Question Time 19th March 2026
The Panel:
Wes Streeting (Labour)
Helen Whatley (Conservative)
James Orr (Reform UK)
Josh Barbarinde (LibDem)
Caroline Lucas (Green Party)
Venue: Croydon
Besides being a friend of Dorothy, Wesley Streeting is a friend of Peter, with whom he exchanged kissy private messages made public as part of the Mandelson scandal. Less keen on Daily Mail journalist Jan Muir, Wes referred to her in a tweet as a ‘bigoted old bag’ who should be thrown under a train. His messages to La Mandelson, however, are more affectionate and include endearments such as,
‘Am free all day, so call whenever you like.’
Similarly, as recently as last June, when Mandelson was British ambassador in Washington and Streeting the Labour government’s new health secretary, his disgraced lordship wondered of Wes,
‘Are you planning to visit US this year?’
‘Hope so! x’, replied the smitten Mr Streeting.
To which Lord Mandelson responded,
‘Need to plan. Lots of tech companies and people to talk to.’
Which begs the question, is Mr Streeting’s pounding heart an unrequited plea being groomed by Madelson the tech lobbyist? Regarding Labour’s recognition of Palestine, Streeting informs the thirty years older man that the Israeli stance is ‘rogue state behaviour’. Sanctions should be applied to the state, not just a few ministers,
‘Israel is committing war crimes before our eyes. Their government talks the language of ethnic cleansing.’
Why is Steeting so adamant? Perhaps because, as revealed elsewhere in kissygate,
‘I am toast at the next election. We just lost our safest ward in Redbridge (51% Muslim, Ilford S) to a Gaza independent.’
Away from touchy-feely texts with a close friend of Epstein, Wes is a history graduate of Selwyn College, Cambridge, who has never had a job beyond politics and charidee. Partner is James Dancy, a Westminster lobbyist. Streeting was elected to parliament for the Labour Party in Ilford North in 2015.
Helen Whatley is the MP for Faversham and Mid Kent and the Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. The Woldingham (£61,000 pa) and Westminster (£49,950 pa) old girl is a graduate (PPE) of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. The Conservative former minister’s parents were Robin Lightwood FRCS, a surgeon, and Andrea, a physician. Husband, Richard Marcus Whatley, is a net zero plutocrat who makes his money from developing ‘green’ wood-burning power stations for giant industrial plants.
At times Helen gives the impression she worked for the NHS, but was in fact a management consultant with PwC and McKinsey in the healthcare division.
Caroline Lucas, not her real name, Dr Caroline Patricia Savage, is the former Green MP for Brighton Pavilion. Educated at £51,000 a year Malvern and the universities of Exeter (English literature) and Kansas (journalism). Her PhD was awarded from Exeter University, with her thesis entitled “Writing for Women: A Study of Woman as Reader in Elizabethan Romance (gender in writing)”. Available from Amazon but not included on their best sellers list, ironically it cannot be compared to that other gender romance, the Marquis de Sade’s 120 days of Sodom.
All we know is Dr Caroline’s mighty work costs a passion killing £44.14 for 176 second-hand pages. Soros-funded (a Soros lobby group donated when she was an MP) and a convicted criminal (breach of the peace at Faslane nuclear base), Ms Lucas’s husband is Richard Le Quesne Savage, a Marlborough old boy and former first-class county cricketer with Warwickshire.
A graduate of the London School of Economics with a degree in Government, Joshua Thomas Aderele Babarinde OBE, oft claims to be an entrepreneur. But not of the inventing things, making them and selling them variety, but rather a ‘social entrepreneur’ engaged in endless non-jobs in politics and the third sector. For instance: youth intervention worker in Tower Hamlets, policy assistant at the African Health Policy Network, community engagement consultant, social innovation fellow, Head of Entrepreneurship (delivery) at the School for Social Entrepreneurship.
Not to worry, Josh was elected to parliament as the LibDem MP for Eastbourne in the 2024 general election and is currently their President and parliamentary spokesman on justice. Of Nigerian heritage, Josh has a domestic partner called Connor.
