Always Worth Saying’s Question Time Review

Question Time 16th September 2021

The Panel:

James Heappey (Conservative)
Kate Green (Labour)
Andrew Neil (Broadcaster)
Nandra Ahmed (Social care professional)
Nels Abbey (Writer)

Venue: Croydon

Last week, Review joshed that Andrew Neil, following his non-reappearance at GB News after a summer break, looked like a reluctant headmaster locking himself in his bedroom terrified of unruly fifth formers such as Nigel Farage. Since then, Mr Neil has resigned his position at St GB News Academy and snook his knees under the table in the prefect’s common room of the posh leftie self-hating London public school that is the BBC’s Question Time.

Awkwardly, Neil shared that table with Chairwoman Fiona Bruce, who enjoys the position Mr Neil should undoubtedly have been offered upon the retirement of BBC lifer David Dimbleby. Sadly, in the interests of BBC Woke’s politically correct nicey feelings agenda, Andrew was passed over for a female.

It has been a difficult week for male genitals. A Twitter spat between Nikki Minaj and Boris Johnston revealed that the outsized Trinidadian songstress thinks that the coronavirus vaccine causes the testicles to swell.

Simultaneously, the publicity generated around her served as a reminder that photographs and video clips of Ms Minaj cause the penis to shrink.

Nikki is pictured here dressed as a swollen testicle that has just been stamped on in a fight outside a pub.

***

The first question was about social care. What difference will this week’s legislation make?

Over to Nandra Ahmed (social care professional), who was concerned. There was nothing in it for social care. No, said Bruce, there’s £5 billion in it for social care. No, said Ms Ahmed, £4 to £7 billion is needed just to stand still and the NHS will take some of that. The reality is this legislation is for the benefit of the NHS, not for social care.

Andrew Neil saw this as a spending plan, not a reform plan. There was room for efficiencies in the NHS but that wasn’t going to happen. Social care needs to be reformed and made more efficient too.

A tinged gentleman in the sparse, socially distanced Croydon studio audience reminded us that we’re in a ‘stuck situation’ because of Covid.

James Heappey (Conservative) was announced as a guest at the last minute presumably because of the Boris reshuffle kerfuffle. He wallowed in waffle. Ms Ahmed noted that there didn’t seem to be a plan.

Nels Abbey (writer), interestingly not introduced by La Bruce as a former colleague of hers at the BBC, decided we were taking it from the have nots to help the haves, which seemed wrong. It was the weaker way out.

A lady in the audience mentioned retention of (fat?) nurses who are leaving because they are undervalued and have to go to foodbanks (in their brand new 4X4s?).

Kate Green (Labour) was going to use the magic money tree to increase the wages of the heavily unionised NHS staff, instead of spending it on the patients and old people. Second homeowners get off scot-free, she said. No, they don’t. They pay a mountain of tax at every turn and provide, through buy-to-let, housing for the less well off which saves the Government a fortune.

Andrew Neil would have preferred an increase in income tax. The French villa resident went on to say a wealth tax would be counterproductive as the wealthy would leave the country – like he has.

Before his move to the South of France, Andrew enjoyed a privileged childhood in the West of Scotland. He received a free selective education at Paisley Grammar School followed by a free (plus student grant) place at Glasgow University. After university, Andrew actively sought out employment in whites-only 1970s Fleet Street where a trades union enforced colour bar operated in the print rooms.

Between 1983 and 1994 he was the editor of Rupert Murdoch’s The Sunday Times during which time he also became founding chairman of Rupert Murdoch’s Sky TV. From 1995 to 2020 he worked for the BBC. Also in 1995, he made a series of interview programmes for Channel 4. More of which later….

At the BBC, Neil became known as a fearless and exceptionally well-prepared interviewer. He kicked Tim Farron around the room, called Diane Abbott to account and was the only interviewer that Twitter’s recently disappointing troll Old Holborn (NHRN) ever turned down.

Last week’s Review noted former Radio One DJ and Chair of the Blue Plaque Trust, Mike Read, had awarded such a plaque posthumously to the notorious child abuser and his fellow Radio One DJ John Peel.

