Always Worth Saying’s Question Time Review

Question Time 22nd October 2026

The Panel:

Wes Streeting (Labour)
Tom Tugendhat (Conservative)
Ellie Chowns (The Green Party)
Stephanie Flanders (Journalist)
Geoff Norcott (Comedian)

Venue: Scunthorpe

Since leaving Cambridge (Selwyn College, History), Wesley Streeting has never had a job beyond politics and charidee, including with the vile Stonewall organisation. Keeping it in the family, the 42-year-old’s partner is James Dancy, a Westminster lobbyist. Keeping it in the lifestyle, Wes is a friend of Peter Mandelson, with whom he exchanged kissy private messages made public during the Mandelson/Epstein scandal. In them, the present Minister of Defence expressed his fears of losing his Ilford seat to a Muslim. At the 2024 general election, 23-year-old Leanne Mohamad trailed by only 528 votes. He also accused Israel of war crimes.

Nasty Wes isn’t keen on Daily Mail journalist Jan Muir either, who he tweeted as a ‘bigoted old bag’ who should be thrown under a train.

Despite big promises, Streeting was a brief and ineffective health secretary for Keir Starmer. Even with the publication of a ten-year plan, he spent less than two years in the role before resigning amid manoeuvres to oust the then prime minister. Speaking of behind-the-scenes machinations in the Westminster cesspit, keep an eye out for Daisy Cooper replacing the woeful Ed Davey, followed by a snap election ushering a Lib-Lab coalition dream team led by waffling Andy and goofy Daisy. As with the conspiracy to remove Keith, one suspects that backroom negotiations are already under way, with John Healey-type promotions being offered.

Tom Tugendhat, not his real name, Lieutenant Commander the Right Honourable Thomas Georg John Tugendhat MBE VR, is one of the Kent Tugendhats and represents the constituency of Tonbridge on behalf of the Conservative Party. A Nantes Espivent de La Villesboisnet de La Prévalayes on his mother’s side and a Menche de Loisne on his High Court judge father’s, Tom attended St Paul’s School (£61,000 pa), the University of Bristol (Theology), and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (Islamic studies).

Now serving as shadow foreign secretary, Tom worked as a journalist in Beirut after completing his education, before setting up a public relations firm and going on to work as a management consultant and City energy analyst. From 2002, the 52-year-old served in the Territorial Army with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan on the pins-on-maps side of things. His naval rank is presumably due to being seconded to the Royal Marines as a translator during Gulf War II. Wife is the interesting Anissia Morel, a French citizen and the daughter of a former Paris ambassador to Russia and China. Mrs Tugendhat is Cultural Counsellor of the French Embassy in the UK and Director of the Institut français du Royaume-Uni.

Eleanor Elizabeth Chowns has never had a job, preferring a career in academia and the non-governmental sector, while being a Green Party councillor. Elected to the European Parliament in May 2019, she returned to the council after we left the EU in January 2020, and entered the House of Commons as the MP for North Herefordshire in July 2024. Her colleagues there include Carla Denya and Hannah Spencer, both of whom are banned from entering Israel. Before being preoccupied with forcing Jews from their homes, the 51-year-old’s role call of non-jobs is deserving of its own addendum, provided below.

Stephanie Flanders (NHRN, Stephanie Hope Arlidge) is a hereditary media bubble journalist. The daughter of Michael Flanders (Westminster School, £70,000 pa), half the Flanders and Swan (also Westminster School) double act, Stephanie attended £30,000 pa St Paul’s Girls’ School prior to taking a First in PPE at Balliol College, Oxford. An arch globalist, her relatives and ancestors, more of whom in this previous QT Review, provide a roll call of smug Metropolitan nepo hacks. Her clinches include Ed Miliband and Ed Balls.

London-born comedian Geoffrey Frank Norcott, known in this parish as ‘Norks’, is a graduate of Goldsmiths, University of London. A teacher by profession, he progressed from part-time stand-up to writing for TV, to panel show regular. His unique selling point on the ‘comedy’ circuit is that he is one of the few, if any, Conservative voting, right-wing mainstream comics. However, he claims to be working class but the accent is a bit ‘mockney’, and his father was a draftsman.

On the other hand, he is a recipient of an Operational Service Medal for five frontline tours entertaining the troops in Afghanistan. On the other, other hand, he once served as a panellist on the BBC’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group. His most recent tour, ‘Basic Bloke 2: There’s No Bloke Without Fire’, attracted positive reviews, but one can’t help but notice the 49-year-old is playing ‘rooms’ rather than theatres or stadiums.

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Question One: Are We Already in a Proxy War? “No,” responded Wes, “but we are under the greatest threat of my lifetime.” A Russian victory over Ukraine will encourage them. The threats are already here: hybrid warfare, terrorism, drones and assassinations.

His uniparty colleague Tom agreed, but he wrongly claimed that the Russian nerve agent attack in Salisbury could have killed thousands. It didn’t even kill the Skripals. Neither of them mentioned that we’re making ourselves a target by providing munitions and personnel to Ukraine.

“Unity is strength,” said Wes, quoting the old club motto of my local XI. Be careful what you wish for, Wes. The blue-and-white army is in 14th in English football’s fifth tier — the military equivalent of the Austrian navy or Holland’s mountain warfare regiment.

An audience member wondered whether we would have any control over additional defence spending, or whether it would support what he described as an illegal war against Iran. Another had a similar thought. With President Trump having become unreliable, should we be looking for another special relationship? A Spetsnaz in the audience, disguised as a middle-aged female Remainer, spread misinformation by confusing the EU with NATO.

