Thursday 17 November 2011

Question Time : Its the Tories, isn't it? edition

FOUR!

David Dimbleby is joined in Aberystwyth by Grant Shapps, Chris Bryant, Elin Jones, Will Hutton and Sir Simon Jenkins.

BQ's birthday today. Not staying in for a Welsh one when the restaurant beckons. Might be back in time for scores.
BQ says
1. Think of the children. Youth unemployment highest since 1994! {I'm class of '82. These youngsters don't even know what unemployment is.}
2. Are the English racist against Sepp Blatter?
3. Winter fuel payments. Is it right for rich pensioners to give their allowance to poor pensioners?
Isn't that the big soc in action?
4. Work Experience interns. Has Hazel Blears finally had a good idea?
5. Smoking in cars causes more deaths to infants than Malaria. Possibly. Lets ban it anyway!

Leaderboard as of
18/11/11

Botogol - 35

BQ - 32
Budgie - 31

Measured - 30.5
Nick Drew - 30.5
Appointmetotheboard - 30
Dick the Prick -29.5
Philipa - 28½

Hatfield Girl - 28.5
Mark Wadsworth - 28.5
Timbo614 - 28
Sebastian Weetabix - 28

Hopper - 26½
Miss CD - 26
Hovis - 26
Miss S-J -25
Malcolm Tucker - 23½
GSD - 22.5

CU - 22
Jan - 16.5
Andrew - 15½
Sean -9.5

Woman on a raft - 8
Electro-Kevin - 4
Anon {1} -3½
Alex - 1½


32 comments:

Miss CD said...

Happy birthday.

1. Smoking in cars
2. Youth unemployment
3. Northern Rock sale
4. Euro bonds getting worse. "Cameron needs to spend more"
5 Tent city - should the happy campers be moved onto the Dale farm site?

hovis said...

Indeed Happy Birthday hope it's as inspired ulike my questions ...

Youth Unemployment - wicked tories

NHS waiting lists - Murdering Tories

Economy flat lining nose diving - incompetant Tories

Cleaning up the St Pauls protestors - Tories who dont listen

and I'll Steal smoking in Cars from you and Miss CD for my 5th Qu

Malcolm Tucker said...

oh no..Not another regional. Now we have to look on BBC News Wales website.

- Welsh 'special' budget impasse. Gosh, its just like a real government isn't it?

- youth unemployment hasn't risen much in west wales in the last five years. Once you reach 75% its hard to go much higher.

- Stephen Lawrence police investigators and Sepp Blatter. Are they both institutionally racist?

- phone Hacking, but I can't remember what it was. But phone hacking is the new NHS cuts at the Beeb. It will make an appearance somewhere in the show.

- Unison's big day out approaches. If public sector workers gather in London, will anyone remain in Wales at all?

Botogol said...

happy birthday BQ..

1 Should you be allowed to smoke in your car? (a QT banker if ever I heard one)

2 What can be done to help young people find work

3 Is football institutionally racist, and homophobic? (is rugby any better?)

4 Are the planning authroties in Wales damaging prosperity by blocking windfarms, or are there too many already?

5 Have we got a good deal from the sale of Northern Rock?

appointmetotheboard said...

1. Unemployment

2. Smoking in cars (go on, someone to say political correctness gone mad)

3. Should the Met follow NYPD example with Occupy LSX? One for Will Hutton, I reckon

4. Has the Govt given Northern Rock away for a song?

5. Is it appropriate for the PM to do lame impressions?

Happy birthday Bill - lang may yer lum reek.

Nick Drew said...

yes, happy birthday, BQ

1)should we all be racists now, Father Ted? - Blatter, Lawrence

2) EU bank tax to save the EUR ?

3) smoking in cars

4) should NR be sold to beardie ?

5) the Queen's engineering prize - why are we so useless ? (if indeed we are)

hatfield girl said...

Buon compleanno, Mr Q.

Being in mid-Wales will lead to someone speaking in Welsh. Apart from that:

What should David Cameron say to Angela Merkel and what should he refuse to do?

Should the ECB act as a lender of last resort to governments or should there be eurobonds?

Why are UK employers so determined to employ non-British workers and are their reasons reasonable?

Are you keen on the Prince of Wales or do you prefer William, particularly as the next generation is on the way?

andrew said...

1 Fuel prices - will 3p really make a difference

2 Inflation - is it really coming down It doesn't feel like it

3 Mr Blatter - a chance for all to sound off

4 Unemployment - what industry can be re-established in darkest Wales - will all the youth need to emigrate?

5 Sale of N Rock - are the banks on the mend?

Philipa said...

Coalition government is shit. Cameron is crap. Eton Rifles is my backing track. Grrr.

1. Youth unmeployment.

2. Queens award for engineering. Why get youth into engineering? There isn't any (except LandRover hiring - hurrah!) Businesses are cautious, banks aren't lending, economy slowing not growing.

