I don’t watch Qeustion Time every week. I am not that interested in politicians dodging questions and using the platform to garner support, pitch their Particular party and blame the other side for past mistakes. politics for me are like a merry go round you cannot get off where you see the same scenarios pass you by over and over again and nothing really ever changes for the better.
And yet I need to rant after catching the latest episode.
How is it possible a sexist plumber is even on the ballot for the Makerfield By election later this month where the mayor of greater Manchester Andy Burnham is using the vehicle to get back to Westminster to challenge Keir Starmer for the leadership of the Labour Party. Isn’t this a repeat of Boris Johnson foregoing his mayoral responsibilities in London to become leader of the Conservative Party and then PM.
High-profile politician departs parliament to become mayor of one of Britain’s great cities; achieves cult status; rides back to parliament on a wave of popularity and, eventually, becomes prime minister. That’s how Boris Johnson’s story goes, but could it soon be the same for Andy Burnham? Political editor of the independent David Maddox spoke a week ago to friends, allies and critics of the Greater Manchester mayor as he fights to return to Westminster.
The public got see him lay out his stall in a very unusual Question Time debate in Makerfield hosted by Fiona Bruce where Liberal Democrat, Conservative, Green Party, Labour And Reform party candidates for the up coming by election took questions in an American style “vote for me” TV debate.
The whole debate which left Andy Burnham to 11/2 favourite to win according to bookies William Hill after the broadcast was more political point scoring, toxic heckling and an Andy Burnham infomercial who got most of the airtime to finally admit his intentions to join Wes Streatling now a back bencher having resigned his position in the cabinet as Secretary of State for Health in a bid for the leadership of the Labour Party as Questionaire Time audience members expressed their discontent at the lack exposed Epstein Mandelson affair, publically calling Keir Starmer a liar and saying he’s got to go.
But it was explosive comments from women in the audience “I’d rather have a career politician than a sexist plumber” “why can’t politicians just answer the question?” that delighted audience members and Reform Party candidate Robert Kenyon’s response when asked how he proposed to recruit 30,000 police officers, “that would be a problem for the person recruiting them” that got the audience laughing out loud.
The whole debate was a bit of a farce for Reform. When the Green Party candidate back from maternity leave Sarah Wakefield asked Robert Kenyon to take the opportunity to apologise to Carol Vorderman, a 65 year old TV personality for a response to a comment made about her, who she said was watching the program he squirmed saying he’s was brought up by three women, his grandmother, mother and sister and had nothing but respect for them, swerving the point brought up by Fiona Bruce he’s previously admitted being a sexist.
Kenyon was challenged again by Sarah Wakefield when he tried to link housing shortages to immigration, Reform party’s inflammatory campaign stance. Following Brexit UK net migration has significantly declined from its peak, falling to 171,000 for the year, which is a nearly 50% drop from the previous year's total of 331,000 and the lowest level seen since early 2021.
It is the rise in non EU migrants being cited as the reason for low housing stock not the sell off of council houses during the Thatcher era.
Although the Green policy of scrapping right to buy was scoffed at by the panel across the board as discouraging aspiration and the hope of home ownership for working people by removing the scheme.
On this particular programme we heard way more from the panelist’s, Andy Burnham especially than the audience which was disappointing.
Conservative candidate and former Wigan Mayor Michael Winstanley came across very well, sensible, experienced, talking sense when he got the microphone which wasn’t very often and the Liberal Democrat Jake Austin came across as beige. The only thing I remember him saying was how hard it was for him and his partner to get on the property ladder, not sure how that story makes him a great option to be the local M.P. for Makerfield.
The biggest issue and raising the most audience questions was about the recent murder of 18 year old Henry Nowak and the questions around “Two Tier Policing” the suggestion if you are white you currently get treated more harshly than other residents or citizens by police. Even though Fiona gave current statistics that say if you are black you are 4 times more likely to be stopped and searched than if you are white the debate centred around whipped up fury by Reform leader Nigel Farage calling for Rage that led to the clashes with police and violence in Southampton by protestors. The point was made this was in direct contradiction to the wishes of Henry Nowaks parents for peace and calm.
The suspect £5,000,000 gifted by Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based British businessman and cryptocurrency billionaire personally to Nigel Farage was also raised currently being investigated by a parliamentary committee, it was how Robert Kenyon fielded sticky questions about that when shocking stats around 50 wealthy families in the UK having more money collectively than 34 million of the UK population was eloquently introduced by Sarah Wakefield for the Greens. Although she did have to answer tough questions about anti semitism in the Green Party, the response they were improving and making more robust their candidate vetting process.
All in all the programme was a bit of a car crash, that got a good deal more press than it deserved.
It served as a reminder for me, why I don’t usually vote. When the world is at war, more people are suffering globally than ever before my only reason to vote would be to stop a party like Reform coming to power and making things worse especially for women.
I think until we see a sensible candidate like Rishi Sunak who took the reins only after a series of catastrophes and never really got a fair shot at turning things around, everything he said would happen with a Labour government has happened, he warned us all, I don’t think I’ll be voting.
After watching QT on the BBC nothing has changed for me. It was depressing to see the candidate choices for Makerfield and understand why the bookies and pundits say Andy Burnham is going to walk it after two previous failed leadership challenges.