Question Time 27th March 2025
The Panel:
Darren Jones (Labour)
Richard Holden (Conservative)
Daisy Cooper (LibDem)
Camilla Tominey (Journalist)
Gary Stevenson (Economist)
Venue: Dartford
Earlier on Question Time Review, 27th March, Dartford: Remember when the public was allowed to wander around nuclear power stations? Forget about the pile and the rods and the generators and the glowing atoms, what stuck in the mind was the Herbert sat at a control room desk writing down readings from all those dials (and they were beyond numerous) every 15 minutes.
Pages and pages on clipboard after clipboard. Ploughed through a box of CEGB pencils in a shift. One sympathises. That’s what it’s like in the QT Review HQ War Room except, as this is the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, it’s all on big screens.
However, at the moment, I am here doing nothing. Despite it being prep o’clock, no sign of a guest drop has appeared. Instead, only a blank on the BBC webpage where the liars, thieves and chancers are usually listed on the Wednesday teatime before a Thursday evening show. No sign either of any pen pictures on X, which are tweeted after the big reveal.
Perhaps all heads in the London media-political bubble exploded with Trump (and Vance) Derangement Syndrome following the leaked Signal conversation about the recent bombing of The Yemen. Or maybe the BBC can’t persuade anyone from the North London bubble to venture as far as Dartford?
Although only 17 miles and 12 chains from Charing Cross, those high teens of miles plus the length of twelve cricket squares take the Britain-hating hypocrites closer to Dover and their beloved illegal immigrants. Those who are destined to be a problem for the peasants living next to requisitioned provincial Premier Inns, not to the Islington bien-pensant.
Meanwhile, in the QT Review bunker, the default display reveals sales of The Marquis de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom to be ticking over — at present 49,230th on the Amazon bestsellers list. Elsewhere, via Gridwatch, despite modest demand on a late March morning, 25% of our electricity is being imported through the interconnectors — more than is being generated by the useless wind farms.
To hit the nonsensical carbon dioxide targets, cheap gas capacity is unused (or more likely paid to stand by at vast expense in case the wind drops).
On TheyWorkForYou, the Westminster jolly, freebie, and donations dials twitch ever higher.
To kill the boredom, our IT department hack into Dartford’s CCTV cameras so I can have a spy about. When last hosted by the Kent town, the show was recorded in the Mick Jagger Centre, which is part of Dartford Grammar School where the Rolling Stone frontman attended as a boy.
A reminder that one of the town’s favourite sons grew up in a pleasant suburban street close to Dartford Heath. Although living at the other end of the country, we in the Debatable Lands got to meet Mr Jagger and another family member when they walked the Roman Wall. Good and pleasant company they were too.
As I type there’s been a ping. Puffins, may I introduce tonight’s panel.
***
I’m not proud of this, but having been offered three months for three pounds, I bit and subscribed to the DT — an inferior politics website, worse than the unreadable drunkard Fatty Fawkes’.
In previous generations, every Irish family gave a son to the priesthood. Every landed mansion in England sent a favoured son to the trenches. Likewise, in the modern day, every journalist at the DT must go below the line once in a while to be custard-pied by the plebs.
Lady of letters Ms Camilla Tominey is no exception and, when thrust into the oiks’ den, proved to be a bit of a sporting good egg. As if at a high-level briefing before a bombing, the conversation — albeit Telegraph rather than Telegram — went like this:
No matter what the topic covered by her accompanying article, the lower orders wanted to hear about Camilla’s children being privately educated.
‘Two are in private, one is in state. So I’ve a foot in both camps.’
Challenged by the oiks, the defence submitted this was her choice as a parent. Upon which, your humble reviewer tangled his bait around the hook and dangled it into the pond.
Choice has nothing to do with it. Private education depends upon her husband being able to pay up. Grabbing the tasty morsel between both lips and swallowing hard, Ms Tominey responded at once:
‘Whose husband?’
In reply, one was obliged to reference the ‘deep-pocketed Mr Tominley’.
Trolling 1.1 — Spell The Name Wrong. Somewhat triggered, Camilla replied:
‘Has it crossed your mind that in 2024, some women can earn enough to send their children to private schools?’
In case of a misunderstanding worse than what munitions to use on an unarmed Houthi visiting his girlfriend, one felt obliged to clarify one’s position as being the defence of the sisterhood:
‘Make him pay, girl. It’s 2024, spend your money on yourself.
At which point, Ms Tominey came over all technical and asked if I had even read the article. Of course I hadn’t, I assured her. I don’t visit the DT website to read articles; I log on to talk to Camilla. Through the albeit limited nuances available via another’s keystrokes, I could tell the 46-year-old was bigly flattered and melting into a girly girl at the other end of the convo.
Five minutes later, when I typed that I’d now read it, she thanked me too enthusiastically and with (a gentleman can tell, you know) fluttering eyelashes and pouting lips, added coquettishly:
‘It might have been an idea to read it before commenting.’
