What a mixed bag of petals & pus

I have just watched Question Time, which this week came from HMP Wormwood Scrubs. The panel was interesting: Labour's last Justice Secretary Jack Straw was up against the Conservative's current Justice Secretary Ken Clarke - and they were joined by Liberty's Shami Chakrabati and the Daily Fail's very own cesspit, Melanie Phillips.

The panel played their parts much as we might have expected. Jack Straw took the predictably New Labour populist line and Shami Chakrabati defended a fairly liberal common sense view on issues related to penal policy. What did impress me was Ken Clarke - without doubt, the most sensible Justice Secretary this country has had in years. He has found himself in trouble with the red tops in the last few days by daring to think imaginatively about penal policy. Good for Ken - a man who deserves to have his ideas treated fairly.

But the night was blighted by the dreadful Melanie Phillips. A Daily Mail columnist, she belongs on a different moral planet from me. Her view that the UK should shut off all foreign aid was met with boos by the audience. It was almost as if she was reading my mind and stating the opposite view. I already knew that she is a homophobe, islamophobe, evolution-denier, global-warming-denier, anti-vaccination buffoon who accuses anyone she doesn't like of being anti-Semitic. If you want to barf yourself into a stupor, have a read of her views on Wikipedia. Pass me the sick bag, please!