BBC Question Time, 4th March 2010

So, a look at this week's BBC Question Time where the guests were Lord Adonis, Boris Johnson, Shirley Williams, Will Self and Carol Vorderman.

Ashcroft

Boris Johnson seemed quite comfortable answering questions on Ashcroft's non-dom status - some slight avoidance of direct questions, but no squirming or discomfort. His highlighting of the fact that all three main parties receive donations from non-doms disarmed the loaded nature of the question. Carol Vorderman's answer highlighting the gross hypocrisy of Lord Mandelson taking a moral high ground was simply stunning.

Brown at Chilcot

Shirley Williams had the strength here to raise the question that is most pertinent - that Gordon Brown has been Chancellor of the Exchequer or (unelected) Prime Minister throughout Labour's time in office and that, therefore, his role in the decision to go to war with Iraq is on a par with the responsibility borne by Tony Blair. Carol Vorderman's observations were thoughtful, factual and intelligent.

Venables return to prison

On a question about whether the family of Jamie Bulger should know why their son's killer had been returned to prison - a question which seems to stir a joint lynch mob mentality and appeal to British voyeurism - it was Will Self's pointed question of 'How will it help them?' in their grief which seemed difficult for anyone to counter. The attempt to do so by Carol Vorderman made her appear part of an unattractive lynch mob mindset and unpicked the earlier strong impression that she had created with this blogger.

TV leader's debates

Shirley Williams made acutes observations on the diminishing role of Cabinet and the weakness of Parliament to hold the executive to account. That Lord Adonis didn't see the irony of talking about democracy when nobody elected him and yet he holds public office is simply breathtaking. Will Self's observation about not being able to slide an anorexic cigarette paper between the three main parties on policy was a mere warm up for his brilliant question mark about whether Brown, Cameron and Clegg represented the best of a British 'cult of personality'. Boris Johnson really came into his own by this stage of the programme and we loved his strong and evidently heartfelt outburst about Labour needing to be kicked out of office for reneging on their promise of a referendum on the EU constitutional treaty.

Our verdicts

Lord Adonis - nobody elected him, he was bumbling and irritating at best. Yuck. 2/12

Boris Johnson - at last, a proper Conservative! After weeks and weeks of soulless, flim-flammy lightweights representing the party in nicey-nicey moderate drips of underwhelming waffle, finally a strong performance from a big hitter who - despite having a lot of detractors and having fallen for all that 'climate change' nonsense - is a huge and valuable asset to the Conservative Party. 10/12

Shirley Williams - we normally find her somewhat irritating and, when she started being oh-so-partisan and hypocrite-encouraging on the question of Ashcroft, we feared for more of the same. However, on later questions, we thought she made some thoughtful and welcome contributions. 5/12

Carol Vorderman - a brilliant start to the show with great contributions to the debate on Lord Ashcroft, about non-doms contributing to the Lib-Lab-Con, and on the Iraq war. However, her obvious falling in with the lynch mob approach on the question of Jamie Bulger's killer really didn't appeal to this blogger. 7/12

Will Self - we've been harsh to Will on some of his previous appearances. We thought it might be the same tonight when he started out on the Conservative Party and Lord Ashcroft. However, his response to the question on the return to prison of the killer of Jamie Bulger was spot on. His later comments on the lack of policy difference between the Lib-Lab-Con - to which we add the implication of the constraints of the straitjacket of the European Empire membership - and his referral to the sheer scale of budget cuts required to get the nations finances back on track were received very well indeed. 8/12