Rod Liddle has a piece in The Spectator registering his surprise and pleasure at the appearance of a right-wing comedian - yes, a right-wing comedian! - on Radio Four’s The News Quiz.
And is if that wasn't unprecedented enough, the aforesaid comedian (Simon Evans) went on to defend Donald Trump and criticise the NHS.
The audience wasn’t sure what it should do, and Evans was of course ribbed for his opinions by the other three panellists and indeed the compere. Which is when I thought: hang on, why should I be grateful to the BBC for allowing one single representative of majority opinion on air? And yet it was such a breath of fresh air. Not because I’m a conservative, but just for the sake of diversity of opinion.
This is the thing. You think the BBC news programmes are bad? It is away from the news programmes that the BBC really shows its bias. And so we end up being grateful when someone who speaks for the majority – or at least a very large minority – actually gets airtime.
Having listened to it myself, I can confirm that it was a breath of fresh air - and funny too.
A fellow comedian made a telling point, however, in reply to Simon (on Twitter): "I thought you were brilliant. It's notable how jarring it is to hear those opinions on Radio 4." Very true.
Of course, not everyone's happy:
Anyhow, I've got a potential cutting for the show. It comes from The Guardian (well it made me laugh):