Likewise, during that 1995 Channel 4 series, ‘Is this your Life?’ the then bachelor boy Andrew lost his touch when interviewing fellow bachelor boy and television presenter Jimmy Savile.

Neil introduced Savile as a national treasure and mentioned the millions he’d raised for charity. In an awkward and disjointed effort, Neil did touch upon Savile’s bachelor boy lifestyle but fell well short of the rigour shown when pulverising the likes of pregnant schoolgirl Angel Raynor and the gormless Rebecca Long-Bailey.

On page 444 of her investigation into Jimmy Savile, Dame Janet Smith reported,

Andrew Neil, who made a Channel 4 programme (Is this your Life?) with Savile in 1995, said that, long before then, he had heard talk in Fleet Street that Savile was sexually interested in young girls, although the age of the girls was never exactly specified. The gossip was that the girls were underage; they were the kind of girls you might see on Top of the Pops.

As we saw in last weeks review, many of the ‘dolly dancers’ on Top of the Pops, such as 15-year-old Clair McAlpine who subsequently committed suicide, were passed around and sexually abused by BBC employees.

If, long before his interview with Savile, Neil knew of that sexual interest in underage young girls why didn’t the fearless interviewer challenge Savile in the Channel 4 programme or through the newspaper he edited? In his evidence to Smith’s report, ludicrously, fearless Neil blamed the public. On page 426 Dame Janet writes,

“But he [Neil] added that the interview was made easier for Savile because the audience was wholly on Savile’s side. Mr Neil could feel the hostility from the audience as the questions got tougher. It was as if he had no right to grill a national treasure. Also, when the programme was over, the television audience reaction, shown in telephone calls to the duty office, was overwhelmingly critical of him (Mr Neil) and sympathetic towards Savile.”

Bizarrely, Neil seems proud of his part in the Savile cover-up, boasting on his Twitter feed that 150,000 people have watched the non-interview on Youtube and that Savile eating a banana during the show proved his guilt without Neil having to say anything.

Nels Abbey decided supermarket workers and social care workers were superheroes. He wanted a push back from them aimed at wealthy people like himself.

James Heappey understood the concerns but, in effect, there is now a reverse excess whereby how much people have to spend on social care is limited. This was a good and helpful thing.

Question two was about GB News.

There shouldn’t be a second Fox News, said Neil. He was frightened of ‘untruths’ and ‘conspiracies’.

Why did you leave GB News, asked Bruce?

The launch wasn’t a success. There were differences between himself and the even higher-ups and they were getting wider. “It wasn’t for me.” Wasn’t for anybody Andrew, given the zero ratings.

Folks would have to decide for themselves if GB News was too ‘Foxy’. “Good luck to them but it wasn’t for me.” Andrew was going to enjoy himself instead.

Nels had brought a framed photo of Neil saying GB News wouldn’t be woke. The channel fought a culture war from day one and Neil knew that when he joined.

“So why did I leave?” Responded Andrew Neil. “You don’t know me.”

Nels, Andrew left because Farage whipped his backside.

Kate Green said we didn’t need a channel that was rude about her prejudices but rather one that broadcasts them. Hatred. Abuse. Division. She was going to abolish free speech and replace it with good mannered total silence in place of scrutiny of anti-Semitic and corrupt left-wing politicians.

The next question was about Bangladeshi Islamic State passport holder and Syria resident Shemmima Begum.

Kate Green blamed us for being hated by the likes of Begum. Kate hid behind the courts when asked whether or not the jihadi should be allowed back.

Nels blamed, here, here, here, here and here. Nothing to do with what happens in the Middle East, apparently, and most definitely nothing to do with Islam, as they say.

In the blurb, his representatives United Agents state Nels Abbey (not his real name) was born in London to Nigerian parents. What they don’t say is that shortly after birth he was fostered to white foster parents in rural Oxfordshire and Derbyshire before returning to London aged ten and sent to boarding school in Nigeria.

Following his education, Nels (NHRN) had a position at PriceWaterhouseCoopers before joining Insight Investment. Between 2010 and 2015 his career in banking took him to ICAP, BlackRock and Ashburton Investments before a three-year stint as an executive at the BBC during which time he was a ‘Core Fellow of the BBC’s Core Leadership Programme’. Since 2004 he has also been a writer and consultant at various companies.

