Feedback: The Moral Maze

Michael Portillo was on very poor form when questioning Joan Smith. He stated that "the Queen is uniquely unprivileged" and I think his inability to justify this preposterous utterance brought out his natural aggression. He interrupted excessively but "trampled" no one. He lost control. Joan Smith gave no quarter and the programme left me with the firm impression that Michael Portillo is on the Royal payroll (well, maybe he just attends one or two Royal banquets every year!).



I agree with the point made by Michael Buerk that the guests are able to hold their own. I do remember, however, one guest cracking under the interrogation of David Starkey. The man was reduced to blurting out something about where he was educated in an attempt to shore up his argument.

Roger, I quite enjoyed the programme actually - it was the first time I listened in. I wonder if the SABC - the local broadcaster in South Africa, would consider hosting a show of this nature. Given the hotly contested topics because of the country's colourful past I think the show would be supremely entertaining. I can just imagine the moral maze around Pieter Mulder's land reform comments recently, for example (he had publicly announced in a parliamentary address that he did not believe black South Africans were necessarily entitled to any land claims). It has inspired no shortage of controversial commentary across media channels but nothing like this show!

With neck squeezings, arms pluckings and tramplings, MM sounds something of a splended, although for some, terrifying abattoir. Lord Reith would surely want to be in the running red thick of it.

I thought Buerk lost control of the programme and that it was one of the worst I've heard in recent memory - and that's from someone who absolutely adores the show. I'd really been looking forward to its return to the airwaves and was rather disappointed with the outcome. There were some great episodes before it last went off the air. Last week's episode was much better and hopefully last night's is back to normal.



However I don't think Portillo trampled over Smith, like the first commenter said. He just seemed annoyed about something and took it out on Smith, they certainly seemed to be on opposite ends of the argument.



I thought an earlier episode (from last March, I think) about merit and the monarchy was much better than this one. And I was rather surprised by Buerk's responses on Feedback. I absolutely hate it when the participants constantly talk over each other, however I wasn't aware until you interviewed him, that the show was broadcast live. I'll cut him a lot of slack for that and thanks to your descriptions of hosting the show above, I'll cut him a bit more slack for that too. It certainly doesn't sound like the sort of programme I'd like to host, but it's an absolute treat to listen to.