THERE is nothing like a TV debate to fire the adrenalin, reinforcing our prejudices, all before a nice cup of cocoa and bedtime.
The BBC Question Time format has become a cypher for the rightward lurch of British politics. This week’s episode was typical. Infuriated Hartlepool audience members railed at a panel including convicted fraudster Conrad Black and the unfortunate Ken Clarke, a Tory MP who was reviled as a closet Euro-leftie. “The people” had backed Brexit, so “let’s just do Article 50 and get our country back!”
Quite what Brexit will achieve for post-industrial Hartlepool is anybody’s guess. This northern town made steel and ships once, but its decline began in the 1930s. Its latter regeneration owes much to European funding. Peter Mandelson was MP for 12 years until leaving for the European Commission, and Labour still hold the seat. The ever-posh peer is famously said to have once visited a local chip shop, pointed to the mushy peas and said: “I must try your lovely guacamole”.
Yet Hartlepool recorded one of the highest Leave votes, 69.9 per cent. A Polish woman said she had experienced hostility recently for the first time in 23 years. A teacher reported local children were bringing the language of racism and intolerance into the classroom. Both were roundly booed before they could finish. This was a crowd in a state of rage.
So is Hartlepool a bastion of intolerance? The local council has 33 councillors, and only six are Ukip. It became apparent numerous supporters in the audience were acting in concert, egged on by representative Lisa Duffy on the panel.
Question Time is a polished, professional product. But viewers know little about its audiences. All parties try to pack the crowd in their favour. When they succeed, viewers can be forgiven for thinking there is overwhelming support for particular views. This week it seemed a majority believed children from Calais refugee camp are all adults lying about their age, or that we must somehow pull out of the EU immediately, without negotiation.
The BBC has fallen for Ukip more than most, and the reason is class. With their quaint prejudices and regional accents, surely Ukip supporters must speak for a place beyond W1? Many an Oxbridge-educated correspondent saw Nigel Farage and his belligerent band as an entertaining diversion to the banking crisis and the unconvincing rot from the Cameron coalition that we were “all in this together”. Mr Farage, that funny chap who smoked and drank, was a misty reminder of when Britain stood alone. One of the great false memories is that things were “better” in the good old days.
Whatever our politics, we believe our side speaks the truth and the others are wrong. These instincts reached new extremes during the EU referendum.
Consensus is shattered. Extreme views are voiced in less inhibited fashion. All the more reason why politicians – and audiences – should be scrutinised closely, their assertions challenged. Instead, Ukip and the right are the headline act of a circus for whom the programme notes carry no warnings about dangerous content.
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