3. St Pauls eviction. Is this a blow for peaceful protest?

4. Thatcher obliterated the mining industry. What's left? Benefits. Which the Tories have reduced, persecuting the poor. Rich bastards. Rant, rant, Oh... yeah... Northern Rock.

5. Smoking in the car.

Happy Birthday BQ XX

Mark Wadsworth said...

1. 3p on fuel, hard pressed motorists falling victim to savage Tory cuts.

2. Euro melt down, banks melt down, was it the right time for a sale of NR at a profit of about £25 million if you actually crunch the numbers

3. NHS waiting lists, savage Tory cuts.

4. Smoking in cars.

5. The Yanks have got rid of their Occupy protesters, are the Met Police being hampered by Savage Tory Cuts.
-------------------
I can do the answers as well:

Shapps: help for first time buyers.
Bryant: under Nulab we'd have banned smoking in cars by now
Jones: savage Tory cuts, time for Wales to vote for Westminster-financed independence
WIll Hutton: youth unemployment, which has rocketed by over forty-seven and a half since Labour were booted out etc.
Jenkins: savage Tory cuts forcing us to concrete over our green and unpleasant land

measured said...

1. What will David say to Angela tomorrow? Ironman Dave

2. Northern Rock or Northern Brick?

3. How do young people get to afford mortgages? Give them jobs so they can give the money to the banks or summat. 

4. Sep Blatter - you  pink bl*ckmailer pink Sw*ne. Shake hands? 

5. Legalising cannabis. Would the little old lady next door grow four plants for me? 

6. The economic outlook is dire. Wind farms? Get real. 

Happy Birthday!

Dick the Prick said...

Evening fellow smoking, unemployed, non biometrically assessed immigrants.

1) Unemployment

2) Tories 'shambles' with immigration

3) Euro clusterfuck with Northern Wreck (1 question - no splits)Watch Will Hutton, to be fair to the ejeet, state that the Euro has legs and we're all dooooomed, doomed I tells ya if it dies.

4) Phone hacking

5) Countryside stuff and housing, planning and destruction of natural landscape.

(as a confession i'm that guy who still buys the Guardian - long commute and adore Simon Hoggart but Sir Simon of Jenkins is a good lad and, well, he's got a bloody good point about this planning brown envelope policy that's being aborted).

Is Chris Bryant the most disgusting of politicians? Yes, yes I think so.

Happy birthday BQ - I trust it'll all be on IPSA! Nah, seriously, happy birthday man.

Miss S-J said...

So much too choose from, so little that is important to Question Time.

Lets see...

1.The May/Brodie show rumbles on. It seems neither lied and neither told the truth.

2.Glastonbury-on-Thames. Go home you bums. Its over! Will they still be there come the mayoral election? {yes}

3. Welsh Labour budget is defeated by Lib/Con/Cym. Is this a new coalition?

4.Youth and unemployment in general. I thought Brown said this recession would be over by now if we blew all the money right at the start. Was he wrong. Or has not enough money been blown?

5. Fuel tax hits us country people hard. Should the government stop putting up taxes?
Whilst increasing all available services and benefits.

{Possibly through some sort of magic beans/beanstalk/golden goose/ theft from a giant, policy.}

Hopper said...

Sneaking in under the wire, hopefully...

1. Merv King says we're going into recession (joining the rest of Europe,looks like), is he right? Leading into
2. Wales has been in recession for years and years because of the Evil Tories, what would the panel do to help Wales' economy?
3. Is firing wounded soldiers morally acceptable?
4. Fuel tax, do motorists pay too much already?Someone is likely to comment about the airline passengers paying for their fuel
5. Wildcard, something about Occupy X - is there no Occupy Cardiff group because no-one would care?

Hopper said...

oh, and happy birthday BQ!

Timbo614 said...

DAMN and blast 14 hour days I completely forgot - even tho' I thought about it when I read Mr Branson got his bank :(

Steven_L said...

Wow! Windfarms a massive scam - she said it better than ND ever could didn't she!

Bill Quango MP said...

Answers

How would you help the one million 16-24 year olds that are now unemployed?

Q: Are the calls to ban smoking in cars a step too far?

Q: Mrs Merkel’s right hand man says “Europe is speaking German”. Is this a reflection of Mrs Merkel’s aspiration to rule Europe?

Q: Why is government pushing up energy bills by subsidising windfarms, which are proven to be uneconomic?

Q: How many more people have to die [in Syria] before Britain considers a Libyan-style intervention?

Scores tomorrow.

Windfarms! Its a fix.

GSD said...

Damn - totally forgot about the quiz. Well, that's my vanishingly small chance of getting anywhere near the top gone then - but looking at your answers (I missed the program too), I probably would have been out for a duck anyhow!

Happy Birthday BQ - hope you had a good one.

