RHETORIC…. IS IT USEFUL? (THAT ISN’T RHETORICAL)

So…. @BBCQT is broadcast to our TV. This is the normal viewing process in our house: we sit and marvel at Dimbleby’s tie, we gaze at the Edwardian floral cornicing that has lovingly been preserved in the regional venue of choice or, equally we could, sit mouths gaping like basking sharks at the late 90’s faux utilitarian municipal meeting space thinking, ‘who on earth got paid to design that?’. We wonder who is going to be sat in the ‘Right Wing Reactionary Chair’ also known under a number of more adjectival terms, we wonder who the excitable child is that we have never heard of because we don’t read that newspaper or political agenda publications. We play guess the location based purely on the accents of the audience because we missed Dimbleby’s intro (sometimes this is harder than it sounds, stick a QT on national border and allsorts turn up to question the panel. Posh sounding audiences are also tricky; it took me 30 mins to decide that Carlisle was a person last night and not the venue). Sometimes, even when we know where the programme is being broadcast from we play guess the location, Sorry Dewsbury, I am sure you are an incredibly important town but until last night our lives had not crossed paths. We look forward to the one nonsense topical question about something ridiculous to break the tension of the serious work of debate that has preceded. We hunger for controversial figures to permit us to turn our valves and release our own vitriol and hate of their hate onto the internet. And deep deep down we long for everyone on the panel to say what they think and not take up a posture of polar opposition while not saying anything of any worth to anyone.

David Starkey never fully recovered from the
Harry Potter casting rejection.

Last night was a yet another example of this programme offering the panellists a platform for political vagueness and that holy of holy things, rhetoric. I like a bit of rhetoric, and sure on a programme called BBC Rhetoric Time it would be fine. Pontificating politicians attempting to woo us with beautifully crafted speeches where they pretend to understand what is like to be a citizen of this country battered around the head daily by pretend policies that are cooked up to divert attention from very real policies designed to either absolve the government of any responsibility or create an economically based society where only things that are able to be measured in wealth are of any worth.

The extent of Cameron's Big Society was
to introduce a no taller than 5' 7" policy
for the Cabinet.

However, Dimbleby does not host BBC Rhetoric Time, he hosts BBC Question Time, a programme where the public are allowed to ask a question of a politician and expect and answer. I know I am being a little simplistic about this, but it isn’t such a hard thing to do is it?

Let us look at the NHS and how the panel responded last night to questioning. They all pretty much swatted away the issue with yet another mantra on their party’s stance. Where are politicians who give their own opinions? They way it is headed, they may as well just send statements in and sit poor old Dimbleby amongst at stack of papers, each to be read out in response to any question asked, prefaced with ‘I hear what you are saying, but the real issue here is…..’

This is Nick Clegg's policy statement.
Well he has written down all his own
policies that have survived the Coalition

On the subject of the NHS reforms, whether you agree with the proposed changes in the NHS Bill or not, we have all been sold a common enemy – the NHS Manager. A feature of just about everyone’s rhetoric last night. Nurse good, Doctors (except GPs if you except Starkey’s view) good, Managers bad. And by using this triumvirate as the only model for the NHS in all their per-prepared posturing we fail to address any questions. The NHS is not just Doctors and Nurses sharing a basket with the bad apple of ‘manager’. This is of course utter rubbish and some kind of Toy Town view of the world that politicians are too scared confront should it highlight any lack of knowledge on their part and that the media are too cliché to acknowledge. Who actually wants a Doctor or a Nurse who has been given medical training having to be the carer of admin and management? Managers can do that job and can do it very effectively. Managers are not bad, bad managers are bad in the same sense that bad doctors are bad, bad parents are bad, bad politicians are bad – nobody is advocating that we get rid of the latter three though.

See if you can spot the Michael Jackson of the apple world.

Back to BBC Rhetoric Time. The olds skool politicians, Heseltine, Prescott et al, they all have the strength of their convictions and will happily opine on them, but for now, the greasy, uninformed ragtag bunch that keep being tested out on the public through this programme need to be pressed harder by Dimbleby to actually answer a question.

Important note here is that the producers are currently messing with out heads as they have started to mix it up a bit more these days with their seating plan – the left is on the right, the right is on the left, the comedy celebrity panellist is anywhere and the Lib Dems are as always nowhere in particular. I think I quite like this.

David and his ties. Rarrggh!

And where does Dimbleby get his ties from? We love his ties.