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Question Time, the BBC's premier political debate programme chaired by David Dimbleby, was in Croydon on Thursday 4 June. The panel included Leader of the House of Lords Baroness Royall, Conservative shadow secretary of state for defence Liam Fox, former leader of the Liberal Democrats Paddy Ashdown, journalist and historian Sir Max Hastings, and journalist and broadcaster Fiona Phillips.
BARONESS ROYALL
Career: Jan Royall is the leader of the House of Lords. She entered politics as a special adviser to Labour leader Neil Kinnock in the 1980s. After a year as the head of the European Union's office in Wales, she became a life peer, joining the Lords as Baroness Royall of Blaisdon. She was made a government whip as well as the government spokesman for Health and International Development. She was promoted to the cabinet as leader of the House of Lords by Gordon Brown in October 2008. Earlier this month, she urged peers to agree to the suspension from the Lords of two members who were found guilty of breaching the code of conduct when they were found to have offered to try to change the law in exchange for money. She said: "We have not as politicians been doing our jobs in the way that people would want us to, with honesty, integrity and with honour… I have had members of this House come to me and tell me what this time has meant - being shouted at in the street, their spouses reluctant to go to their local community for fear of what people will say."
Dr LIAM FOX MP
Career: Liam Fox has been Conservative shadow secretary of state for defence since 2005. A doctor by profession, he entered politics as a student, when he was president of the Glasgow University Conservative and Unionist Association. He first ran, unsuccessfully, for Parliament in 1987, and was elected as MP for Woodspring in 1992. A year later, he became parliamentary private secretary to the then home secretary, Michael Howard. Following the Conservative defeat in 1997, he joined the opposition front bench, and has held a number of high-profile posts, including shadow health secretary, co-chairman of the party and shadow foreign secretary. He stood for the party leadership in 2005. Last week the Daily Telegraph reported that he had used his parliamentary expenses to pay £9,000 a year to the Woodspring Conservative Association in Bristol. In response, he claimed that the payment "represents excellent value for my constituents". The association, he said: "arrange my surgeries, they do some of my casework, and they do a huge amount of secretarial work, so this probably represents an underpayment for the amount of work they do… There is absolutely no question of impropriety here."
LORD ASHDOWN
Career: Paddy Ashdown is a former leader of the Liberal Democrats, and was MP for Yeovil from 1983 to 2001. Charles Kennedy, described him as the "most successful leader of the Liberals in the past 70 years." He joined the Royal Marines in 1959, serving in conflict areas including Borneo and Northern Ireland. He left the military for the Foreign Office in 1972, working as first secretary to the UK mission in Geneva. He returned to the UK, and was elected as MP for Yeovil in 1983, defeating the Conservatives who had held the seat since 1918. He was leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1988 to 1999 and, on retirement from the Commons in 2001, joined the House of Lords as Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon. He was the international High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2002 to 2006, and testified as a witness at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic at the UN war crimes tribunal. In June 2007, he announced that he had been offered the role of Northern Ireland secretary in Gordon Brown's first cabinet, but had turned down the role after the then Lib Dem leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, said no member of his party would join the government.
Sir MAX HASTINGS
Career: Sir Max Hastings is a journalist and historian, who is the former editor of the Daily Telegraph and the London Evening Standard. He writes a column for the Daily Mail. He entered journalism as a foreign correspondent, reporting for BBC Television News and the Evening Standard. After 10 years as Telegraph editor, he returned to the Evening Standard as editor from 1996 to 2001. He has written a number of books, including The Battle for the Falklands and Bomber Command, which won the Somerset Maugham Award. His 1984 book, Overlord, was a history of the D-Day landings, the 65th anniversary of which is on 6 June. Last week he called for a general election, writing: "We have all shared in the humiliation of seeing the nation's politicians shamed, yet mostly remaining shameless. It is too late for Labour to redeem itself. But the Tories can do so by rediscovering the arts of leadership and moral authority which have been lost for a generation… A general election is not just desirable to rid Westminster of corruption. It is essential for the future of our nation."
FIONA PHILLIPS
Career: Fiona Phillips is a journalist and broadcaster, who presented ITV's breakfast show, GMTV, from 1996 to 2008. She started her career as a reporter for local radio stations in Surrey and Sussex, moving to television to join BBC South East's weekend programme, then CNN News, where she became entertainment editor. She joined GMTV as an entertainment reporter in 1993, and became the show's main anchor in 1998. She left the programme in December 2008. She writes a weekly column for the Daily Mirror, and has presented radio shows on BBC Five Live and Smooth Radio.
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