The reason behind that BBC bias...

I NO longer believe there’s a ‘silent majority’ of patriotic conservatives. Decades of comprehensive schooling have done their work, and a squidgy emotive Leftism is the default position of most people under 45. So I’m not surprised or dismayed by the audience on the BBC’s Question Time.

These audiences are also picked from people who are interested in politics, who are mostly activists and mostly Leftist. The audience on Radio 4’s Any Questions, who aren’t selected, are far less predictable.

Even so, this story is interesting. Tory businessman David Stoneman tells me that he tried for years to be part of the QT audience. He filled in the online forms with commendable honesty. He was never asked on. But then he decided to be naughty. He passed himself off as a militant trade unionist traindriver who backed the Leave campaign and opposed fracking.

Almost immediately, the people who assemble the QT audiences were in touch wanting to know more.

Alas, his nerve failed him and he didn’t go through with it. Quite right, too, I suppose. We wouldn’t want people gaming the system.