Farage and Russell Brand on Question Time 11/12/14

[Teddy Bear]

No doubt the BBC will excuse this ridiculous pairing as 'entertainment' and giving the audience what they want. In actual fact since they don't have anybody to seriously counter the common sense views that Farage will express, and the support that he has gained, they just picked the moron Brand to shout him down.

Nigel Farage and Russell Brand to square off on Question Time
Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, and Russell Brand, the self-styled celebrity revolutionary, will go head-to-head on Question time on Thursday

By Steven Swinford

Nigel Farage and Russell Brand will square off on Question time next week in what is likely to be a heated confrontation.
Mr Brand, who frequently refers to the Ukip leader as "that racist bloke", has confirmed that he will appear on the panel next Thursday.
Mr Farage has accused Mr Brand of talking "in riddles" but suggested that they are both "driven by the same innate passion to see radical change in our politics.

The pair will be joined by Mary Creagh, the shadow international development spokesman.
Mr Brand's appearance comes after he accused a reporter of being a "snide" for asking about his own living arrangements during a protest about super-rich London landlords.

[dance2drop]

I think I may have posted this before (can't remember senior moment).

I watched last night's fiasco from Canterbury and was incensed. I knew it would be very heated with RB and NF on the programme.
Why give any air time to that obnoxious Brand beggars belief. As for that chav with the blue hair ranting and raving and threatening Nigel, she should have been immediately removed from the building. Wasn't she on TV with RB the other night when he was having a go about Landlords etc ? There was a lady with him then with blue hair. Obviously a plant by the Beeb with rent a gob Brand fans and lefties by the score.

I was delighted when a senior citizen man in the audience had a real go at Brand. The only saving grace was the columnist from one of the tabloids. She spoke a lot of sense.

Well, that's me until next year and my blood pressure given a rest.

I complained to BBC about this programme. Not that it will do any good.

Wishing all of you on here a Happy and Peaceful Christmas.

[Teddy Bear]

And the same to you Dance

I think what I will be posting now will explain a few things about this programme.

Let's see first how the BBC reviewed it.

Russell Brand and Nigel Farage clash over immigration on Question Time

Comedian and campaigner Russell Brand has called UKIP leader Nigel Farage a "pound shop Enoch Powell", during a debate on immigration.

The men were appearing on the BBC's Question Time programme, answering an audience question on whether or not Britain is "overcrowded".

The UKIP leader said the quality of life for many in the UK had gone down as a result of immigration but faced a hostile response from one woman in the audience.

Brand, who has spoken out about a number of political issues, also faced a call from the audience to stand for election to Parliament himself.

Let's clear up first just who the 'woman in the audience who gave Nigel such a hostile response' is.

Her name is Bunny la Roche and back in 2004 she was a candidate for the European elections with George Galloway's Respect party. She shows the type of 'respect' that the BBC show in being fair, impartial, and balanced.
Later she went to the Socialist Workers Party where she resigned from last year, and was apparently 'thoroughly disliked', and is now of the Thanet Stand Up To UKIP campaign. She seems quite proud of an event she organised in January where Nigel was hit by a 'Nasty Little Nigel' placard that was the theme of the protest. Later in May the same group were responsible for pelting him with eggs.
Here's a clip of her manner during Question Time


What the BBC doesn't tell you here is that she was also shouted done by another woman in the audience who really put her in her place.

The BBC also makes it appear that 'the call from 'the audience' for Brand to stand for election' was genuine support, when in fact it was more 'put up or shut up', to which a lot of the audience, sick of his moronic outbursts, were behind.
For the next year the whole programme is available to watch here.

Even the Independent managed to give a far more honest report of what happened in the show, but I'll let the 2 articles from the Mail explain it more thoroughly.

