Doncaster proved to be one of the more divided question time crowds this week. Considering that the 3 constituencies that Doncaster is made up of have not sent a non-labour MP to parliament since the end of the first world war, I was impressed to find that the BBC had found the Tory skeletons lurking in the Doncaster closet. With no presence from the UK independence party (who have never polled well in this part of the world) or the Greens there were two non party guests. Policy analyst Jill Kirby and comedian Omid Dajili to battle it out with the “traditional” big three parties.
The Winner: Omid Dajili
It’s not that often I say a non political guest comes out on top on question time but Mr.Dajili did exactly that last night. There was humor of course from the funny-man but what impressed the most was his humour was always strikingly satirical and allowed him to connect with the audience much more than the political members of the panel. On austerity Dajili always held the line that the people should decide on what should be cut as they’re the ones who it will effect; a point no one even dared to contest him on. But it was the question of British values were Omid shined. Accusing the Daily Mail of being politically divisive was welcomed by the crowed and his satirical Saudi “football commentary” exposed just how silly the study and the idea that because Muhammad is the most popular name in one part of the UK it means British values are affected.
The Loser: Jill Kirby
Started out strongly with some fast lines about the government’s spending cut promises and making the relevant highlight of the interest on borrowing being higher than the education budget. However, after trying to argue that America has cut its deficit massively; (it’s actually set to increase this year http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo5.htm) proceeded to drop a massive clanger on zero hours contacts being better than unemployment (in the same way a medically induced coma is better than death I suppose) and then blamed Gordon Brown for everything short of the Black Death, the rise of Hitler and Justin Bieber. Afterwards she then decided she wanted to target overweight people which according to public health England is seven in ten of us; so she’s the minority on that front too (maybe she should pick on someone her own size) The less said the better.
The Others
Apart from the regular sparing between messes Cooper and Javid it was all a little flat from the big 3 this week. Baroness Williams only seemed to come to life after Kirby’s attack on Gordon Brown; A lacklustre showing from the big parties.
ThePoliticalRamble 