Anyone else watching Question Time?

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

What a complete arsehole the New Statesman journo is. Rude, obnoxious, and he won't let anyone else finish a sentence.

I am actually beginning to really enjoy this.

Such fun.

Women seem to have taken a REALLY long time to intergrate in society

God not Ed Balls (shudders) wish Alan Johnson would reconsider

Thank you Simon Hughes for remembering proportional representation - finally.

I don't see it as a stitch up. If sufficient MPs within the coalition feel it's falling apart then they can vote against it. There shouldn't be a situation where the opposition can bring the government down on a whim.

Do wish QT was on a bit earlier - night all

Fixed term with 55% no confidence vote sounds like an excellent idea.

I'm staying on for This Week. Then I only have to get up at 6.00 a.m. so I can afford a late night.

I wish QT was not at the same time as Newsnight, which is what we usually watch.

Actually I'd prefer a hybrid with questions by paxo - QT audiences sometimes hit the mark but sometimes are pretty lame.

Grimma I agree. Lots of the audience ask great questions, but there are a lot where you feel that they have either got incredibly flustered, or that they haven't really got to grips with the discussion.

Oppositions don't bring governments down on a whim.

Parliament brings a government down because it has lost confidence in that government. In a parliamentary democracy, that matters - parliament rules, not the government. If parliament has lost confidence in a government but that government is still allowed to continue, then what we are saying is that we want whichever govnerment is in power, to have more power than parliament as a whole. Which is a completely new constitutional position and has massive implications for the redistribution of power from parliament to government. This is really important people, do you really wnat to have even more of an elective dictatorship than we have at the moment?

But I think the reality is that this situation gives government less power, I think the problem with the last Labour government was it has such a big majority the cabinet was able to run it like an elective dictatorship, party whip meant everything was forced through. I think that the amount of times the parliament act was enforced illustrated that the government was operating without any checks and balances. I am pleased with the coalition and the proposed changes because I really think they are more democratic and take power away from the cabinet.

The Coalition are saying that it's 55% for a vote by the government but still 50% for a vote proposed otherwise. So it just stops them using the trick used in some countries to get around fixed term parliaments by calling a vote of no confidence in yourself.

The two journalists on question time were shockingly awful and the audience was hardly a cross section of society. Was this a set up by labour supporting BBC trying to knock the coalition at the first opportunity.
It would have been nice to see some one from the green party there instead of one of the idiot loud mouthed journalists.
The other journalist should have been replace by a successful person in society - eg a head teacher, doctor.
This programme came across as a concerted attempt to undermine the lib dems but Simon Hughes did pretty well and Hezza was quite reasoned I think. They made the journos look like the thick opionionated idiots they are. The labour peer came across as a decent bloke.

snowlady - it did feel like a bit of a set up at times didn't it?

The News Statesman journalist came across, as right pain, more front than Selfridges, does he honestly know more about politics and the economy than seasoned politicians such as Heseltine/Hughes, I said to DH who's this? Glad he's not a politician.

Perhaps Labour shouldn't be so quick to criticise the 55%, when legislation they introduced for Scotland requires 66% to dissolve Scottish Parliament....

Agreethe journos wwere awful.
The New Statesman guy rude and opinionated.
I thought Heseltine and Hughes were very good.
Charlie Falconer quite reasonable too.