Russell Brand and Nigel Farage turn BBC's Question Time into a 'posh Jeremy Kyle show' as audience members scream at the comic, the UKIP leader... and each other

• Unlikely pair faced off on flagship BBC debate show in Canterbury, Kent
• Audience broke out into shouting when topic moved on to immigration
• One accused Russell Brand of 'preaching' and ignoring feeling on street
• Another slammed Farage as 'racist scumbag trying to blame immigrants'
• Farage, dubbed a 'pound shop Enoch Powell', pointed to Brand's wealth
• Twitter users compared billing of both men at once to Jeremy Kyle show
  

By Dan Bloom for MailOnline

Twitter users compared Question Time to a 'posh Jeremy Kyle' show last night as audience members turned on Russell Brand, Nigel Farage - and each other.

Comedian Mr Brand was slammed as a hypocrite by one audience member after he admitted he was too 'scared' to stand for Parliament because 'I'd become one of them' - while another audience member branded Mr Farage a 'racist scumbag'.

Then the pair turned on each other - with the comedian calling Mr Farage a 'pound shop Enoch Powell' while the MEP pointed fingers over Mr Brand's wealth.

Last night's episode of the flagship debating show in Canterbury, Kent - near the South Thanet seat where Mr Farage will stand in the general election - prompted derision on Twitter for its billing of the two controversial panellists at the same table.

Several compared the heated debate to the Jeremy Kyle show. One, Alice Hassall, wrote: 'WOW this is like posh Jeremy Kyle'.

Labour MP and former ministerial aide Ian Austin wrote: 'The idea we have to pay the license fee for this total and utter garbage. What a farce. What a terrible programme. Just terrible.'

And Dr Sarah Quinnell tweeted: 'Is this Question Time or is it in fact Jeremy Kyle? At the end of this with Dimblebot announce that Farage is Brand's father?'

The other panellists were Tory MP Penny Mordaunt, Labour's Mary Creagh and Times columnist Camilla Cavendish - a rare occasion when there were more women on the show than men.

But it was the two men who often dominated the debate, cutting over each other and their female counterparts.

Mr Brand was forced to apologise for 'sexism' after he told Penny Mordaunt, who was praising firefighters: 'Pay their pensions then love'.

Ms Creagh fired back: 'Could you let her finish because one thing that people really don't like is men talking over women on these sorts of shows.'

The audience broke out into shouting after one disabled member told Mr Brand: I don't like people preaching that I'm in any part responsible for anything... You are a campaigner...'

'I'm a comedian mate,' the comedian butted in.

'Stand,' the man replied. 'Stand for parliament. If you're gonna campaign, then stand.'

Mr Brand said: 'I'd stand for parliament but I'd be scared that I'd become one of them'.

But the audience member cut over and shouted: 'You're full of diction. You cannot preach that. You've attacked [Nigel Farage] and attacked everyone that stands for his party. They are people on the street.'

That prompted a blue-haired woman at the back, named widely as well-known Left-wing activist and the organiser of an anti-Ukip group Bunny La Roche, to shout over him and attack Nigel Farage.

'He's a racist scumbag trying to blame immigrants for the cutbacks because of his rich banker friends,' she yelled. 'I live in South Thanet and I'm coming for you Farage, don't you bloody worry.'
You're full of diction. You cannot preach that. You've attacked [Nigel Farage] and attacked everyone that stands for his party. They are people on the street

But when she interrupted another audience member, she was told: 'Back off! You're the rudest woman I've ever met!'

The debate opened with a question over whether politics was too petty - before descending into what many audience members described as petty politics.

Mr Brand said Mr Farage 'had the perfect training to be a politician because he spent most of his time in the city in a business - which is what most of us think politicians work for.'

But when asked by the audience how his millions could help him stand up for Kent's poor, Mr Farage replied: 'Sadly for you I'm not the wealthy one on this panel this evening.'

One audience member slammed Mr Brand's claim to stand tall with the working class.

'You've got to understand that it's the working classes that have been hit hardest by mass immigration', he said. 'The change in resources over a short period of time have hit people.'