Old BE said...

Happy birthday BQ!

Are you Father of the House yet?

Bill Quango MP said...

Only caught the tail of it. So will score from Twitter.
Lots of gaps in the ranks - chance to move on up the board for the 'Iron Brigade'

BQ -2 {yes,..well..other priorities..not full attention..other excuses etc}

Miss CD - 2 {+1/2 for a euro} =2.5

Hovis - those wicked, wicked Tories didn't seem to get the usual Welsh pasting. - 2.5

Malcolm Tucker - good guesses. But you should have known it would be that non stop, water cooler discussion, Syria! - 1

Botogol - 3 {but no double for windfarms-see measured} -3

appointmetotheboard - 2 {+1/2 because I don't know the lame imression story. What lame impression has he done? The one where he's a feeble PM. He's been doing that one for ages.} -2 1/2

ND - ahh yes.. its a shame Father Ed Milly isn't in real government.He's comedy gold. -1.5

HG - Thanks - 2.5 there

Andrew - Gutter ball there. Just 1.

Philipa - 1st and last choices saved you -2

Mark Wadsworth Not bad. Hutton did bounce up and down a lot. -2.5

Measured - very good - 3.

DP - I make that 3 +.5 for Hutton babbling about the Euro demise. - 3.5

Miss S-J.nahhh..-1

Hopper - bit off too - 1

Timbo-GSD-CU-Jan-Weetabix -Sean & others.

ou missed little, a low scoring game apart from DP/Botogol and Measured.
Still time to make progress.

Winner is Dick the Prick, who was well on the money.-3.5

Bill Quango MP said...

BE - Father of the house! Cheeky young scamp!

Jan said...

There has to be a very Welsh flavour so here goes:

1. What about our jobs? Why are the evil Tories wrecking the economy and doing away with all the public sector jobs?

2. Should Cardiff Bay ie WAG (Welsh Assembly Government) be given more powers similar to Scotland?

3. Will electrification of the railway between Cardiff and Paddington make any difference? (Why does the Severn Bridge Toll keep going up and is this a tax on visiting Wales?)

4. What about all those second home owners paying a reduced council tax. Is this fair?

5. Should Welsh people be allowed to smoke in their cars?

Jan said...

Sorry missed a day somehow!!

Bill Quango MP said...

Ahhh! Jan. Already ran that race.
Favourable scoring next week though

Sebastian Weetabix said...

Damn! Was stuck in Deutschland at an electronics industry tradeshow so missed the whole thing. I daresay there is no danger of me winning the dubious Japanese whisky now.

Very interesting week though; aside from the fact trade is dire and seemed to drop off a cliff in October, my German friends are largely convinced the Euro is under attack from devious British 007-types in league with ex-public schoolboys in the city and the CIA; apparently we are wrecking the Euro on purpose, in pursuit of our historic aims of preventing any one nation gaining hegemony (I wish we were that smart). I did gently point out that we weren't in it and they could stop it all any time they liked by firing up the presses only to hear "Hah! Zis is exactly vot the speculators is vonting!! Vee do not give it to zem!!" closely followed by "Schon wieder.... Verdammter Englander hat unser Land kaput gemacht... Weltmacht oder Niederlage!", that sort of thing. A French distributor told me the UK should join the Euro this minute "otherwise the Germans will be completely in charge!"

You can see how crap business is, that we spent all week chit-chatting about politics instead of speaking to customers and taking orders.

Bill Quango MP said...

SW: Poor show being in hunland.
Never mind. Trade here has gone from poor to bad to cliff edge.
Never known it as bad as last 4 weeks. This is consumer spending. Either the big supers have convinced the entire country to shop in their sheds or people have buttoned up.

I expect the latter as a large {and I do mean large} increase in the amount of coin being taken over the counters.
That's bottle jar Christmas clubs. Those savings aren't easily replaced next year.

measured said...

Thanks, Bill. So what do you sell? Royal Wedding memorabilia?

Bill Quango MP said...

Measured: I turned most of it down.
But in hindsight, and using my own maxims, I should have bought much more.
I was worried about the very short shelf life.
But I also neglected the very large US market.

measured said...

It was more the cliff I was thinking about. The Duchess of Cambridge is still alive.

You are right. I meant to buy a Royal Wedding tea towel but they had completely sold out by the time I got round to it. I suspect they will be a glut of 2012 stuff though. The design and colours will age so quickly.

So is this to be a guessing game? If so, I'm not playing, so tell us. Ok, department store... "going up, first floor, telephones, gents, ready made suits... going up". That's inflation for you, not sales.

lilith said...

Isn't it obvious Measured? When Bill isn't sleeping on the benches he is moonlighting in the House of Commons souvenir shop.

measured said...

Ha ha. You must be right, Lilith.

So you know what the rest of us can expect for Christmas? Lovely HoC snow globes. They are not big sellers.