It’s fascinating to see the BBC setting up for Question Time - two enormous lorries filled with a mass of recording equipment arrive early in the morning and spend all day unloading. They set up six cameras, the set, computers, televisions and enough cabling to go round the world twice. A team of men in black put everything together and a security team frisks all the audience as they come in, while four local policemen contribute their presence. They omit to frisk the stewards which is interesting, as any one of them could have some polonium to spray on Boris Berezovsky. They can't have read any John Le Carre or Claire Francis novels or they'd have realized what a strong possibility this is in the provinces.
Berezovsky’s a brave man who says he feels safe in England, yet I don’t see any security men on the stage door side of the building. The whole team is at the other entrance checking people’s bags and scanning them with detectors. Progress into the building is slow.
Other panellists are politicians Tony Benn, Julia Goldsworthy, Francis Maude and the journalist and author, Melanie Phillips. They’re less likely to attract an assassin but you never know. Melanie Phillips is extremely right wing and antagonizes other panel member as well as the audience when she states that she doesn’t go along with the drive to be ‘green’ because environmentalists are politically manipulating the whole debate. She doesn’t take it seriously and resents ‘ambitious environmentalism.’ There are hisses and moans, and Julia Goldsworthy frowns hard and shakes her head, but it is Francis Maude that takes her on.
Phillips also makes the astonishing assertion that there are no non-British people living in Britain, but that we are all British citizens. There are many thousands of people living and working in Britain either temporarily, or long-term, who do not have British citizenship, and who may have no intention of taking it.
Tony Benn answers every question with measured reason. He repeatedly argues that democracy, tolerance and co-operation are the only ways for society and the world to co-exist and survive. His anti-war stance is well known and he re-asserts his antipathy towards nuclear arms in his responses this evening, saying, ‘nuclear weapons are a desperate threat to the human race.’
Discussions about Putin and concerns about Russian nuclear armaments dominate the evening which is unsurprising when Berezovsky is here but it is an intense debate which benefited from a little easing of the tension. Julia Goldsworthy is impressive in her intelligence, calm reasoning and clarity. She takes notes and listens with an admirable focus, is strong in her opinions and unafraid to tackle other panellists head-on.
I've volunteered to be the 'runner' for this because I’ve had no exercise today and this involves going through, and up and down the three-storey building a few dozen times with the questions for the panel, so I get to read them before I hand them over. The audience has been rigorously selected through the BBC Question Time website so I assume the questions will be intelligent and considered. There’s a heavy quota of questions whining about the logo for the Olympics and it's surprising how many people have made spelling mistakes. Tut tut.
The audience watch news transmitted by all channels while they have tea and biscuits. I run upstairs, and hand over their questions, after smirking at the mis-spellings, and they are put in piles under topics. David Dimbleby and his team watch up-to-date televised news and his researchers check for the latest information which relates to the questions and any breaking news. That’s 150 questions to sort, narrow down to a selection of eight, expecting only four or five to be used, and gathering any relevant data. It’s a great opportunity to see how the programme is put together – an efficient, polite team, working in an orderly, friendly, well-oiled way, demonstrating a neat piece of co-operation that should warm the heart of Tony Benn. And nobody got assassinated.
Berezovsky’s a brave man who says he feels safe in England, yet I don’t see any security men on the stage door side of the building. The whole team is at the other entrance checking people’s bags and scanning them with detectors. Progress into the building is slow.
Other panellists are politicians Tony Benn, Julia Goldsworthy, Francis Maude and the journalist and author, Melanie Phillips. They’re less likely to attract an assassin but you never know. Melanie Phillips is extremely right wing and antagonizes other panel member as well as the audience when she states that she doesn’t go along with the drive to be ‘green’ because environmentalists are politically manipulating the whole debate. She doesn’t take it seriously and resents ‘ambitious environmentalism.’ There are hisses and moans, and Julia Goldsworthy frowns hard and shakes her head, but it is Francis Maude that takes her on.
Phillips also makes the astonishing assertion that there are no non-British people living in Britain, but that we are all British citizens. There are many thousands of people living and working in Britain either temporarily, or long-term, who do not have British citizenship, and who may have no intention of taking it.
Tony Benn answers every question with measured reason. He repeatedly argues that democracy, tolerance and co-operation are the only ways for society and the world to co-exist and survive. His anti-war stance is well known and he re-asserts his antipathy towards nuclear arms in his responses this evening, saying, ‘nuclear weapons are a desperate threat to the human race.’
Discussions about Putin and concerns about Russian nuclear armaments dominate the evening which is unsurprising when Berezovsky is here but it is an intense debate which benefited from a little easing of the tension. Julia Goldsworthy is impressive in her intelligence, calm reasoning and clarity. She takes notes and listens with an admirable focus, is strong in her opinions and unafraid to tackle other panellists head-on.
I've volunteered to be the 'runner' for this because I’ve had no exercise today and this involves going through, and up and down the three-storey building a few dozen times with the questions for the panel, so I get to read them before I hand them over. The audience has been rigorously selected through the BBC Question Time website so I assume the questions will be intelligent and considered. There’s a heavy quota of questions whining about the logo for the Olympics and it's surprising how many people have made spelling mistakes. Tut tut.
The audience watch news transmitted by all channels while they have tea and biscuits. I run upstairs, and hand over their questions, after smirking at the mis-spellings, and they are put in piles under topics. David Dimbleby and his team watch up-to-date televised news and his researchers check for the latest information which relates to the questions and any breaking news. That’s 150 questions to sort, narrow down to a selection of eight, expecting only four or five to be used, and gathering any relevant data. It’s a great opportunity to see how the programme is put together – an efficient, polite team, working in an orderly, friendly, well-oiled way, demonstrating a neat piece of co-operation that should warm the heart of Tony Benn. And nobody got assassinated.
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