Another audience member added: 'We don't want people with criminal histories, we don't want rapists, we don't want murderers'.

But one said: 'I agree immigration is an issue but people are concerned about it because there are so many other issues - housing, the NHS and other areas of public expenditure.

'We have been robbed and we are still being robbed. The amount of taxation that is still not being paid by the very rich is an absolute scandal. Why are we not talking about that.'

Mr Brand - who referred several times to 'friends' in firefighters' and social workers' unions - told the audience: 'I've been very lucky, I've had a few breaks and I've got a few quid now, and I can tell you immigration has always been happening.'
As much as I enjoy seeing Nigel Farage in a boozer with a pint and a fag laughing off his latest scandals, this man is not a cartoon character. He ain't Del Boy, he ain't Arthur Daley. He's a pound shop Enoch Powell and we gotta watch him

He blamed bankers for the problems Britain faces, saying: '[Mr Farage's] mates in the city farted, Nigel Farage is pointing at immigrants and the disabled and holding his nose. Immigrants did not cause these problems.'

He added: 'As much as I enjoy seeing Nigel Farage in a boozer with a pint and a fag laughing off his latest scandals about breastfeeding or whatever, this man is not a cartoon character.

'He ain't Del Boy, he ain't Arthur Daley. He's a pound shop Enoch Powell and we gotta watch him.'

But Mr Farage dismissed a suggestion from an Office for Budget Responsibility board member yesterday that there is 'masses' of room in Britain.

'If you fly into Gatwick you will see lots of green spaces, that is certainly true,' he said.

'However, if you have a country in which the population goes up as a direct result of immigration, what you find is not a shortage of green fields ... you find a shortage of primary school place, you find a shortage of GP surgeries.'

Mr Brand defended his decision not to vote at elections, said politicians had to 'give us something to vote for'.

Times columnist Camilla Cavendish hit back at his speeches, saying: I'm not quite sure Russell what the link is between the City and immigration.

'The City of London has some of the best people from all over the world and it's a proper meritocratic society.'

MP Penny Mordaunt - who made headlines last week for inserting the word 'c**k' into a Parliamentary speech six times for a bet - attempted to counter criticism of MPs, led by Mr Brand, by saying she would refuse a forthcoming 11 per cent MPs' pay rise if she is re-elected in May.

One audience member told her: 'How come you just got an 11 per cent pay rise when the nurses got none of that?'

She replied: 'If I am an MP in the next Parliament when a pay rise comes in I will not take it. In politics we put ourselves up to make decisions for people... We would not have credibility doing that if we were doing something like that.'

Labour MP Mary Creagh hit out at those who blamed a lack of school availability on immigration, adding: 'We have an ideologically driven government opening free schools in places where there is no need and leaving places like my city of Wakefield without school places.'

She said the Coalition's NHS reforms had to be repealed and faced off with Mr Farage over 'career politicians' - which he countered by saying he had spent '20 years in business'.

One audience member was applauded when he said simply: 'It seems to me that the idea of the general good has been completely forgotten.

'You're not trying to make people's lives better, it's all about self-interest.'

And Twitter was a predictable mix of amused and angry - with many users egging on the politicians to have a full-on punch-up.

Labour MP and former ministerial aide Ian Austin tweeted: 'The idea we have to pay the license fee for this total and utter garbage. What a farce. What a terrible programme. Just terrible.

'Why have I sat here watching this? A whole hour of my life I'll never get back.'

There were celebrity viewers too, including 80s pop legend Boy George.

He simply declared it was the 'Best Question Time ever!'.

The fight went out of Brand. A balloon shrivelled. QUENTIN LETTS reviews the bar brawl that was last night's Question Time

Was that Question Time on BBC1 last night or a bar brawl in EastEnders? ‘I’m comin’ for you, Farage!’ screamed a woman in the audience with a flash of dye in her fringe. Pointing at Ukip leader Nigel Farage, she yelled: ‘He’s a racist scumbag!’

