Question Time last night was one of those rare moments when you think that maybe Britain is not quite as mad as you sometimes believe.
There was humour. The programme came from Bexhill-on-Sea. As one audience member put it “People think the population of Eastbourne is elderly and that their parents live in Bexhill”.
The area has always been innately Tory. But when government minister Helen Whately MP mentioned the local Tory MP there was open derision and mocking laughter from the audience, who were chosen to reflect the local political profile.
Whately and Thangam Debbonaire MP, for Labour, floundered in their non-answering of questions. Ash Sakar took Labour to task from the Left. Nick Ferrari took Whately apart from the right. His best line was “Apart from confiscating your first born there is nothing more the Conservatives can now do to be hated.”
Richard Coles by and large added some sensible local comment and common sense, leading the way in lambasting the government on its migration policy, which was very obviously deeply unpopular with the local audience.
That audience also made it clear that ‘Anything but Conservative' is their goal at the next election. They have had enough. Saying which, Labour was very obviously not cutting through.
What was the clearest message? It was that the absence of ideas, that by default represents effective support for the status quo, that is alienating Bexhill-on-Sea from the Tories. Who can blame them?
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I daren’t watch Question Time anymore, so thanks for the report.
My wife is still hooked
So I watched as well
Now it is available at 8pm it is much more accessible to larks like me
Thank you for watching QT so that I don’t have to!
The problem is not limited to the UK:
https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2023/05/11/35-of-flemings-hear-the-call-for-a-strong-leader/
This from Belgium. Do not be fooled by the title (strong leader) it is all about a total loss of trust by Flemish citizens in local, regional, national and EU government.
I suggest that attitudes in Bexhill are not just typical of the Uk, they also extend to othert countries.
This leaves the open question: what comes next, something sensible or something mad? (as typified by the nut jobs on the right in Flanders).
As the old political adage goes: we don’t have a choice, we’re given a choice.
There is a dearth of political choice in the UK at every election, largely due to the political party system of representation and the ridiculously out of date first past the post electoral system.
Proportional representation would go some way to alleviate this, but none of the main political parties seem to be talking about this. So that choice is not given to us.
THIS ENGLAND – PROUD TO BE TORY?
We shall have sewage on our beaches
We shall have sewage in our rivers
We shall give to our corporate friends with growing confidence and growing strength to satisfy their
rapacious appetites.
We have nothing to offer except destitution, hunger, homelessness, cold, cronyism, blood, tears and sweat.
We have surrendered – to our billionaire corporate backers.
(Apologies to Winston Churchill)
🙂
Apart from finding abhorrent the attitude shown and the words used by this government towards asylum seekers, I am also confused by the consequences of their policy. We appear to be short of workers. We are trying to recruit nurses from places like Nepal where they have been trained and are desperately needed*. Yet there are people who want to live here and contribute their skills. Do we even know how many of them are trained health practitioners? It costs us to keep them while we prevent them from contributing to our society and instead we make them suffer further. * How does this situation make any sense?
* https://www.nursingtimes.net/news/global-nursing/uk-to-recruit-nurses-from-nepal-under-new-government-deal-23-08-2022/
* https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/apr/09/trained-medics-who-could-ease-nhs-crisis-stuck-in-asylum-limbo
“That audience also made it clear that ‘Anything but Conservative’ is their goal at the next election. They have had enough. Saying which, Labour was very obviously not cutting through.”
Good, the appalling tories deserve to be annihilated at the next GE. If an area as tory as Bexhill on Sea won’t support them, hopefully they will be.
Which doesn’t translate into a labour landslide. Good, they don’t deserve it given how feeble they are in opposing these wretches in power and providing progressive ideas and alternatives.
Just an observation, but it kooks like none of the council seats in the Bexhill council elections were contested, and all held by independents.