Getting bored with politics programmes on tv

Witzend

As far as I know, before being allowed on TV, or radio for that matter, all politicians have to study for, and pass, an oral exam in Slithering Around The Question Like An Oiled Snake.

They can take an extra module in Talking Like A Cross Between A Bulldozer And A Steamroller Without Drawing Breath, So That The Interviewer Never Gets The Chance To Interrupt Your Answer To The Question You Wish They’d Asked, Instead Of The One They Actually Did.

?? I particularly like the sentence all politicians....
No difference in either colour.

Op, I too can't see the point of wasting my time listening.
I dont mind reading different pov though.

Witzend ? very good!

Agree, M. Find Andrew Marr so rude and frustrating that I've given up on him. If he would just let the politicians drivel on they sometimes hang themselves.

Sometimes the best interviews are by people you've never heard of. Watch the video with the sound up.

news.stv.tv/politics/pm-defends-universal-credit-cut-whilst-handing-peerage-to-tory-donor?top

(She's Kathryn Samson, BTW)

This was interesting. I didn’t realise to what extent the audience is weighted in favour of Brexit and the Tories though.

A whole hour of #BBCQuestionTime, with a mainly Conservative and Brexit voting audience, and not one solitary voice prepared to defend either, even when invited to by Fiona Bruce. Every single speaker condemning the £20 UC cut. Zahawi completely isolated. Is the tide turning?

I agree, I used to watch Politics Live on BBC every week day but just lately I have been turning off half way through and the same with News Night. I do still watch all of Andrew Marr on a Sunday morning but last Sunday’s programme when he interviewed, or tried to, Boris Johnson was a waste of time. I agree that Brian Walden was a very good interviewer and so is Andrew Neil but he disappeared to GB News and now he has parted company with them he doesn't appear much although he was on Question Time recently.

ExDancer

My husband watches a lot of politics on TV, and while I find them interesting, I usually get bored and stop listening because so many people ignore the questions asked and launch into a pre-prepared speech of their own, continuing droning on and on without regard to the actual subject of discussion.
I'm not putting this well but an example would be -

programme host asks 'what would your party do about (say) the M25 Road blockers?
politician = its been proved police intervention is not effective in these cases
host = so what's the answer
politician = this present government's underfunding of the police has led directly to this kind of civil mischief and shows their incompetence ...
host= so what's the answer
politician = in office and a general election to get rid of
host = let get back to the M25 ...
politician = the present prime minister ...
host = but how do we prevent disruption to people's lives
politician = has to be superceded by
host = thats all we have time for, so back to the studio

As I say, I'm not putting it well, but no-one answers the question, they use the opportunity to bang their own drum and talk over the presenter just to peruse their own ideas. It's downright rude.

That is very one-sided politically. It sounds as if your problem is with the uptick in the popularity of the Labour Party and the sinking of the Conservative hold on the voters.

That paragraph may well show my bias - although I was trying to balance your diatribe. Perhaps a course on "unconscious bias" would help you put a more even handed-discussion forward.

Having said that we know the Conservatives don't like democracy, they only like winning, however undemocratically. They are not going to waste effort on an actual balanced argument, are they? Noticeably, they have gone quite quiet recently.

Of course, many of the politicians and their interviewers are good buddies 'off screen'.

bylinetimes.com/2021/10/07/mirror-ball-journalism-and-the-revolving-disco-dance-floor-of-british-politics/

We need another Brian Walden, he was a great interviewer. Didn't always agree with him, but he was very tenacious and often got interviewees to reveal more than they'd wanted to.

I think the interviewer and the politicians are are bad as one another. It’s not uncommon to see both, determined to speak and get their point across, therefore speaking over one another, and then you can’t hear what either of them are saying. I can’t watch Andrew Marr because he speaks across the politician all the time. What’s the point? Nobody learns anything!

Politicians are invited on to political programmes and told roughly the subject of the interview; the programme starts and entirely different questions are fired at the interviewee, an old technique. Politicians do evade answering questions, but interviewers, notably Andrew Marr and Nick Robinson, refuse to allow them time to complete a sentence, let alone an answer before bombarding them with several more questions. As Nick Robinson said once, 'I haven't finished saying what I want to say yet.'
I am not interested in his opinions, which is why I listen to very little of any programme he is on, which no doubt delights the BBC as I am way out of the category of listener they are attempting to attract.

As far as I know, before being allowed on TV, or radio for that matter, all politicians have to study for, and pass, an oral exam in Slithering Around The Question Like An Oiled Snake.

They can take an extra module in Talking Like A Cross Between A Bulldozer And A Steamroller Without Drawing Breath, So That The Interviewer Never Gets The Chance To Interrupt Your Answer To The Question You Wish They’d Asked, Instead Of The One They Actually Did.

I agree. I’ve lost patience with most of these programmes. It the same on LBC, BBC, R4 - Any Questions, Question Time etc. DH watches a political programme at 10.30pm, can’t for the life of me remember what it’s called. He says it’s ok.

I’ve heard the same refusal to avoid the question for many years. Such a waste of time.

I agree ExDancer it’s actually pointless to watch or listen to a lot of things.I like to hear a considered and informed view from politicians, and fully understand why interviewers turn the screws at times, to get a direct answer but many interviewers are too interested in their own ‘image’ and constantly interrupt. Opposition politicians use it all too often, as you say with their own agenda in mind, and talk over the interviewer! Many politicians of the government in power
( whichever Party happens to be in) won’t ever give a straight answer to a question.In short, we may as well not bother watching or listening to any of them.
Interviewers in the past used to ask a probing question and then give the MP or Minister or PM time to answer, which worked much better as it allowed more than a few seconds for him/her to answer it properly and actually put them on the spot more as they had the time to do it ( it exposed any lack of knowledge by them.) Now, you can barely follow what’s being said as the interviewer fires yet another question their way.
The political guest, as you say, often does the same as some interviewers and seems to answer a completely different set of questions than the ones being directed at them!
In short, it’s a waste of everybody’s time.