One Jones: I want to tie him to the nearest tree...

[BlissfullyIgnorant]

And slap him repeatedly around the face, really hard, lots in a non-sexual, totally aggressive way. He makes me sick sick sick. Just the sight of his obnoxious brat face is enough to get my blood boiling then he opens his mouth and bullshit comes spewing forth like nothing on earth. He is the personification of jumping up and down and screeching in the supermarket on a Saturday afternoon, just to get attention. AIBU to want to smash his face in?

I call Godwin. Comparing a writer to Hitler is total arsery. I'd love to know what kind of great thinkers you think we should be listening to. Rod Liddle?

YABU.

Sonia, earlier this year the BBC admitted that Question Time audience members, although not selected on an individual basis, are 'self-selecting' by the political leaning of the areas chosen to broadcast from.

Do you have a source for this BlissfullyIgnoran? It sounds a bit unlikely to me. If the Tories were under represented in QT audiences they would be complaining about it very loudly.

'The audience mix, in terms of political allegiance, may vary in different places  . . .  but our overall aim is to achieve impartiality across each series through careful audience selection and choice of locations.? Former Director General of the BBC, Mark Thompson

That doesn't exactly sound like a left wing bias to me. Sounds like trying to be fair. But I would say that, wouldn't I?

Ooh sorry, not sure what happened there

This is some research carried out by me this evening using info from the BBC website and Googling MP info. Please excuse the presentation.

The last 11 episodes were broadcast from the following places, with MP info:
West Bromwich Tom Watson MP Labour
Luton Kelvin Hopkins and Gavin Shuker (North and South respectively) both Labour
Derby Chris Williamson and Margaret Beckett (North and South respectively) both Labour
Brighton Pavilion Caroline Lucas Green Party
Manchester 3 Labour MPs and one Lib Dem
Birmingham 8 Labour, 1 Tory, 1 Lib Dem
Glasgow 7 Labour MPs
Slough Fiona MacTaggart Labour
London Mark Field Tory
Bexhill Gregory Barker Tory
Corby...the programme went out just as the by-election polls closed and a Labour MP was returned; Andy Sawford

Last week was in the constituency of Mark Field again
Next week is in Swansea which has 3 Labour MPs

I think I'm on fairly safe ground SoniaGluck

Former DG Mark Thompson wrote to Philip Davies MP to agree that Tory MPs would probably have a harder time in an audience made up from people in the area the programme was broadcast. As you see, most of the recent broadcasts have been made in Labour areas.

inde Philip Davies did complain. See above.

I'm knackered, now, after all that!

I know exactly who the obnoxious shit is now, after reading the thread.

Talking about QT, it's known as 'Left Wing Time' in our house.

I don't know why anyone other than Labour and their cronies, or that annoying woman from Liberty ever bother to appear on the show.

No one with political leanings anywhere to the right of Stalin is ever allowed to make their point.

He's wonderful and clever. Also a really nice guy. But I could be accused of bias.

I like him. On the point of the bias, I think it's just natural that BBC QT is filmed in cities, where not surprisingly there are more Labour MPs. However, Any Questions of R4 always seems to come from Little Stow on the Water Village Hall, where no doubt conservative MPs are more common