Is the coalition right to boycott Question Time?

Is the coalition right to boycott Question Time?

Should the Beeb have booted Alistair Campbell off the panel?

This is from the BBC editors blog of Gavin Allen – editor of Question Time.

“..This week, for the first time in my three years as executive editor of Question Time, we were told by Downing Street that a cabinet minister would only appear on the programme if another member of the panel was replaced. According to No 10, a senior member of the cabinet was available to do Question Time but only if Alastair Campbell was replaced by a member of the shadow cabinet.

Very obviously, we refused and as a result no minister appeared, meaning that the government was not represented on the country’s most-watched political programme in Queen’s Speech week – one of the most important moments in the Parliamentary calendar.

No 10 stated that the objection to Alastair Campbell was that he was not an elected Labour representative or a front-bencher..”

What do PBers think?

Mike Smithson

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