The House of Commons disgraced itself last week in the way it degenerated into booing & name calling during PMQs on the topic of the Death Of Baby P
Jonathan Dimbleby did something nearly as bad on Any Questions last night
I try to listen to this programme most weeks because they have interesting people with interesting things to say, but I usually switch off when it becomes the Jonathan Dimbleby nitpicking for points show. I have started taking a note of how long I last – the record so far was for the anniversary programme a few weeks ago when it was 21 minutes
Last night started quite promisingly, with stunned but measured reactions to a question about the baby’s death, but then Dimbleby started to have a go at Rosie Winterton MP, who, as a junior minister was one of the recipients of a letter which, if acted upon would, allegedly but implausibly, have prevented the whole thing. Had she personally done anything about it, & if not, why not? Was she not ashamed of her inaction?
I kept flicking to another station, then flicking back only to find him still at it. Finally, Baroness Afshar stepped in to tell Dimbleby that the idea that ministers could go jumping on practitioners on the basis of any or every allegation was ridiculous