I was looking forward to the return of Question time on Thursday night with the 9/11 special. As a First Time Voter, I was only 7 years of age at the time, so it’s a very distant memory and I have always looked for further clarification on some of the issues involved.
It got off to a slow start with every panellist seeming to be agreeing with each other - exactly what you don’t want on this type of show - until Tariq Ali at last introduced a dissenting voice, as you would expect from an anti war campaigner.
The programme could have remained rather muted and unenlightening to a First Time Voter, were it not for one panellist David Miliband, the former foreign secretary. In comparison with the rest of the panel he was energetic, charismatic, authoritative, and showed a real in-depth knowledge to the subject matter. He was strong and clear with messages such as ‘the words War on Terror should have never been muttered’ as it ‘unified people under Bin Laden and made it look like East vs the West’. In short he came across to anybody watching, particularly a First Time Voter, as somebody who could be leading this country. His storming performance was underlined by batting away valiant attempts by Dimbleby to put him on the spot, with answers such as ‘No David I was junior education secretary at the time’.
This is just another indication that Labour may have picked the wrong brother and it was brought into sharp focus the next time I saw David Miliband on television at the weekend. No, it wasn’t the Andrew Marr show, it was Match of the Day! Sitting in the executive box at Sunderland FC in his role as the non-executive vice chairman. I just hope not all of our most impressive politicians end up in football!
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