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BBC Interview--and Bush thinks he has it tough...

Hutch

A broken man on a Halifax pier, the last of Barret
Hutch
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..well, read http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/blog/4519553.stm]this transcript[/URL] of an interview between Jeremy Paxman of the BBC (who I guess has a reputation for pit-bull like interviews) and Geroge Galloway, the ex-Labour rep that was kicked out after going to Baghdad and uttering all sorts of pro-Saddam stuff (pre-war).

Well, Galloway got elected to Parliment as an Independent and...well, just read the interview.

Edited to add: as BPSCG points out, the link above doesn't work,

so try this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/vote_2005/blog/4519553.stm
 
C-SPAN carried a BBC program a few days ago where the candidates were questioned one at a time by a moderator and an audience. This was unlike anything I've seen in the US in terms of how tough the audience and host were with the candidates. Quite refreshing.

US politicians take plenty of flack -- it's a style difference. Blair was being dressed down as if across the breakfast table. And the host was far tougher than most US talking heads.
 
varwoche said:
C-SPAN carried a BBC program a few days ago where the candidates were questioned one at a time by a moderator and an audience. This was unlike anything I've seen in the US in terms of how tough the audience and host were with the candidates. Quite refreshing.

US politicians take plenty of flack -- it's a style difference. Blair was being dressed down as if across the breakfast table. And the host was far tougher than most US talking heads.
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Probably because there is less competition. If you want to do a TV interview in the UK and you want it to be seen by a reasonable number of people you have only the BBC and ITV to chose between.
 
I have to admit, I've always had a sneaking admiration for the way the government is required to submit to Q & A in Commons (I forget what the proper name is for the process, but I'm sure some of our British friends will clue me in):

"Does the government not concede that its policy of branding newly-arrived immigrants with a hot poker is an appallingly insensitive practice, and is not only a waste of the taxpayer's money and a needless drain on the Exchequer, but is just cause for requiring the resignation of the entire cabinet?" (shouts of "Hear! Hear!" and "Harumph! Harumph!")

Instead, we have exchanges that begin, "Will the gentleman yield (the floor)?", to which the standard response is, "I'd be happy to yield to my friend, the distinguished gentleman from Pennsyltuckey..."
 
BPSCG said:
I have to admit, I've always had a sneaking admiration for the way the government is required to submit to Q & A in Commons (I forget what the proper name is for the process, but I'm sure some of our British friends will clue me in):

"Does the government not concede that its policy of branding newly-arrived immigrants with a hot poker is an appallingly insensitive practice, and is not only a waste of the taxpayer's money and a needless drain on the Exchequer, but is just cause for requiring the resignation of the entire cabinet?" (shouts of "Hear! Hear!" and "Harumph! Harumph!")

Instead, we have exchanges that begin, "Will the gentleman yield (the floor)?", to which the standard response is, "I'd be happy to yield to my friend, the distinguished gentleman from Pennsyltuckey..."
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We also haven't had a good old-fashioned fistfight in Congress for some time.

British politics are way more fun. :D
 
BPSCG said:
I have to admit, I've always had a sneaking admiration for the way the government is required to submit to Q & A in Commons (I forget what the proper name is for the process, but I'm sure some of our British friends will clue me in):
Click to expand...

Since many of the Brits may be doing something else on Friday night, I'll answer--called "Question Time" and Tony Blair and his Ministers are right down there on the floor of the Commons and have to "stand and deliver". It's televised and all--saw it while overseas in the Middle East on BBC World. Great fun.
 
Cleon said:
We also haven't had a good old-fashioned fistfight in Congress for some time.
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Well, don't blame me. My congressman is Jim Moran..
Arne Wilkens tended bar in Alexandria, where Moran served as mayor of the city from 1985-1990. He says the Mayor often got into fights.

"He was a bully and a thug," Wilkens said. "We'd call the cops, but they wouldn't do anything."

Jonathan Schnapp, a former Alexandria resident, tried to file a criminal complaint with the Alexandria police after the Mayor threatened him following an argument outside a city council meeting. The cops just laughed.

"They said they weren't going to risk their jobs by trying to arrest the Mayor," Schnapp said. Schnapp said he moved out of Alexandria because he felt both the Mayor and the police department were corrupt.

Alexandria police refuse to discuss Moran's tenure as Mayor publicly, but several officers admitted privately that his behavior would have led to the arrest of "ordinary citizens."

"The Mayor was clearly guilty of assault on more than one occasion," said one officer, who refused to be identified out of fear for his job. "But the word came down. The Mayor was off limits. Ordinary citizens go to jail. Not the Mayor."

