BBC Question Time (BBCQT) on Thursday 23 May was the first episode of the general election. The programme clearly was starting as it means to go on – with no voices away from the political centre or right. However, the audience were at least on point – with one member taking just 30 seconds to expose the charlatans in the Labour Party; leaving its MP who was on the panel open-mouthed and floundering.
Not ANOTHER general election
As the Canary previously wrote:
General election? NO! Not another one!
Yes, it’s the fourth general election in under ten years and no-one except politicians and the corporate media seem to really want it. What a fucking time to be alive. You don’t need us to list all the ills of the main political parties – but we have a choice on 4 July between:
- Literal neo-fascists.
- Far-right Tories.
- Right-wing Tories with red rosettes.
- Centre-right Tories with orange ties.
- Sometimes Tories with some other decent people but all of them wearing green cardigans.
The Canary’s advice to you is don’t vote for any of the first three on that list at the general election.
Oh course, if you did want to know what the main parties have to say then BBCQT should potentially be the place to go. Except in the case of Labour on 23 May, it wasn’t.
Labour: ‘that’s a very good question that I’m not going to answer’
Bridget Phillipson is Labour’s shadow education secretary. Clearly, answering questions wasn’t something she was taught at Oxford Uni, where she went – because she swerved almost every one of them.
On increasing universities tuition fees, she would not answer – just calling it “unpalatable”:
🚨 BREAKING: Labour refuses to rule out an increase in university tuition fees.
Bridget Phillipson, Shadow Education Secretary said on BBC Question Time: "We need to look at all of the options"pic.twitter.com/UOYOdamhVa
— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️⚧️ (@LeftieStats) May 23, 2024
The, on whether or not a Labour government would arrest Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes and genocide in Gaza, she would not answer because it was a “hypothetical” question:
Bridget Phillipson is asked, if the ICC prosecutor is successful in his application for an arrest warrant against Netanyahu, would the next Labour govt enforce it given the opportunity.
Phillipson says that's a hypothetical question and she refuses to answer #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/OESBBS8Alg
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) May 24, 2024
Phillipson could not answer how Labour would pay for sorting out our disastrous privatised water system – the implication being the party would let water companies force customers’ bills up:
Labour’s Bridget Phillipson says the water companies need to be “held responsible” for their “total failure” to invest
— Simon Gosden. Esq. #fbpe 3.5% 🇪🇺🐟🇬🇧🏴☠️🦠💙 (@g_gosden) May 24, 2024
Hell – even arch capitalist Tim Montgomerie declared the government should nationalise the water companies.
The Labour MP would not answer whether her party would tax rich people more as well – unlikely given they’re now its target voting cohort:
Fiona Bruce, "To the woman's second point. What about taxing millionaires and billionaires?"
Bridget Phillipson, "We need a fairer tax system overall, I completely agree.. There are a number of changes we would make to the tax system to make it fairer.. We would end non doms..… pic.twitter.com/H7wY65KNow
— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) May 23, 2024
All in all, Phillipson’s performance stank of New New Labour PR: soundbites with no substance and certainly no policies that set it apart from the Tories. Already, this fact isn’t lost on voters. Recent polling shows the majority of voters either:
a) Don’t think either Labour or the Tories represent change.
b) Don’t have a clue which party does.
BBCQT audience on it – as were the Lib Dems
However, all this wasn’t lost on one BBCQT audience member – who then rallied the support of a large part of his fellow observers. Enter this guy to sum the situation up to rapturous applause:
I used to vote for the Labour Party. And you’ve not answered any questions… Tonight you’ve said nothing. You’ve juts given us vague answers. Just answer the question.
Phillipson grinned inanely like some coked-up Cheshire Cat – because claiming she’d ‘tried her best’ and the rolling some guff about breakfast clubs off.
However, those 30 seconds exposed Keir Starmer’s vacuous Labour Party for the right-wing con it really is.
It comes to something when the Lib Dems are showing up the Labour Party – but that’s exactly where we were at on the first BBCQT of the general election:
There's a look of envy if ever I saw one
Daisy Cooper talking about upholding the rule of law and supporting the ICC, something Bridget Phillipson cannot say so openly because of Labour's current position on the subject pic.twitter.com/M3wE3QE5pN
— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) May 23, 2024
Featured image via BBC iPlayer
