QT Round Up: Sir Digby floors 'em

Sir Digby Jones is the head of the CBI and has held that job for a number of years. I had always thought that, for a business leader, he had a rather tame attitude towards the government. That was, until last night’s Question Time on the BBC.

He absolutely tore into the government, politicians, the Trade Union Movement and poor old Tony Benn (who trades on the fact that nobody opposes him).

You can always rely on good ol’ Boris for the laughs and no doubt he won Dave Cameron a dozen or so votes last night. David Laws is good value for a Liberal Democrat and Shami is rapidly becoming populist-in-chief for the BBC but always good to watch. But it was clearly Sir Digby who stole the show.

I thought that his blast on the paymaster Unions and their relationship with Labour was long overdue, and Benn’s response about the numbers involved shows a deep naivety of the way that modern Unions run themselves. For me, the best bit was the attack on politicians themselves … business leaders fall on swords right, left and centre and often do so because there is the merest whiff of something up. Politicians cling to office like limpets armed with super glue. What’s more, claimed Sir Digby, politicians scapegoat business leaders all the time whilst continuing to abuse their trust. He also took Tony Benn and Shami to task on everything they said. Well Done, that man!

Winner: Sir Digby Jones
Loser: Unusually I have to say Tony Benn – he was way out of step on the religious dress issue
Audience Member of the Week: The guy who said that school uniform was authoritarian in its nature and said that pupils should come dressed to school how they like, including as devil worshippers.
Question of the Week: Talk about Iraq without slagging off the US, Blair or Bush. If only they could do with without mentioning the word “illegal”.
Answer of the Week: Boris Johnson avoiding disclosing who the Tory donors are.
Joke of the Week: Tony Benn on the House of Lords.