The Appalling Reasoning Of BBC’s Question Time
As it recently came from Newcastle Upon Tyne, the city of my birth, I
was eager to listen to it a few weeks back; and the muddle headed
reasoning that was expressed – both by the panel as well as the audience
participants! – made me ashamed of my Nova Castrian background.
Admittedly, one audience participant reasoned along the lines of
‘situational ethics’ ‘If, for example, a maniac were about to machine
gun a whole host of defenseless people and you spied a gun nearby, would
it not be more just to kill the villain in order to stop a blood bath of
the defenseless rather than stand back and do nothing?’ Well, quite
regrettably, none on the panel seemed to appreciate such a question.
Tory spokesman Alan Duncan said he was in a quandary as to whether it
could ever be right to restore the death penalty. “He really didn’t
know!”. And as for Labour spokeswoman Ruth Kelly, she made it very clear
that she could ‘never under any circumstances’ justify taking another’s
life. Yes, all the more surprising when the person the specific debate
was centered around was none other than the horrendous Ipswich serial
killer; yes, of vulnerable and utterly defenseless young women!
But then, the worst of woolly thinking was to follow: a youngish man
stood up to proudly affirm that he was a practicing Christian. My ears
pricked up in admiration; but then he went on to mention the death of
Saddam Hussein, and to say it had been a travesty of justice that our
nation had not intervened to stop it from being transacted. Well, I
thought to myself, ‘what a one sided and nonsensical form of reasoning;
but then he is, obviously, only a simple-minded fellow with a heart of
misguided compassion. One must make allowances!’
However, when panelist speakers – such as cabinet speaker Ruth Kelly
- are, intellectually, little better at reasoning then Heaven help the
future of Britain! I say this because I doubt very much whether any
member of that panel would have been vegetarian! Most probably they will
have no second thoughts about eating lamb chops, intensively reared
birds; and the by product of the latter: battery eggs. Their hearts go
out to the vilest of folk while, apparently, they could hardly care a
toss for the victims of injustice, be they either animal or human.
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