Saturday 21 August 2010

Complaint - Any Questions 20th of August, 2010

Dear Any Answers,
I decided to sleep on it before writing but come the morning I still find myself angry at remarks made by two of the panellists on Any Questions last night.
In turning a question about the Megrahi release into an anti-Scottish rant, Ruth Deech and Douglas Murray showed their true ignorance about the United Kingdom, their base assumption being that Scots are over-subsidised and holier-than-thou.  Well thanks a bundle for assuming that we all support Alex Salmond and the dreadful SNP.  As for the money, aren’t they forgetting the oil and gas industry that has been keeping the whole of the UK afloat for the past thirty years?  The reason why there is an apparent subsidy per head of population is that outside the Central Belt, Scotland is a sparsely-populated country so we cannot have the economies of scale available to the South East of England.  Or are we to assume that Deech and Murray begrudge the Highlands luxuries such as roads, hospitals and electricity?  And as for the Scottish parliament, I think the panel demonstrated very well this evening why Scotland cannot solely rely upon London to represent our best interests.
Honestly, when picking a panel in future the producers should broaden their reach beyond the Home Counties chatterarti and invite members more representative of the United Kingdom as a whole.
Yours sincerely




Martin Veart
Edinburgh.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I too found Ruth Deech and Douglas Murray's contributions on Any Questions repugnant, both on Scotland and Muslims. Chillingly right wing sentiments laced all the way through.

Martin Veart said...

Thanks for your comment tellycom. You are indeed correct.

To hear Eddie Mair read the letter out on Any Answers, go to 19:45

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00tdzp9/Any_Answers_21_08_2010/

Anonymous said...

From Baroness Deech's moderated blog:
lordsoftheblog.net/.../...

Baroness Deech
Posted on 04/09/2010 at 10:01 pm |Permalink |

The meaning of the word “benefits” is “advantages”. If I had wanted to refer to what some observers thought I meant, I would have used the terms “social security” or “welfare”, not benefits. The benefits enjoyed by Scotland are inter alia the Barnett formula, freedom from tuition fees, reduced and soon to be abolished prescription charges, higher NHS spending per capita, special BBC provision.

lordsoftheblog.net/.../...

Martin Veart said...

I think that you would be the first to agree that in the circumstances that your usage of the word "benefits" was extremely ill advised.

Anonymous said...

The Baroness has certainly inspired a lot of comment. The full link to the fallout is http://lordsoftheblog.net/2010/08/23/full-house/

Enjoy

Martin Veart said...

Thank you for the compliment. Please would you repost your link? It is rather garbled and doesn't work as it is. Thank.

Anonymous said...

Wow all I can say is that you are a great writer! Where can I contact you if I want to hire you?

Martin Veart said...

Well, that's an offer I don't have every day. My email address is on my profile so I don't have a problem publishing it here.
martinveart@yahoo.co.uk