Winning a seat in Congress in 1990 didn't change Moran's violent ways. He got into more than one shoving match with other members of Congress, including Indiana Republican Dan Burton and California Republican Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

Moran was an amateur boxer in his youth and told Washingtonian Magazine that had he not become a politician, he might have tried professional boxing because "I like to hit people."
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Okay, you can blame me, since I've never voted for him. Check the link for more on my embarrassment of a congressman; his ethical standards make Bill Clinton look like a Boy Scout. But my gerrymandered Democratic district regularly returns him every two years with 65% of the vote. BTW, the link says nothing about how Moran had to resign from the Alexandria city council early in his career over misuse of campaign funds.

Oh, he's on the House Appropriations committee, which should terrify anyone who isn't passed-out drunk.
 
BPSCG said:
Okay, you can blame me, since I've never voted for him. Check the link for more on my embarrassment of a congressman; his ethical standards make Bill Clinton look like a Boy Scout. But my gerrymandered Democratic district regularly returns him every two years with 65% of the vote. BTW, the link says nothing about how Moran had to resign from the Alexandria city council early in his career over misuse of campaign funds.

Oh, he's on the House Appropriations committee, which should terrify anyone who isn't passed-out drunk.
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Pbht. Between people like Moran, Delay, and the rest of the clowns, I expect corruption. What I want is entertainment.
 
Cleon said:
We also haven't had a good old-fashioned fistfight in Congress for some time.
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Indeed,and it's been about 145 years since the last caning.

Surprised at you, BPSCG, not beating me too it.

If you want legislative fistfights these days, you need to check out the Taiwan parliment--although they may have settled down lately.
 
Cleon said:
Pbht. Between people like Moran, Delay, and the rest of the clowns, I expect corruption. What I want is entertainment.
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Hey, my congressman's spoiling for a fight. Don't come crying to me because yours is too much of a pantywaist to take him on.
 
As was pointed out in a recent episode of "The Daily Show," British politicians such as Tony Blair often have to respond to difficult and argumentative questions. They might get booed, publicly criticized, even insulted. And they have to deal with it. It's part of the ball game.

Contrast that with the way little Bush handles questions. During his first term, and the 2004 campaign, and thereafter, audiences were generally screened to make sure there would be no such unpleasantness. He spoke only to those who were on his side already, and was too chicken to address those who might find fault with his ideas. He generally took questions from known butt-smoochers. In a well-known disgraceful practice, a phony journalist was repeatedly recognized so that he could throw little Bush softball questions to which little Bush had scripted answers.

Little Bush has held very few news conferences in which he could be asked hard questions and in which he would have to give coherent answers. Reagan held more news conferences than him (until the final years of his second term, when his mind was going). Reagan made lots of mistakes during those conferences, but he was not afraid to face the hard questions. Elder Bush was not afraid, either, as he held more conferences than his son. Clinton held a lot more.
 
BPSCG said:
Hey, my congressman's spoiling for a fight. Don't come crying to me because yours is too much of a pantywaist to take him on.
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Up until three weeks ago my congresswoman was Cynthia McKinney. Thorn in the side of conservatives everywhere. :D (Now it's Tom Price. Just another dork. *sigh*)
 
Paxman missed a trick there...

Instead of JP: "Congratulations, Mr Galloway."

He should have said "Sir, I salute you, I salute your indefatigability....."

Galloway would have had apoplexy!! :D :p
 
Cleon said:
Up until three weeks ago my congresswoman was Cynthia McKinney. Thorn in the side of conservatives everywhere.
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Thorn? Please. She's more like Dennis Kucinich's crazier sister. Does she still claim the Bush administration had advance knowledge of the September 11 attacks?

I'd pay five bucks to see Moran punch her lights out.

Hell, I'd pay five hundred...

For a three-day-old cuppa coffee with a cigarette butt floating in it, I'd do it myself.
 
BPSCG said:
Thorn? Please. She's more like Dennis Kucinich's crazier sister. Does she still claim the Bush administration had advance knowledge of the September 11 attacks?
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That was one of the canards that kept getting repeated. Lovely meme, that, it accomplished what it set out to do--discredit McKinney.

In reality, of course, she claimed nothing of the sort; she said that Bush profited from the 9/11 tragedy (duh--he was getting 80% approval ratings) and she wanted a Congressional investigation about anyone who might have had prior knowledge. The "liberal" media twisted this into a "claim" that the Administration knew of or participated in 9/11.

The irony being that after the Republicans and Democrats were done demonizing her, they enacted just such an investigation.
 
BPSCG said:
I have to admit, I've always had a sneaking admiration for the way the government is required to submit to Q & A in Commons (I forget what the proper name is for the process, but I'm sure some of our British friends will clue me in):
Click to expand...
Heck, one of your Canadians friends will clue you in to the proper name of this "Q&A" session.

Its called....



wait for it ....



here it comes ....





Question Period

The more animated time in a parlimentary session.

Charlie (thank Vishnu its Friday) Monoxide
 
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