Martin Salter's Westminster Diary, November 19, 2009

Martin Salter MP • Published 19 Nov 2009 08:00 0 Comments

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I couldn't help laughing at the pathetic whinging in last week's Chronicle from the Reading Tories because none of their number managed to get themselves on the BBC's Question Time audience when it was held in Reading.

Luckily the Wokingham Conservatives were not quite so inept and managed to submit questions and apply for tickets in the normal way. Likewise local Labour Party members, councillors and candidates here in Reading put their names forward and several were selected as part of the balanced audience that the BBC always seeks to assemble.

For people like Andrew Cumpsty and Mike Townend to accuse the BBC of bias and moan about the non-appearance of my would-be successor Alok Sharma just shows how pompous and ridiculous these people have become.

For starters Sharma has admitted he didn't even apply for a ticket and anyone who has seen the roasting that these audiences have given government ministers on occasion would hardly conclude that there was a pro-Labour bias at work.

I worried in this column a few weeks ago that following David Cameron's squalid little deal with the Murdoch empire we would see more and more political attacks on the BBC and the regulator Ofcom from the Tories. This is already happening nationally and although I doubt if our local Conservatives are in on the plot, the mood music is strikingly similar.

- I SEE that the normally anonymous Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has called for the abolition of The Queen's Speech in order to try to win himself a few headlines.

Presumably then we can expect to see Lib Dem MPs voting against Labour's plans to regulate bankers pay and bonuses, on the new system of guarantees for parents and pupils including personal tuition for those who fall behind at school?

Perhaps they will oppose the proposed new right for NHS patients to get their treatment within 18 weeks or be paid to receive it privately with cancer sufferers having access to a specialist within two weeks?

It's difficult to believe that Nick Clegg is really opposed to giving free personal care for the most vulnerable elderly people in their own homes or to cut energy bills for low income households.

This will be my last Queen's Speech but I will be watching the antics of opposition politicians as closely as ever as they seek to portray themselves as vaguely relevant in the run up to next year's general election.

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