In the aftermath of
the Eastleigh by-election, PASC chair Bernard Jenkin reflected on the
disconnect between the Westminster village on the Today programme on Saturday
morning. If politicians watched the
teatime quiz show Pointless, they would realise just how little the public
knows (or cares?) about them.
I love the quiz show Pointless (I am not alone – when he did
his back in, BBC Business Editor, Robert Peston, tweeted that the one good part
was that he would be able to watch the show).
For those who have not watched, it the format is quite simple. Pairs of people (an interesting demographic –
a mix of small business people, students, public sector workers and the
retired) have to find answers that the fewest people got when “100 people were
given a 100 seconds” to answer a question.
The choice of subjects is quite eclectic – from mountain ranges, to
famous blondes, to Scottish football, to
Latin phrases translated into English.
Whichever pair wins through the first 3 rounds gets to play for a
jackpot when they are given five categories to choose from – and then are given
3 chances to find “the all important pointless answer”.
It’s a good format and makes for a fun forty-five minutes – but
it’s also a fascinating window into what a sample of people know and don’t
know. And over a concerted period of
Pointless watching (it’s been on for years but I only discovered it in the
autumn), some very distinct patterns appear.
First, and perhaps as expected, a lot of people know about
celebrities, films and other forms of popular culture and a bit of sport. Geography and history are quite a lot
weaker. People had amazingly little
recall of Olympic medallists (only 23 named Jessica Ennis as the winner of
Heptathlon gold – what were they watching last summer?)
Second, those categories are the ones that the finalists
almost invariably pick reflect the same themes – but because knowledge of
categories such as “Steve Carrell” films is so widespread it’s really difficult
to find a pointless answer.
But third, from time to time, there is a politics category
on offer. It might be UK politics, or US
or world politics. In the final section,
where contestants get a choice, they almost invariably immediately rule it out
– on the basis that “they know nothing about politics” – no more shame in that
than yet another woman admitting she knows “nothing about football”. And they end up having to identify female
Brit award winners since 1970.
It always seems a bad tactic. Because to anyone who was listening to
Bernard Jenkin on Saturday, its unbelievably easy to find a pointless answer in
politics. A few episodes ago the final
pair did choose politics. They had to
identify current MPs whose surnames began with a vowel. Their first answer was George Osborne – who
scored a mighty 8. Their other answers
were Leo Abse (retired in 1987) and Gerry Adams (in the Irish Parliament now). The jackpot went unwon. There were too many
pointless answers to list at the end.
Douglas Alexander was pointless (Danny didn’t appear to be – the fruits
of power). In a much earlier programme
when people were asked to name women MPs, Harriet Harman and Yvette Cooper were
both pointless answers.
But perhaps the best illustration of the disconnect between
the Westminster village and the people came in a question in an episode last
week. The category was Radio 4
programmes. The question was “name the
programme John Humphries has presented since XX”. 6/100 people (and none of the contestants)
got the answer right. Bernard: they are
not listening.
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