These days he is a journalist, columnist and, under the pen name Dr Boule Whitelaw III, a published author. His mighty work, ‘Think like a white man: conquering the world … while black’, despite being the 5,133rd most popular government and politics book on Amazon, receives somewhat mixed reader reviews. “Should be called ‘Think like a black man, with a huge chip on his shoulder’,” suggests a Mrs JMB. Aussie Amazonian adds, “It’s short on wit and long on bile. Give this book a miss and save your money.”

Nels is part of Penguin Random House’s WriteNow programme, an attempt to ‘find, mentor and publish the underrepresented’ bankers, media executives, boarding school boys and journalists.

Penguin Random House also publish St Marcus of Rashford’s ghostwriter and Barack Obama. When the BBC gushed, ‘Barack Obama praises Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford over poverty campaign,’ the conversation in question was two of the publisher’s ‘talents’ taking part in a publicity stunt for their publisher.

Disgracefully, June Sarpong Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, the BBC’s £267,000 a year three days a week Director of Creative Diversity hosted the event titled, ‘Barack Obama meets Marcus Rashford, In conversation,’ whilst sat next to the Penguin logo.

Nels is a founder member of the Black Authors Guild. Your humble reviewer continues to wait patiently for his invitation to join the White Writers Guild.

At birth, Nels was registered as Coker Nelson A T Abbey. As well as Nels Abbey, he is also known as Nelson Coker Abbey, under which name he appears at Companies House as a director of Candoco Dance Company and a former director of Commonwealth Theatre. Candoco is an £800,000 per annum turnover charity whose income up to the year ending 31st March 2020 included £447,000 in Government grants.

As Nelson Abbey, he appears as a former director of Iconic Steps Film Academy C.I.C and Good Ideas in Action Limited, an un-used fund management vehicle.

The Government decided to strip her citizenship not the courts, said Andrew Neil. Kate was a Labour spokesman and should speak out on the issue. Oh, dear. Incoming! Kate’s a spokeswoman, Andrew. Now you’ll have to resign from Question Time.

The leftie audience decided that Ms Begum needed us. To use as target practice?

And she was only fifteen, said Bruce. She was a child, wailed Ms Ahmed. None of them mentioned that this is a carefully lobbied strategy using Begum as a Trojan horse to set a legal precedence allowing every foreigner who hates us to be allowed into the country.

Next question. Brexit. Why hide behind Covid when it’s all the fault of Brexit? Oh dear.

The same problems exist within the EU as here, it’s nothing to do with Brexit, observed James wisely.

Kate blamed Brexit and Covid. Lorry drivers weren’t getting their driving tests because of the pandemic. Let’s look to the future. She wanted a task force of trades unionists. She hesitated, biting her lip, wary of all those Red Wall constituencies.

Bruce chimed in with an alleged shortage of hospitality workers and crop pickers, omitting to mention the 6 million EU citizens who live here.

Neil had spotted a global labour shortfall which he thought was great. Wages would go up. Wages have stuck for decades while asset valves have risen sharply.

Have they? Speak for yourself Brillo. The FTSE is no higher than it was in 1999. Deposit rates are 1%. Annuity rates are little better. Property prices are lower than they were before the credit crunch 14 years ago. Neil hasn’t got a clue.

Ms Ahmed talked crap. “When you’re recruiting the first thing you do is go local.” No, love, they go to agencies who bring them in en masse from abroad.

Last question. Given Emma Raducanu’s victory in the US Ladies Tennis Open, when was the last time each member of the panel had surpassed expectations?

Kate never had excelled herself. Neither had Ms Ahmed. With an eye on GB News, Andrew said he certainly hadn’t excelled himself this year. Fiona Bruce surpassed herself when she cooked a meal for the family. In self-delusion, Nels Abbey’s achievement had been scoring points over Andrew Neil during this programme.

A chap in the audience complimented Emma Raducanu then added he hoped the teenager would be ‘carefully handled’. Now then, now then! Er er ere errrr er!
 

© Always Worth Saying 2021
 

The Goodnight Vienna Audio file