‘Rubbish!’ yelled a stout geezer down the front, equipped with a stick (a walking stick – but he may also have brought it along for self-protection).

The old boy had just had a barney with Russell Brand and had made mincemeat of the self-appointed, wheedly-voiced, hairy-chested Pied Piper of Twitter.

Until that point it had all been going so well for Brand – he had been interrupting with impunity, shouting over the women on the panel, shrieking simplistic slogans buttered by vulgarities.

‘Stand for Parliament then!’ the old man boomed. Russell looked as though he had been rabbit-punched. ‘Stand!’ repeated the man. ‘Do it!’

‘I’m scared I’d become one of them,’ mewed Brand. He meant become one of the Westminster crowd. The audience scoffed at this pathetic excuse, perhaps suspecting that multi-millionaire Brand would hate to be an MP because he’d have to declare his income and would soon be exposed as a political fraud.

‘You can’t preach that, that’s rubbish!’ yelled the old man.

Brand, ashen-faced, not used to being attacked by someone with an accent more authentically working-class than his own: ‘I’m not preaching.’ Not preaching? It’s ALL he’d been doing. A younger woman thought immigrants ought to be vetted. Oh no. Don’t set off the dyed-fringe nutter again. Too late. Up boinged fringey, squawking about racism.

The younger woman turned on her, something close to murder blazing in her eyes. ‘You,’ she told the one at the back, ‘are the rudest woman I’ve ever met. You need to back off and mind what you say!’

‘$£**!’ erupted another voice. Members of the studio audience in Canterbury clapped. Others booed. The programme’s host, David Dimbleby, clutched his head.

A young bloke told Brand he was well outta order on immigration. Brand pleaded with him to be nice, claiming: ‘I come from the same community as you. But I’ve gotta few bob now.’ A few bob? A few million, more like. Well what did they expect with Brand and Farage on the same panel? The Conservatives fielded Penny Mordaunt, Labour had Mary Creagh, but neither of them scored many runs.

The fifth member of the panel was journalist Camilla Cavendish, magnificently disdainful, impressively intelligent. She sounded like Princess Anne and Brand looked terrified of her. Mind you, after being nutted by the old fella with the walking stick, the fight had gone out of Russell. One balloon, shrivelled.

Question Time was once a forum for rapier wit and cerebral dialectic. Audiences would sit in wonder before the likes of Michael Foot, Roy Jenkins, John Biffen. Public intellectuals would be invited – Sir John Mortimer, R.V. Jones, Edna O’Brien. Now the BBC, hooked on egalitarianism, promotes foaming demagogues and meretricious self-publicists. Russell Brand gets so much airtime on the Beeb, you wonder if director-general Lord Hall is on a cut from his agent.

But you could not fault last night’s show for entertainment, albeit of a pretty low grade level intellectually. It was every bit as good as the wrestling on Saturday afternoon in the Seventies.

Amazingly, the show began with several members of the audience moaning about MPs being badly behaved in Parliament. Ha!

Compared to what was about to play out in the studio, the House of Commons is a veritable chapel of rest. Brand kept going off on monologues about the wicked City and the mates of ‘that dude’ Farage ‘farting’ or something.

He called Miss Mordaunt ‘love’. That ignited Sister Creagh, who snapped that people hated ‘men talking over women’. Brand supporters in the audience gave her the bird.

A heckler accused Mr Farage of being rich. ‘I’m not the wealthy one on this panel tonight!’ he gasped, even as stinkingly rich Brand started bleating about public sector wages.

The Socratic dialogue continued with Brand bawling about Farage: ‘This man ain’t Del Boy. He’s a Pound Shop Enoch Powell and we’ve gotta watch him.’ Farage looked a bit hot and bothered. Applause, cheers, boos, aggro. And, I suppose, ratings. Should this sort of thing not have been on ITV?

