Question Time Iraq Special next week (22/3)

[Salim201]

yeh i hope benn is up for it! i was looking forward to it until last night when i found out georgeg wasn't on it, lets just hope its still a good debate and dimbelby doesn't parrot the government line!

[mickyv]

With such breaking news revelations from Bolton, it is a double tragedy that GG is not on tonight. It would have been the case of an unstoppable force meeting an unmoveable dense wall (Bolton's head) !

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6479377.stm

[Colston]

What an arse Portillo is....

[faceless]

After watching the programme I think it was a shame that Galloway wasn't on. Tony Benn did some stretches but what he said needed more of a resonance. I'd not heard this Bolton guy speak before but he sounded as much of a goon as he looked.

I'll post the show later.

[Salim201]

what a boring show! bolton looked smug ignorant and patronising as usual, i just wish galloway was on there to shut him up.

[nekokate]

Bolton made me sick. Tony Benn made a point and Bolton was asked to reply, and he said "It's not worth replying to Mr Benn". What a piece of shit.

I liked how Des Brown was stuttering and fucking up, too. Someone in the audience picked him up on the number of people who had left Iraq as refugees and he got laughed at by the audience, then later he was addressing a woman who'd lost her son in Iraq and he said "sorry you lost your son in Afghanistan", then she corrected him, and he just looked like a lost child going "er, oh, I had Afghanistan in my mind from a previous answer". Wake up, you twat!

[Sheffman]

... what a disappointment, tonights show was just what I expected from Bolton and Brown, pathetic, snivelling, public schoolboy drivel, ... what a pair of wan**rs! This was a stage managed pathetic excuse for a debate. They think we are all fu**ing mushrooms

[Salim201]

here here

[mickyv]

A miss opportunity for a lively debate caused by the absence of GG. Benazir Bhutto was a complete let down as I fear she would like, & Charles Kennedy was quite subdued, which left Tony Benn really on his own to point the anti-war arguments, and of course he was hardly given much opportunity to actually speak, but when he did it, was noticeable that he got the loudest support from even this selected audience. I especially thought that his point that the bombing of South Africa was not required to bring down Apartheid was a strong point. Also notice that he was the only panelist to bring out the issue of oil, as I’m sure that if he didn’t mention it, it would not have been discussed at all ! The same with the Palestinian/Israeli dimension, as again it was only he that mentioned this.

Bolton proved, just like Bush does, that he is just a crass, rude & ignorant moron every time he opened his mouth. His refusal even to reply to Benn highlights exactly the reason why GG was not allowed on the show. Even Dimbleby caught him out with point out the contradiction of what he had just said, to what he said on the radio the night before ! Des Browne did a typical Blairite stumble through with the trade mark misrepresentations, half truths and smoke screens, in attempting to defend the indefinable. Liam Fox, as his name applies(!), is a typical slimy & slippery Tory, who managed to competently put out the pro-war view. But I cannot believe he was allowed to get away with stating that Saddam was responsible for killing 10 million Iranians in the Iraq/Iran War, whereas the true figure is one million dead is for the combined casualties for Iraq & Iran, and I’m also surprised that Bolton was able to get away with the crass statement of “Iraq is Arabic for Yugoslavia!”.

The best bits where near the beginning, from two young women. The first was an Iraqi who visibly made Bolton squirm, and the other was the lady who addressed Bolton directly about the US making the world a more dangerous place, and when Bolton tried to throw a loaded question back at her, she return it with interest !

But of course GG would have wiped the floor with all the three right wingers, and they knew it, which is why he wasn’t allowed on.

[Karl]

salma yacoub
did anyone notice how salma was SQueeZED between the heavyweight syrian ambassador and the xxl iraqi ambassador who were both argueing with each other
across her

bbc must have deliberately fixed the seating

[nekokate]

I was also very disappointed with Benazir Bhutto. She seemed so much closer to my point of view in other interviews I've seen with her, but I couldn't believe she is behind the puppet government of Iraq and believes the citizens should have democracy forced upon them. She of all people should have a different opinion about forced regeime change!

[afriat]

Yes I did notice the slim Salma sat between the two heavyweights. Also noticed that she repeatedly tried to catch Dimbleby's attention. Presumably to make some pointed remark, which was ignored. Real shame. I am sure she would have given some direction to the proceedings.

Real waste of what could of been a great debate. Benn tried but was not really able to introduce oil and Palestine. Bhutto added nothing.

[harry perkins]

I haven't seen it yet but I'm not surprised to hear that Bhutto was poor, she has always seemed insipid to me. Interesting that Salma, herself a regular and very good pannelist, was in the audience, (disgraceful that she wasn't taken), maybe George should have tried to get in that way.

[Mandy]

FYI :

http://sundaymag.ca/index.php?id=718

"JOHN BOLTON GETTING NAILED ON BBC"

[Karl]

talking about americans attacking arabs

well they like some arabs dont they?