Question Time

Stuey1

I have the opportunity to attend this weeks question time in Blackburn, my only problem is that I cannot think of a good topical question to ask and as per the name of the program to get into the audience you need a question to ask the panel

Anyone got any suggestions for good topical questions?

961

Why are NHS trusts reducing money going to the sharp end?
Shortage of staff in wards and A & E becoming critical
Although NHS may be ring fenced some units face substantial financial cuts

karkus30

As background from Douglas Carswell's site:

The right of recall – as the name implies – gives local voters the power to "recall" their elected representative. It works in two simple stages:

Step One: a certain percentage of constituents (some say 10 percent, others 20) trigger a recall ballot by signing a petition demanding one.

Step Two: the ballot they demanded takes place, asking each local voter a simple question: "Should local MP, Joe Bloggs, be recalled? Yes / No".  If over half vote "yes", Joe is out of office and an immediate by-election is held.

Far from leading to a flood of vexatious attempts to remove sitting MPs, this second stage makes it almost impossible to oust a sitting MP on partisan grounds. Note how few recall attempts have ever been successful in California.

Recall is so simple, even Cabinet Office officials can understand it.  But for some reason they chose not to, and have come up with the following scheme instead:

Step One: a committee of Westminster grandees finds an MP guilty of wrong-doing, triggering the process. Joe Bloggs MP is not being "recalled" by local people, but sent away by other politicians.  Note, indolence or saying one thing before polling day, and doing another after are not seen as grounds for dismissal.

Step Two: If one in ten voters then signs a petition confirming the grandees decision, the MP is out.

Far from strengthening democracy, under the government's proposal, at no point will majority opinion in an MPs constituency be sought – or even needed – before overturning the result of the previous election.  That's the sort of scheme one might expect to find in a tin pot republic, not a genuine democracy.   

QUESTION:

The government's recall proposal does precisely the opposite of what a real recall mechanism should do.  It concentrates power into the hands of party whips in Westminster, rather than passing it out to the people.

What is it about making MPs more outwardly accountable to the voters, and less dependent on party whips, that the Westminster establishment fears?

Trollslayer

I would agree with 961 - NHS staffing levels are at critical and in some cases below.

amcluesent

Now Ed Balls has abandoned universal benefits, just what does Labour stand for?

Are our slacker GPs now the 'enemy within', as Mrs Thatcher once described the NUM?

Why are we sleep-walking into supporting and arming Al-Queda in Syria?

Should the secretive Bilderberg Group be banned from meeting in Britain?

Even if they selected BoJo as leader, can the Tories win in 2015?

Do the initials ACRB mean anything to panellists?

domtheone

Why can't Question time (and the audience) be neutral.

I can't watch it whilst it panders so much to the left and makes out that any centre/right panelist is an axis of evil.

Having said that, better be something more on topic so the NHS is probably a better choice lol.

Why don't some of the hundreds of thousands of NHS workers earning six figures, take a pay cut to help maintain/improve staff levels at the lower/sharper (etc etc) end.

la gran siete

"when the heck is this godawful government going to resign?" would be my question

MikeTV

Given the recent scandals, is it time to finally abolish the Lords and replace it with a fully elected upper house?

IronGiant

That would be a complete waste of a question, IMHO.

MikeTV

Why does there always seem to be a UKIP person on the panel when UKIP doesn't have a single elected MP in the house?