians involved:

 

JEREMY CORBYN

Corbyn did reasonably well.

Along with Boris Johnson, he’s a Marmite figure – if you agree with him he can do little wrong.

If you disagree with him, he simply reinforces your prejudices with every word he utters.

Trying to make an impartial point here – perhaps also like Johnson, Corbyn tends to preach to the converted, rather than ‘reach out’ to others (as some might suggest is what in practice he needs to do if he wants to gain the key to Number 10).

He didn’t score many points with his “neutral” stance on Brexit or Remain, but otherwise he came across as principled (albeit mistaken and misguided if you don’t agree with him) and a reasonable sort of bloke, which in this context was a plus.

 

NICOLA STURGEON

I find Sturgeon’s policies and plans objectionable, if not ridiculous, but there is no doubt she came out of the evening the winner by a street.

She was cool, relaxed, open, spoke well and dealt deftly with the questions being put to her – no matter how difficult they were.

Without any doubt she was the most impressive performer on the night.

I make no secret of the fact I’m in favour of Scottish independence because I regard her country as a cancerous barnacle upon the hull of the British ship of state, so I will just add that I would have liked someone last night to ask her to explain how – if Scotland does have another referendum and goes independent – she envisages it will simultaneous be able to remain in the EU.

 

JO SWINSON

I shall not say much here.

She began the Election campaign with a bang by announcing that the Lib-Dems would revoke Article 50 the moment she became Prime Minister and since then – the polls and everyone I have spoken to agree – “the balloon of hot air” has suffered a terminal puncture and the Libs-Dem have sunk to their normal position in the pecking order and, of course, political irrelevance.

It was one of the most awkward 25 minutes of television that I have seen in the past year.

She took a pasting from the audience from start to finish and came across like an out of her depth Sunday school teacher. By the end I actually felt sorry for her.

 

BORIS JOHNSON

Johnson had another terrible exposure before the UK electorate.

I would grant  that he was not on an easy batting wicket because the majority of the audience were gunning for him for a variety of reasons.

Mostly because to them he represented the epitome of the uncaring Tory party that has inflicted austerity, retrenchment and a general lack of funding of everything upon the country.

In a nutshell, he was therefore a scapegoat for everything that has ever gone wrong with their lives over the past nine years.

However, far worse, (again) was his performance.

Boris has a certain bumbling and likeable charisma which allows him to appear in public from time to time and “do a comedic turn”, but that’s it.

As a serious politician he’s a complete non-starter.

No, I’d go further – he’s actually a negative influence upon everything he and his party stand for in terms of persuading ‘wavering voters’ to his cause.

It’s as if he looks and presents like some Great Redeemer … until he opens his mouth.

Once he does that, he’s gone.

Because all that comes out is bluster, flubber and bilge, coated in a transparently insincere self-deprecating humour and unoriginal wit.

And what is worse – and damning – about it is that it’s not even the kind of vacuous ‘politico-speak’ rubbish that Tory Party central office teach their most junior candidates to spout by the yard in public.

Boris’s version is at about the standard that any sixth form ‘A’ level student in the country could master given a couple of hours and a tape recorder.