QT from Bath

I watched Question Time with a sinking heart. The first question was about Trump, as one knew it would be. The audience and the panel were vying for the position of ‘most appalled’. 

It’s like Geert Wilders all over again. Who can distance him/herself farthest from Trump/Wilders/EDL/ Marine Le Pen.

Trump is a ludicrous figure, but I suppose it’s because he knows he is ludicrous that he dares to say what no-one else will. Only one man in the audience had the guts to say there’s something in Trump’s argument, crude though it is, that needs addressing.

I used to think Caroline Flint behaved like an automaton. She would parrot the party line to the death. Well, despite her differences with Corbyn, she’d still doing that. She’s still defending the Labour party (and her career) for all she’s worth, but the imaginative way she tailors her strategy and manages to straddle both sides of the fence at once without actually crashing is admirable and awesome.  She’s still an automaton, but an automaton with agility. You watch through your fingers expectantly. Surely she’ll come a cropper any minute now.

"Poor man, damned if he does, damned if he don't"

Mary Beard is a Corbynista. She’s supposed to be a historian, is she not? Classicist, don and professor of Roman history. Wow.  How could anyone who knows anything about history think Jeremy Corbyn is good for Britain?

The Corbynistas in the QT audience like ‘Jeremy’ because he’s not like other politicians. That’s true enough. Maybe the BBC likes Mary Beard because she’s not like other historians? Who knows; her unprepossessing manner does make one wonder why the BBC is so keen.

I suppose Jeremy Corbyn is fishing one of his roomy jackets from the wardrobe as we speak, preparing, with dignity,  for tonight’s starring role. Oh, I despair.