Question Time 11th December 2025
The Panel:
Anas Sarwar (Labour)
Stephen Flynn (SNP)
Russell Findlay (Conservative)
Lord Offord (Reform)
Angela Haggerty (Journalist)
Venue: Paisley
Not going to lie, I’ve had a bit of a funny day. Took Mrs AWS on the train to Manchester for the Christmas markets, and very good it was too. Why does everybody hate the railways and Kier Starmer? Everything ran to time on the TransPennine Express service, plus we got fed and watered. Having said that, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.
Boarding at our Debatable Lands halt, the stewardess said something easily ignored in impenetrable rural Romanian. Much later, I enquired of her about breakfast. I asked when you got on at Karl-izz-lee, and you said nothing, she replied. Ho hum. And now we’re past Bolton. Not to worry, she whisked up a tasty full English in a few minutes.
Having learned my lesson, on the way back, I enquired successfully both of a hot meal and of more than a few tins of chilled wine. Drink driving? My brother-in-law picks us up from the station exit, he being one of those irritating people who, by some provincial civic alchemy, can park on triple red lines without raising a passing eyebrow, let alone the interest of the local constabulary.
As for not hating Keir Starmer, TransPennine Express went snap a while ago and is directly controlled by the Department of Transport. And, on today’s experience, are doing a better job than the other mainline train operator in my part of the world, the private sector’s Avanti West Coast.
So far, so good. But, arriving home, one of the children is in A&E. That’s what happens when you leave them at home for half a day – even when they’re in their twenties. And I’m pickled. Not to worry, a gentleman in any circumstance is fortunate to have a daughter – especially when she can drive and has her own car.
At QT Review HQ, nothing stands in our way. Not even a day off from prep, I hear you ask? Well, my football was called off last night as the rest of the team were going to see our Local XI (get beaten), so I did it yesterday evening.
Question One: Will the end of the two-child benefits cap bring children out of poverty or just fund parents’ lifestyles? The questioner had spotted expensive nails, iPhones and tattoos on those claiming bennies. Stephen Flynn (SNP) claimed child poverty in Scotland was falling faster than elsewhere in the UK because of the SNP. Across the economy as a whole, however, the outlook is grim, and it is this that causes poverty.
As for Stephen’s position on the work/benefits spectrum, he falls firmly into the never-had-a-job category with his experience of the big, bad world outside of the political bubble consisting of, erm, political staffing and internal party work. Born in Dundee, the 36-year-old studied History and Politics at the University of Dundee, later completing a master’s in International Politics and Security Studies.
He then worked as a political assistant within the SNP before becoming an Aberdeen City Councillor in 2015 and later leader of the SNP group on the council. By 2019 he was Member of Parliament for Aberdeen South, rising to be a shouty and easily ignored Leader of the SNP in the House of Commons by December 2022.
Anas Sarwar (Labour) thought the children shouldn’t be the victims of economic problems. He saw this as ‘structural poverty’ which is caused by … 15 years of Tory damage. Groan. As a former dentist in Paisley, he’d seen the direct result of such things.
Prior to gazing into Buddies’ mouths, Anas was privately educated at the fee-paying Hutcheson’s Grammar School and later graduated from the University of Glasgow. His five years as an NHS dentist ended when he entered politics, eventually rising to be the present leader of the Labour Party in Scotland.
In between times, he inherited a Westminster seat from his father, Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar, who, in the interests of integration, subsequently gave up his British citizenship, returned to his native Pakistan and became Governor of the Punjab. As such, Sarwar Jr is part of a political clan with ‘charity’ and business interests that include a cash-and-carry firm.
A range of controversial associations, questionable political donations (including from offshore entities), business-related VAT problems tied to the family firm, and donations from individuals with serious criminal convictions oblige the financial page of QT Review to recommend ‘Avoid.’
A gentleman in the audience asked why the uniparty can’t work together. As the name suggests, they do. They’re all in favour of net zero, mass uncontrolled unlimited immigration and tax and spend; the results of which impact on children’s well-being.
Lord Offord (Reform UK) saw an imbalance between the benefit of benefits and the benefits of working. Working families lose out in the present system compared to claimants. He wanted to encourage bigger families. But how?
Lord Malcolm Offord of Garvel is a Scottish politician and former City of London financier. Born in Greenock in 1964, he studied law at the University of Edinburgh before spending about 25 years working in investment banking and private equity — including senior roles at firms such as Lazard, 3i and Charterhouse Capital.
After returning to Scotland in 2014, he founded a private equity firm, Badenoch & Co, focused on supporting Scottish businesses. He entered politics — more precisely, the upper chamber — in 2021 when granted a life peerage after donating a six-figure sum to the Conservatives. However, in December 2025, he defected to Reform UK, becoming the party’s first peer.
Sawar interupted to say that most benefit claimants, for instance those on Universal Credit, are working.
Encouraged by La Bruce, Russell Findlay (Conservative) took time away from the poor and needy to give a scripted and rehearsed sanctimonious monologue on loyalty aimed at Malcolm. While doing so, he forgot to mention the way in which the previous Conservative government betrayed all of us.
Findlay spent around three decades working as an investigative journalist — writing for outlets such as the Sunday Mail and the Scottish Sun — specialising in organised crime and gangland reporting. In December 2015, he became the story after surviving a doorstep acid attack when a criminal disguised as a postman threw sulphuric acid in his face and then tried to stab him.
He later recounted the ordeal in his book titled Acid Attack: A Journalist’s War With Organised Crime, the Kindle edition of which deserves better than its present face-melting 60,804 places below the audio book of the Marquis de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom.
Findlay entered politics relatively recently: in 2021 he was elected to the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party as a Member of the Scottish Parliament for the West Scotland region. By September 2024 he had become leader of the Scottish Conservatives, but the 53-year-old is not a Westminster MP.
One problem, according to Angela Haggerty, is that the politicians don’t use the benefits system or know how it works. She disputed that you can get more on bennies than in work, as there are other caps beyond the two-child one, for instance on rents.
Armed with an HND from Cardonald College, Glasgow, and a diploma in journalism, Angela Haggarty calls herself a journalist. Alongside co-author Phil Mac Giolla Bhain she penned the mighty work, Downfall: How Rangers FC Self-Destructed. Less popular than a doorstep acid attack, it sits a fallen down 181,521 places beneath the Marquis de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom on the Amazon best-sellers list.
In turn, the authors appear less popular than a trip to a Paisley dentist. Below the line comments aimed at the writers and their work include: ‘load of rubbish’, ‘proven liar’, ‘a good book for the illiterate’, ‘utter tripe’, ‘sad individual’, ‘worst effort I have ever come across’, ‘lies’, ‘small-minded bigoted blogger’.
A useful lexicon for a reviewer of Question Time. Meanwhile, on my doorstep, daughter and son have returned (fit and well, false alarm) and armed with … fish and chips! Time to go.
© Always Worth Saying 2025
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