[charmbrights]

I stand by my advance decision not to watch this programme rubbish. At my age I have to watch my blood pressure, but at least I don't have to pay for my TV licence any more.

Should this sort of thing not have been on ITV?

It sounds more Channel 5 to me.

[Teddy Bear]

Any intelligent person who sees Russell Brand is soon turned off from wanting to endure any more than they need to, unless they are also masochists. Most won't spend time analysing his particular personality or mindset, as life is too short, and will simply describe him as YUCCCHH.

But Robin Mitchinson at the Commentator has taken the time to spell it out. It's worth noting that the BBC continue to use him on various programmes, so clearly they think his mindset is valuable to them, which says a lot about the BBC.

What's with the BBC and Russell Brand? Ah the 1960s agitprop
Russell Brand's stance is 1960’s agitprop. He has the political nous of a thick 12-year old. This probably explains why the BBC loves him so much
Robin Mitchinson

Two interviews in fairly quick succession on the flagship current affairs programme, Newsnight. What had he to contribute? Reports suggest that both sessions could only be described as pathetic.

Then Question Time, which the BBC had trailed as being Brand vs. Farage (the other panellists must have been well-pleased with that billing!)

Presumably, QT is aimed at a serious and intelligent audience. On neither count does Brand qualify. He has the political nous of a thick 12-year old.

Now we hear that he is producing a BBC documentary on drug-rehab (for which he may indeed be well-qualified).

And just who is this guy? There is a totally false rumour that he is a comedian. A long time ago I had the misfortune to watch him, but only for a few minutes before nausea took over. About as funny as herpes and worse than his contemporary, the wepellent Wossy.

And what are his qualifications for making informed and meaningful contributions to a debate on the state of the nation?

He has recently inflicted a book (by a vanity publisher?) upon the long-suffering literati that was rubbished by the critics as being silly beyond words. It seems that his knowledge of economics is slightly short of zero. His political stance is 1960’s agitprop. His beliefs can be summed up in six words – ‘bash the banks, screw the rich’.

This is perhaps rather hypocritical coming from someone who is not exactly short of a few drinking-vouchers and who pays an enormous rent to a tax exile.

The received view is that he has a lot of political capital amongst the chattering classes in the Westminster village. However much he tries to portray himself a radical hippie he is a thoroughly Establishment figure. He is against elites, but he is one of them.

He claims to speak for ‘ordinary’ people, but, with his New Age nonsense, hairiness, and charity-shop dress style his real constituency is students at the University of Stretchford, the Green blob, and dystopic liberals.

A period of silence would be welcome.

[Teddy Bear]

I see the man in the audience who was able to humiliate Brand is the brother of a UKIP MEP. The BBC have jumped on this fact and run a full page article about it.
Does the fat that he's a brother of a UKIP MEP make him a 'plant' as the BBC want to have you believe?
If a 'plant' is important to them, then they would be well aware of the ex SWP member Bunny La Roche who's allegiance has been circulating throughout the media, yet they don't feel it important to mention this, much less run an article about it themselves.
Which pretty much becomes one more example that shows the mindset of the BBC.

In their article the BBC also doesn't mention the fact that he 'was once reportedly asked to stand as a Ukip candidate', which we glean from a Telegraph article on the subject.

Since he obviously declined this invitation suggests he doesn't have political ambitions in this department, and is therefore not a plant.

The BBC also claim in their article:

The BBC said the programme's audiences were selected "in accordance with the BBC's guidelines on fairness and impartiality".

It said the production company which makes the show was "extremely careful to select audiences which reflect a broad political balance".

Applicants must fill in a form about their political views, they said, and each is personally interviewed "to ensure they do hold those views and that they are willing to express them on air. "

We're well aware of the BBC interpretation of fairness and impartiality, as well as the 'broad political balance' they want to present as actual. I've also twice been in the QT audience and was never 'personally questioned to ensure I held the views I stated in the application'.

