by The BBC’s Question Time debate was unique in giving the headliners a long time to answer questions – half an hour each to be exact.
This gave the audience the opportunity to not only ask questions, but to question. Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, was pressured to fund his massive spending promises.
John Swinney, the leader of the SNP, was questioned about his continued determination to give independence to Scotland.
Keir Starmer, the Labor leader, was asked about the possibilities of tax increases, while Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, faced a range of difficult questions from electioneering to national service.
Each leader tried to stand their ground and deliver their main message. Here, two of our columnists react to who they believe did better – and worse.
It’s never nice watching someone struggle. While some people derive positive satisfaction from watching a leader flounder out of his depth in a terrible campaign of mismanagement, I feel bad for them. And so it was with particular relief that I retired from the England game, and began preparing for the Quiz special.
Ed Davey was in first place, eventually on dry land. Question one: aren’t you going to bankrupt the country? It was a hostile start and an indecisive response. Ed’s basic problem was that his political strategy was to be a reasonable leader pushing up protest votes, and that makes policy a difficult topic to discuss. Much better to fall off a paddle board instead.
However, the audience wanted to know about his record. Didn’t he enable the intensity? Davey admitted he was not “proud” of some of the things the Liberal Democrats did when they were last relevant, and by the time he answered (or failed to answer) questions about potential coalitions, the he could be prime minister. , tuition fees, and the post office, his limitations were becoming very clear.
Swinney didn’t fare any better. When he had finished his careful response to the SNP scandals, the audience started to turn the screws. Question two: are you going to continue holding referendums until you get the answer you want?
His position seemed to be something like this: if the SNP gets a majority of Scottish seats in the election, that’s a green light for a referendum. And if they don’t, your referendum is a green light. Indeed, every problem seemed to be seen through this prism. How would Swinney help manufacturing? Scotland rejoining the EU. After independence.
In fairness, it’s not like the SNP’s domestic performance is anything to write home about. Asked how he would contribute to the Scottish NHS, Swinney blamed the austerity on a crisis. But Scotland’s health service is now spending 10 per cent more than it did before the pandemic while producing to the left. At some point, accountability is required.
Then again, that has never been the SNP’s strong point. Whenever something goes wrong, England, Brexit or the Tories are to blame. That’s not to say the audience didn’t mind: the biggest round of applause so far came when Swinney called the Conservative government “disgusting”. Well then.
This edition of Quiz was the first time a celebrity could help out on the panel: why not top it off with 30 minutes of Russell Brand?
Without a good laugh – where was Nigel Farage? – according to Keir Starmer at the halfway mark, the audience at home had probably passed out, and the atmosphere in the studio was somnambulistic. We have heard these Labor lines before; the answers, there is no coming.
Why did he say Jeremy Corbyn was “great”? Keir has repeatedly said he did not think he would win an election. Why penalize private schools? He likes schools. When will waiting lists drop? My mother was a nurse. The only bit of illumination was a lecture on why socialism would not work in the energy sector, which shows its questionable shift from Corbynism.
The reason the Corbyn question is important is that Starmer won’t say whether he has changed his policies because he now sees that Corbyn was wrong – or because he doesn’t want to lose like his predecessor did.
In short, if he thought he could get away with it, would Sir Keir have gone all out with communism? We’ll just have to find out.
As for Rishi Sunak, his hands were lively but his face was dead. Why is this being done? I’m surprised he hasn’t left for California already. When questioned, he appeared resigned and abdicated – reverting to issuing the standard corporate apology for a service that did not meet one’s expectations. Why does he want to conscript children into voluntary work? Because he met a boy who worked for St John’s Ambulance and he enjoyed it. Bravo. That’s an argument for promoting St John’s Ambulance, not its strange national service plan.
The curious thing is why either man agreed to these debates. Starmer’s strategy is to say nothing, so why not spend the election on a yacht in the Mediterranean, issuing the occasional press release? Sunak believes he has the intellectual advantage so the man in his bathroom mirror shouts back at him every morning – but the more we see of the Tories, the more he reminds us why they are set to lose.
