Every so often, I dare to look at why BBC Question Time is ‘trending’ on Twitter. I usually wish I hadn’t. Thankfully, I spend most of the year outside the UK, so I never actually get to watch the programme itself, unless I happen to have had a few sherbets and my dad doesn’t fancy another episode of Family Guy. Today, I dared. The same clip appeared in most of the Tweets. Probably wisely, I didn’t dare to actually click any of the links, not because I was afraid of picking up that dreadful virus – you can get those on a computer link, right? – but because, judging by the accompanying comments, I thought there’d be a good chance that my head would explode.
I had no intention of acknowledging the ‘trend’, but by a strange, albeit short, set of coincidences, I am now sat here thinking about this very thing. Bear with me. I should take you back a step or two, before I go on.
The other day, I made a conscious decision not to fret about doing some writing for this here project (I am slightly self-conscious about using the term blog). Rather, I came to the conclusion that I would write if and when something struck me as writeworthy. Such as making up a new word, perhaps? Then, a couple of days ago, I was listening to the radio when some bloke was being interviewed about his new book, during which he stated that he only found out what his thoughts were (on a particular subject) by actually writing about the subject. The following day, I saw exactly the same concept written somewhere completely unrelated. This piqued my interest… and promptly slipped my mind. Then, sat twiddling my thumbs this afternoon (haha! yeah, entertaining two children, as usual), I did actually think about this and wondered what it would be like to simply select a random topic and venture forth into the unknown. Sadly, I never made it that far, since I checked back in on Twitter and found this:
Now, I don’t know the #BBCQT woman, nor do I know the doctor. I have seen a brief clip of the woman shouting “rubbish” in response to one of the Question Time panelist’s response to her question/expressed opinion/complaint/whatever. I’m reasonably confident that she’d have copious amounts of evidence and data to back up her rebuttal, no doubt gleaned from the pages of some rag, or that chap in the corner of the pub who sometimes drives a cab.
I don’t want to go too deep on this, because frankly I cannot be arsed, for reasons which will become evident in just a moment. It seems to me that the doctor makes a series of very reasoned, reasonable, well-informed, educated points in his Tweets. I may well be wrong, but I suspect that in her question/expressed opinion/complaint/whatever, the woman did not. I’m betting that the former will enjoy some widespread exposure on Twitter for 48 hours or so, but it will be as nothing compared to the exposure of random-woman-spouting-bollocks-on-prime-time-BBC. Thus, I have to conclude that if a doctor, who is far smarter and much better connected than yours truly, makes a thoroughly decent argument which will make absolutely no difference to racists, bigots and xenophobes, then there is no point in little old me making any further comment. Unless I can get an invite to appear on BBCQT, obviously.
I wonder if they’d pay for my flight? Come to think of it, I wonder if they’d interview me to plug my new book*?
*In case anyone doesn’t know me personally, this is definitely not me. Just a visual gag. No offence intended to my namesake.
2020 - A Year of Perfect Vision 