James Orr is an old boy of £60,000 per annum Winchester College, and a classics graduate of Balliol College, Oxford. Besides being a member of Reform UK and an advisor to Nigel Farage, Mr Orr is an academic, an Associate Professor of Philosophy of Religion at the University of Cambridge, where he focuses on theology and political thought. As ever, the disappointing dullard of the family is dispatched to Question Time.
Wife Helen is an Anglican vicar in charge of two Church of England parishes, one of which is South Cambridgeshire’s Basingbourn. She is also a poet, singer, and the daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward KGCM, a one-time Bishop of Coventry. An Old Etonian and graduate of Magdalene College, Cambridge, Simon’s father and therefore Helen’s grandfather was Robert Barrington-Ward, a barrister and former editor of The Times.
During the First War, Robert served as an officer in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, earning both the Distinguished Service Order and the Military Cross. Upon journeying from South Africa to England in 1948, Barrington-Ward was taken ill and died off Dar es Salaam at the age of only 57. Helen’s Uncle Mark also served in the Duke of Cornwall’s and was also a newspaperman. Having started our review with a friend of Dorothy, we must end with Ugandan discussions, Mark being, in better times, the founding editor of the Uganda Argus.
A question for the class. How has the British establishment fallen so far so quickly?
***
Question one came from one of the few (for Croydon) tinged carefully selected BBC audience members. Should President Trump accept that attacking Iran was a mistake?
Self-evidently it’s a mistake, because we haven’t joined in, began Wes. This is a war of choice interrupting a peace process that needed more time. Starmer has been consistant, whereas Badenoch and Farage said the opposite to the Prime Minister, then changed their minds. Helen pointed out that it was Starmer who had changed his mind over the use of US bases for bombing Iran.
La Bruce quoted exactly what she’d quoted last week regarding Badenoch suggesting we should be deep-in to stop Iranian missiles from being fired. La Bruce, Helen and Wes talked over each other. James was amazed that Starmer was being portrayed as strong and decisive. La Bruce had some more quotes, this time from Tice and Farage. James distinguished between supporting an ally and being a co-beligerant.
James saw all kinds of cases to be made for the war. For instance stopping human loss. Goodness knows where he gets that from, given the deaths across the Middle East in the latest wave of violence. But, James thought the execution of the war was ‘cack-handed’. An audience member suggested Trump’s mistake was thinking that regime change in Iran would follow the same path as in Venezuela.
Illegal and reckless, began Caroline, and a massive underestimate by Trump and Netanyahu of their enemy. The Trump Derangement Syndrome was high and ended with, ‘Donald, you broke it, you fix it.’
Josh was very clear, this is an illegal war, and we should not be involved in combat. He referenced the retreat from Afghanistan. He attacked Farage and Badenoch and wanted an apology from Helen for the Tories saying our pilots are ‘hanging around’. He thought this was disrespecting our troops. Hanging around because the LibDems have banned them from going to war, surely?
Question two was about energy independence. The best way of insulating ourselves from events in places like the Gulf, according to Caroline, is renewables. They are a cure-all, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Using our own oil and gas, said Caroline, is not the answer to an international shortage of oil and gas.
James said ‘drill baby, drill’, but without mentioning the word ‘drill’ and in several hundred words rather than three and a comma.
Helen forgot to mention her husband is in green energy. What did she say? Nothing. Despite reading from notes, she just waffled in non-sentences. Eventually, she concluded we should be drilling, but it’s too taxed.
Streeting outlined what the government is doing, for instance, the energy cap and the fuel duty freeze. He claimed bills are lower, whereas the other panellists pointed out they aren’t – especially not by the £300 cut promised in the Labour manifesto. Again, Streeting claimed renewables to be some kind of (unproven) panacea.
He referenced the Tories’ previous commitment to net zero, omitting to mention it was not based upon science or economics but – in further evidence of the decline of the establishemnt – was dumped on us because Prime Minister Johnson was unable to contradict his lobbyist mistress.
© Always Worth Saying 2026
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