Ellie Chowns said the Greens weren’t keen on nuclear weapons (or NATO, she forgot to add), but were keen on defensive cooperation with allies. She then blamed Trump’s “illegal wars” against various poor, harmless souls in the Middle East. She forgot to mention her party’s recent vote to remove the Jews from Israel. Defence isn’t only about guns and bombs. Pandemics, the climate crisis and climate breakdown are threats too.

Nobody mentioned Rule Number One, which, no matter what appears in The Art of War, approximates to: “Don’t attack Russia.”

Stephanie noted the evening’s discussion broadening from the specifics of a war to a generalised fear of threats. The global economic backdrop is being picked apart. We have taken a particular type of globalisation — of communication and the movement of goods — for granted. We now need costly alternatives to, say, passage through the Strait of Hormuz and an alliance with the USA.

La Bruce nudged Wes towards the government’s ‘Be Ready’ campaign. “Floods, wildfires, frozen pipes,” began Wes. Not to worry — three days’ supply of food and a power bank for your phone will have Putin trembling. “Is this not scaremongering?” wondered a lady. “Will it not cause panic buying and raise prices?”

The second question came from John Westmorland, whose name La Bruce mispronounced. It denounced the Greens for threatening to remove the Jews. Oh. No, it didn’t. It was about Jackdaw. Is the recent approval of gas extraction in that part of the North Sea an act of climate vandalism?

Mr West-MORE-land blamed Jim Ratcliffe. Gets the blame for everything, does Jim. Wendyballer André Onana throws the ball into the back of his own net? Blame Jim. According to the questioner, Ratcliffe and the “fossil fuel giants” are blackmailing us by developing the Gulf of Mexico rather than the North Sea. Der. It’s because they’re pushing at an open door, whereas here it’s torture. And anyway, shouldn’t that be the Gulf of America?

Stephanie thought it sensible, even if you’re in favour of net zero. This is an existing licence, not a new one. The transition to “renewables” means importing gas until it can be replaced. Norks saw it as a no-brainer, delayed by the (leftie) judiciary. Nobody mentioned that the delay happened because of Labour’s fear of the Greens in the Holborn & St Pancras by-election.

An audience member complained about refineries closing and diesel and aviation spirit having to be imported. Jim Ratcliffe again! Wes spouted climate nonsense and conjured up a non-existent hydrocarbon sovereign wealth fund. Tom disagreed with the questioner: energy costs are too high here. Look at the effect on the steel industry in Scunthorpe.

“But this won’t lower bills?” interrupted La Bruce. Tom invented a local market in gas prices. Of which there isn’t. He then settled on the advantage of “resilience” instead.

“Norway are trillions up, we’re trillions down. Why aren’t we like Norway?” demanded an audience member. Because we’re nothing like Norway: a country with a much smaller population, far more hydrocarbons and no monstrous welfareism. And, let’s face it, no post-industrialised, heavily subsidised Scunthorpes.

Stephanie talked rubbish as she misunderstood how the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund works. She said the oil money had been put into infrastructure, rather than into a pot that can be drawn upon. Wrong! About 70% of the fund’s total assets are invested in equities, meaning that 1.5% of the world’s equities are owned by the Norwegians — whose residents represent only 0.07% of the world’s population.

Ellie changed the subject to apologise for threatening to remove the Jews from Israel. Or rather, she didn’t. She invented an opportunistic “green economy”.

Question Three: How Rubbish Is the NHS? The questioner’s mother is stuck on a 60-week-long waiting list for an operation. You mean giving endless pay increases to millionaire doctors hasn’t helped? “The NHS is in a better place,” said Wes. After hearing the groans, he claimed he could give us the numbers. Instead, he gave us some words: Tories, COVID.

Norks pointed out local problems with the North Lincolnshire Trust being near the bottom of the national league table for such things. If managers mess up, they should be held to account. “It’s not just about money,” Tom agreed. “It’s about efficient management processes.” A 12-year-old in the audience suggested that millionaire doctors aren’t paid enough.

Stephanie pointed out that we spend more on health but receive less for it. She pointed the finger at management and efficiency. As important is the fact that everybody is less healthy. It’s a problem the world over.

Question Four: Was It About Anti-Semitism? No, it was about British Steel’s state-owned, subsidised Scunthorpe plant. It’s odd that if somebody from Reform UK repeats a Bernard Manning joke — broadcast on mainstream TV in the first place — it’s the worst thing that’s ever happened. But when the Greens vote to expel the Jews from their own country, there’s a deadly mainstream TV hush.

Addendum

Ellie Chown’s non-jobs.

Part-time Lecturer on leave from the University of Birmingham
Teaching Fellow at the University of Birmingham
Programme Performance Manager, Community Health, Christian Aid
Doctoral Researcher, University of Birmingham
Research Associate, Department of Geography, University of Sheffield
Advocacy and Information Manager, Concern Universal
Teaching Fellow, International Development, University of Bath
Evaluation and Research Specialist (Design and Methodology), VSO
Teaching Fellow, International Development Department, University of Birmingham
Research Fellow, GSDRC
Executive Officer (Climate Change), Department of Trade and Industry
Assistant Parliamentary Campaigner, Friends of the Earth
Joint Co-ordinator, Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel
Northern Uganda Representative, Quaker Peace and Social Witness
Coordinator of GLOBE UK (an All-Party Parliamentary Group)
Effective Concern Advocacy and Information Manager, Concern Universal
Research Fellow in Climate Change Adaptation, Gender and Conflict, Conflict Sensitivity, Voice, Empowerment, Accountability and Human Rights, Governance and Social Development Resource Centre
Chairperson of the Connected Communities Scrutiny Committee, Herefordshire Council