Hope none of this gets leaked.
On a serious note, if you’re wondering how anyone can put two children through public school on a hack’s wage, so am I. Unfortunately, owing to the late arrival of the panellist’s names, I’m afraid there isn’t time to investigate Camilla’s finances. Boooo.
Elsewhere, Darren Jones is the Labour MP for Bristol North West, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and a qualified lawyer. Posh grammar-educated Richard Holden has never had a job, having gone straight from the LSE to Conservative Campaign HQ. The 40-year-old is Shadow Paymaster General and MP for Basildon and Billericay.
Daisy Cooper has also never had a job beyond charidee and quangoland. The privately educated 44-year-old is the LibDem MP for St Albans. Gary Stevenson is a YouTuber. A graduate of the LSE and a former city trader, his self-described backstory is so fake working-class-boy-done-good that I can’t be bothered to summarise it.
***
Question one, who should plug the deficit, benefits claimants or billionaires?
Darren Jones thought the deficit would be filled by a growing economy. This means public services have to be ‘got a grip of.’ Youngsters shouldn’t be not in work, education or training. Those with the broadest shoulders will pay more tax. For instance, if you, people of Dartford, are the owners of private jets you will pay a private jet tax. He said he grew up in poverty. Bristol and Shirehampton in Somerset in the late 80s and 1990s? Doubt it.
Richard Holden referenced employers having to pay more national insurance in a low-growth economy. La Bruce reminded him, the Tory manifesto had promised yet bigger cuts to benefits. Someone in the audience mentioned MPs are receiving a pay rise while his disabled relative was getting a benefits cut. Darren fobbed him off but admitted this was ‘awkward.’
Gary introduced himself as a number one City trader who used to earn millions but gave up because of wealth inequality. He played a game with words regarding the average billionaire and the increase in the government’s deficit. La Bruce mentioned much of such holdings of wealth are via pension funds. And who owns the fund, asked Gary, as though somewhere there’s a cigar-puffing fat guy called Mr Fund. Proof if proof were needed that a wealth tax means robbing you of your pension.
Tranny alert! Not sure what he/she/they was on about.
A tinged lady won the show. Leaders should lead by taking a pay cut. Camilla agreed and suggested MPs donate their salary increase to disabled charities. The tax burden is at a record high. Hmm. We all pay too much tax. Hmmm. We’re not taxed once but multiple times. Hmmmm.
Only teasing, of course there’s time to examine Camilla Tominey’s finances. Not her real name (Camilla Lyse Hogan), she and her husband Dominic are the only directors of two companies. Hankbella Ltd and Lannary Consulting Services are used as a tax dodge when accumulating Camilla’s media fees.
The companies’ (unaudited) accounts show five-figure sums then being loaned to directors. Do these loans attract a rate of interest? Will they ever be repaid without being immediately re-issued the next day? Useful ordnance for next time Ms Tominey is below the line on the meat grinder which is the DT comments section.
Gary and Camilla had a fight. Camilla wasn’t keen on a wealth tax and noted that very wealthy people go abroad and no longer add any value to Britain. Gary wondered if the Chinese would allow such a thing. He quoted an example of politicians protecting the wealthy as the wealthy own the politicians.
The example used was of extra stamp duty on second homes, introduced by the Tories but with an exemption if you bought several homes at once. A loophole, Gary claimed, taken advantage of by Tory Cabinet Minster Jeremy Hunt.
La Bruce, wary of the lawyers – libel not conveyancing – interjected to say that we did not know whether Mr Hunt did so or not. Not true. QT Review HQ can confirm to Fiona that Mr Hunt did take advantage of the loophole and, speaking of the Chinese, made the purchase in his Chinese wife’s name using her Chinese passport to distance himself from the transaction.
Daisy Cooper is going to tax tax tax tax tax the big corporations that make billions and billions and billions in profits over here. Since Brexit….. I ignored the rest of that particular argument. She wasn’t keen on a wealth tax but didn’t add because of her own wealthy major donors such as Lord Sainsbury. Rather, it is too complicated – unlike taxing big corporations based overseas who will roll over and let Daisy rob them.
The next question was about US tariffs. La Bruce used as an example the 25% import tariff recently placed upon cars from Europe sold to the United States. Fiona, why not abolish them here and the USA would have no need to retaliate? Because it’s an EU policy. But we’re not in the EU. Ho hum, as they say in the US of A.
Another good way to help the car industry would be to do away with Net Zero, take an axe to energy prices and allow the manufacturers to continue to make and sell petrol engines.
Daisy is going to be tough. She wants retaliatory tariffs in response to the retaliatory tariffs. Pressed by La Bruce, she could only think of one – a Tesla tariff. Abolish petrol engines and make electric cars even more unaffordable to, erm, help the motor industry.
On that moronic note, I gave up, and, after paying the pyjamas tax and stairs tariff, headed for bed.
© Always Worth Saying 2025
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