Lesley Riddoch: has BBC’s Question Time gone rogue?

Is the BBC’s flagship series now a law unto itself – directly accountable to no one, asks Lesley Riddoch.

What’s it like to be a leading politician, whose party is flying high in the polls, with a better vote share (pro rata) than the resurgent Brexit Party, still popular after 12 years of government and, according to political scientist Professor Sir John Curtice, the only mainstream party north of the Border unlikely to lose votes or seats at the forthcoming European elections? What’s it like to be doing pretty well by anyone’s standards, yet apparently hated the length and breadth of Scotland?

What’s it like to work for decades building political success in Scotland, only to discover that, on almost every instalment of the BBC’s Question Time, that country has somehow ceased to exist? Instead you visit Question Time’s Scotland – an angry place with deep reserves of anti-SNP sentiment, a preoccupation with local service shortcomings and rows of angry Brexiteers. Of course, such political outlooks are real, perfectly valid and held by some voters all over Scotland. But in the proportions that currently dominate Question Time?