Asking questions on debate night

My chance to exert my democratic freedom.

On the 30th of October 2024 I was in the audience of debate night Scotland.

I had been selected, along with about 50 I think, to be part of the audience the week before and my next step was to put in my questions. I was told there was no agenda set so we could ask any questions we liked as long as we got them in by a set deadline.

Some of the aims as stated by the organisers are along these lines.

“This is when a panel of experts get questions thrown at them by you.” 

“ You can ask them any question and they have to listen to you.”

“Don't go home regretting the fact that you may have something that you wanted to say but didn't take the opportunity.”

Great here is my chance.

In today's world with so many problems staring us in the face the democratic right and chance to express thoughts, proposals, solutions etc is of extreme importance.

So many questions:- the plight of people Palestine, Lebanon, Ukraine, threat of further escalation of war, countries building up stockpiles of Nuclear weapons, environmental concerns …biodiversity loss, changed patterns of extreme weather, land, sea, rivers and air pollution or degradation…extreme poverty at home and abroad……. so many to pick from.

However the procedure is a maximum of about 5 will be picked to be debated by the panel that will have these questions thrown at them.

Knowing that many of others selected would likely ask about Gaza and the middle east I decided to get the chance to ask “ With all the wars we see today has the Nuclear deterrent worked” (questions understandably were to be limited to 20 words but hopefully will have the opportunity to expand)

How it was organised:-

 I submitted my question.

*Reply email said you can ask more questions and encouraged me to do so with as many emails that I needed.

I didn't ask anymore questions because the more questions that I asked the less likely the question that I wanted to ask would be chosen.

*Further and further emails were sent by the team saying the deadline for questions had been extended, inviting everyone to bring a partner and they could now also ask a question but now we're advised understandably that one question on the budget will be selected and one question about Issues within Edinburgh will be selected but other questions were needed for a lively debate.

On arrival and waiting to enter the studio we were all asked to submit a further question “as this would make for a more lively debate”

We were met with a very friendly and welcoming team although noone in the audience knew if one of their, by now likely many, questions had been selected until minutes before entering the studio.

I had taken the opportunity though to discuss with others in the audience who were all mainly strangers to each other. I was pleased to find there were many very passionate people and that's why they were there. There was indeed questions regarding Gaza and environmental issues.

After we entered there was about a half hour or so of us doing mock questions and answers, without the panel being presented. 

During the televised programme when the questions were addressed only 3 Questions were selected:-

• The budget , trick or treat?
• A question about housing in Edinburgh.
• And with only about 5 to 10 minutes left the third question was by a member of the audience who claimed that the SNP government were wasting money by identifying 24 different genders.

No one in the audience, apart from the three selected, knew which questions would be asked.

Was the last question for light relief or what? … but it was quickly explained that the government didn't believe there were 24 genders by the SNP representative on the Panel.

Conclusion.

Well you can speculate as well as I can, but instead of a Panel having to face any questions thrown at them by the panel, as it superficially appears, it seems the opposite appears to be the case.

It is only the wording of the questions that three of the audience gets to choose out of the extremely narrow range of questions the panel deemed to be acceptable. Furthermore it is the audience that gets the questions thrown at them, as only at the last minute only 3 know what one of the questions will be. 

I can only speculate that with more than the usual urgent events world wide in today's world, and a passionate audience the team were finding it harder to find the questions that in reality they had pre-selected and that is why the deadline was continually being extended.

I can further speculate that the team in pursuing their chosen career within the media to encourage democracy are in fact unwitting participants in achieving the opposite. Not everyone can handle the cognitive conflict required to reappraise the reality that goes against decades of believing the opposite.

Speculation is perfectly acceptable as long as you know you are speculating and I would welcome you to speculate (or try to explain or justify these factual observations)

If these debate nights are an example of how democracy works in Britain we need to look critically at other democratic indicators objectively in order to improve democracy.

See also:-

Further problems with the Media:-