Friday 30 April 2010

The notorious Mrs. Fox and Question Time

Last night I sat and watched a whole hour of Question Time for the first time in my life. With the unignorable election now in sight I must have been in a political mood and found myself unexpectedly interested in what David Dimbleby, and his panel of guest speakers, had to say about the televised debate that had just taken place between the three main party leaders. The guest speakers on the Question Time panel were Ed Balls, fighting desperately for Labour, Vince Cable doddering for the Liberals, Alex Salmond puffing shaking his jowls about huffily and a rather downtrodden looking Liam Fox for the Tories. This Liam Fox, who is the current Shadow Self Defence Secretary, recently involved in the expenses scandal by claiming over £22,000 to redecorate his house, is the son of the notorious 'Mrs Fox'.
Mrs Fox was a small woman with a temper of pure fire who lived up our street when we were kids. Mrs. Fox used to run down the street when we'd play football in the large 'Balls Games Prohibited' patch of grass directly outside the front of our house and rant at us with pointed finger. Looking back, she was probably quite right to chase us off that grass considering balls games were indeed prohibited, but it was the fact that she lived a good few blocks away and up the street and would always know when we were out kicking the ball about. She either had some king of supersonic fox sense or spies at various posts in the street looking out for us. If she did have spies or any supporters we certainly never encountered or heard of any. On the day of Kenny's Frist Communion we had the whole family round and Mrs Fox even chased all the Uncles off the grass, much to the disapproval of the female relations who started booing loudly from behind the large living room window, the booing largely led by Aunt Mina. Anyway, because of this, I always remember Mrs Fox and her rants when I see Liam Fox squirming on television.
Ed Balls, one of Labour's top Commanders and Secretary of State for Schools, was doing a fair amount of squirming at the questions from the Question Time audience too whilst Vince Cable just seemed to shrug his way through the questions in a nonchalant 'Vote for us, or don't vote for us' fashion. Cable, the Danny Glover to Clegg's Mel Gibson, inwardly sighing, "I'm too old for this sh*t". All the while Alex Salmond raged about not having been invited to take part in the televised debates like a child who hadn't been asked to someone's birthday party and went out of his way to agree with everything the audience were saying. Janet Street Porter simply seemed to moan and groan, her most common gripe being about the fact that the current leaders were all men.
The whole programme may not have helped you decide upon who your voting for but it certainly helped in getting to sleep.

4 comments:

Kasia said...

Ditto to Vince Cable comment - he indeed looked really bored :) It was my first Question Time, too - I'm usually annoyed by audience in such programmes - there's always a few clever guys asking the right questions but there's also somebody who's just plain daft and it's usually the one who shouts most and won't shut up. Actually that applies to politicians, too ;)

Baz said...

Hi Michael.

I'm a regualar Question Time watcher, and I had to laugh when I read this blog, I think you've summed them all up wonderfully.. I love the Vince Cable shrugging, I think he truly is Danny Glover to Nick Cleggs' Mel Gibson.. I think Vince probably isn't bothered because he just sees it for what it is.. you either vote Liberal or don't.. if you don't.. then he's not wasting breath.. and to be fair, I agree with that.. once they've laid out their policies then they should back off and let us decide.

I've spent the last 4 weeks gripped by election fever and it's been so interesting all the up's and downs, from NI and Jobs Tax to the upturn in Lib Dem support, to Cameron cock up and Brown put downs.. and all the revelations in between about MP's expenses. I'll vote the same as I always do, and I can only hope that it will actually do some good.

Mr Fox comes across as a dick.

The best guest they have on QT is Will Self.. he's fascinating to watch..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5StCxzD-jQ

He rules..

Michael Reid said...

I've never seen Will Self on QT but tI have seen him on Shooting Stars!-)

Baz said...

He's great on Shooting Stars too.. Bob rules!