[steevo]

Well done like in your original post, they're playing the same ole and it seems like decades of consistent left-wing MO I'm used to. Pit a clown/radical in the eyes of the common voter with a legitimate politician and you diminish the latter's stature. Then plant some hand-picked 'audience'. It's so obvious or should be it really struck me.

Very good research on your behalf... and good for the one man in the audience - did the Beeb goof?

[charmbrights]

Dec 13, 2014 17:35:50 GMT Teddy Bear said:

...

And what are his qualifications for making informed and meaningful contributions to a debate on the state of the nation?

He has recently inflicted a book (by a vanity publisher?) upon the long-suffering literati that was rubbished by the critics as being silly beyond words.

...

Now the truth appears. If you consider the number of "programmes" which are basically just advertisements for the contributors' new books it is quite apparent that the BBC regards the fact of publishing a book as a major contribution to the information that the public needs. How often on such programmes such as Radio 4 's Broadcasting House, pm, even Inside Science, etc. are there guests who have just had, or ar about to have a book published. That is ignoring the blatantly advertising magazine programmes like Bookclub, A Good Read, etc.

[Teddy Bear]

Dec 14, 2014 5:57:41 GMT steevo said:

and good for the one man in the audience - did the Beeb goof?

Cheers Steevo
As to whether they goofed, I doubt they research the history of every applicant for the audience, but go more on whatever is put as their political leanings. I've no doubt they would want to limit UKIP supporters as much as they could, especially when Farage is appearing.

Charm, no doubt the BBC would claim that are just putting out information in the public interest and are not strictly advertising.
No doubt if we researched the type of books that get a mention this way they will ALL coincide with the BBC propaganda.

[charmbrights]

Dec 14, 2014 16:33:35 GMT Teddy Bear said:

...

Charm, no doubt the BBC would claim that are just putting out information in the public interest and are not strictly advertising.
No doubt if we researched the type of books that get a mention this way they will ALL coincide with the BBC propaganda.

See the current row about the "Book at Bedtime" serialisation of the Mantell short story on the murder of Margaret Thatcher at biasedbbc.proboards.com/thread/2008/public-anger-bias-thatchers-death.

[dance2drop]

I didn't intend to post any more on this subject. However as I have just received this from the Beeb, to whom I complained bitterly about QT with Brand and Nigel, I thought you might like to see their reply. Speaks volumes !

Dear Mrs Maskell

Thanks for contacting us regarding ‘Question Time’ broadcast on the 11 December.

We understand you felt Russell Brand was an inappropriate choice of panellist.

We are always looking to broaden the range of panellists on ‘Question Time’. We seldom have people on simply because of their prominence as an entertainer - invariably there will be a strong political or other dimension to them. Russell Brand, although known to many as a comedian, has been vocal on a number of political and social issues as of late.

With that in mind, the programme felt that he might contribute positively to the discussion, bringing a fresh eye to the issues being raised. We are always mindful of the need to introduce a broad range of views on matters being discussed.

This was a lively edition of 'Question Time' and strong views were expressed by panellists and audience members alike. Russell Brand’s comments and views were directly challenged by members of the audience in Canterbury, by other panellists, and by chair David Dimbleby.

We believe the programme was carried out in a fair and impartial manner.

Thanks again for contacting us.

--------   I didn't say to them Brand was an inappropriate choice of panellist, I told them he was a rude ignorant pig, or something like that !

-------------
What do they mean - I thought Russell was an inappropriate panellist. I told them he was a rude ignorant pig, or something of that ilk.

[Teddy Bear]

Dance, you didn't really think they were going to admit that he was chosen because he's a crass, loud, arrogant, ignorant moron that they knew would shout down Farage, now did you?
But for the audience member who put him in his place he would have fulfilled the BBC's expectations.

Dec 17, 2014 16:30:09 GMT dance2drop said:

Russell Brand, although known to many as a comedian

The only funny thing I find about him is calling him a comedian.