Parliamentary 'phone-in
George Gale
I happen to have heard all Prime Minister's Question Times since the proceedings of the House of Commons began to be broad cast. This is because each weekday between three and four in the afternoon I conduct a Phone-in programme on LBC, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays we interrupt ourselves to take in the Prime Minister's quarter of an hour between 3.15 and 3.30 live from the House. After the Prime Minister sits down, we revert to people phoning in and myself responding. This has placed me in something of a unique position, since not only have I heard all the broadcast question times, but also I have heard the public's immediate response — since as often as not, What people phone in about after Prime Minister's Question Time is the performance they have just overheard. Now I Cannot pretend that people phoning in on a Phone-in programme on weekday afternoons in the London area are typical of the country at large, although I do as a matter of fact consider that, if you discount the people Wanting to talk about the Middle East with relation to Israel and those who want to air their views about immigration, you get a reasonably representative cross-section of views. Moreover, these views are presented More often than I would have expected with some knowledge and intelligence. Of course, you get fools and bores phoning in; but I think that on the whole the standard of People phoning in is higher than that of People who write letters to newspapers. There are certainly more nut-case letter writers than nut-case phoners-in. I also think that the reaction of people who have Phoned in to discuss the Question Time they have just listened to is pretty representative of the attitude likely to be adopted by the country at large.
And this makes me wonder whether MPs were wise to allow their proceedings to be broadcast; for there is little doubt that the noises they make strike most listeners as Childish and their procedures as silly. I had already heard MPs in action many times, Observing and hearing them from the press gallery, so the sound of the Commons came as no surprise to me. But it has come as a great surprise to most radio listeners and on the whole they have been distinctly unimpressed by what they have heard. Thus Irene Underwood declared, after One Question Time, 'I now realise why they Were reluctant to have these broadcasts in the past. They are a shocking rabble. No Wonder we're in the state we're in' and a few Minutes later Naomi Savage was saying on the air, 'I'm dumbfounded at the circus. The 1),.it of my stomach is sick feeling. This parliamentary performance made me so sick I was nearly going to vomit.' And Jean Ward: 'All that rabble! Worse than a classroom full of children.' On the other hand Sophie Blythe phoned in to declare, 'I cannot see why everybody is getting worked up. They're behaving perfectly normally. If you have a discussion in your house or in a bar, they interrupt each other, have a giggle, have a shout. I think they're behaving per fectly normally. I like the background noise — just as it should be.' And Henry Charles was then prompted to call say, 'I'm going to say the same. What do people want? A High Mass situation? They are an ordinary, democratic assembly, representing ordi nary people. This is how democracy works.'
Derek Brown, too, approved, and asked, 'Why not televise it? I thought it was very good. Callaghan was very clear. Impre ssive.' But more callers took the line as represented by Lynn Quinton: 'Disgusting.
Kicking up all this rumpus. To think these people are running this country: it's diabolical', and Grace Reynolds: 'This rabble. Is the broadcasting to be temporary, or is it permanent? I feel so ashamed of the Labour Party.'
If the verdict of the public as delivered in phone calls immediately following Ques tion Time on the actual quality of the behaviour of members in general is on the whole distinctly unfavourable, what is it on the two principal characters taking part, Mr Callaghan and Mrs Thatcher? Here the question is trickier to answer, for party loy alties undoubtedly affect the opinions formed and expressed. Thus John Arthurs: 'In that confrontation between Thatcher and Callaghan: their personalities come out. We get an idea of the kind of people we're going to vote for. She asks a definite question in a clear, crisp voice. All we get from Callaghan is innuendo and sly cracks about Mrs. T. I've yet to hear him give a straight answer.' Mrs Thatchee herself frequently makes precisely this point: 'When are we going to hear a straight answer to a straight question?' she asks, without response. John Arthurs went vn: 'We are Joe Public and we listen to these confrontations. He's constantly having a go at her. Over a period he's doing himself a very bad turn. He should give her a straight answer. He should get himself some new public relations advisor.' This was the day when some backbencher was heard on radio to say of Mrs Thatcher 'stupid bloody woman', when Mr Callaghan described Mrs Thatcher as running a one-man band and she replied that that was one more man than the Government had got.
A few days later we were back with the now familiar metaphor, Geoff Hull saying 'It's a fifth form debate, the House of Commons, with that idiot pointing out that Mrs Thatcher didn't know Trevor Whymark wasn't in the Ipswich team. Margaret Thatcher is right. He never answers questions, he comes the clever stuff, just like Harold Wilson did, making a mockery of it all', to which Judy Davis replied: 'I haven't voted for either of them, but I've heard the programmes. I'm absolutely unbiased. Frankly speaking, I'm not keen on a lady Prime Minister to begin with. I think really that Mrs Thatcher has adopted a very funny attitude. I'm losing faith in her. She's most ambitious for position, if you see what mean. For her it's a question of getting there.' And Della Baker: 'My son went to Question Time at the House of Commons and thoroughly enjoyed it. Now, if he gets back in time from school, he listens to it on the iadio. As far as Mr Callaghan goes, anyone who can put down Mrs Thatcher gets my vote any time.' And Joe Johnson: 'As an uncommitted voter, I find that the Prime Minister is at an inbuilt disadvantage: his questioners can draft their supplementary questions in advance. He acquits himself very capably. He is invariably good-humoured and full of composure and this compares very favourably with Mrs Thatcher's waspishness. This floating vote is being steered towards Mr Callaghan.'
This Tuesday, questions ranged over oil pollution, arms sales to Iran, forces pay, income tax, family budgeting: pretty typical topics, no questions seriously answered, few seriously asked. Declared Lynn somebody or other at the end of it: 'I've just listened to Mrs Thatcher. Well she makes me sick. What are all those men sitting behind her skirts doing? What does she know about family budgeting?' I ventured that as a grocer's daughter and housewife with twins, she must know a bit, and probably more than Mr Callaghan. 'She should get behind a kitchen sink', Lynn replied. This provoked Margaret Jones to phone in with: 'I switched on and heard someone talking about Margaret Thatcher not knowing about family budgets. I'm talking as a grocer's wife, and Margaret Thatcher was a customer of oits% My husband always said she was most charming and knew the price of things. She would come into the shop, not just ring up. She would come in and be interested in everything. This is not political — well, I suppose it is in a way. People talk about her South Kensington accent, but she isn't like that at all. She'd come into the shop and stroke the cat.'
Despite which last remark, I don't think it's Mr Callaghan who needs to find himself a new public relations advisor, if listening to Prime Minister's Question Time and to people phoning-in, about it afterwards is anything to go by. It may not be, but I think it is, and I think that this particular skirmish is being won by the Prime Minister. Mind you, Prime Ministers do tend to win at Question Time. They have the authority of their office, and the great blessing of the last word.
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