Meet the Panelists – BBC Question Time 2009-2012

Apropos of my last article on tokenism and gender balance in the composition of BBC Question Time panels, I’ve now pulled together a complete list of the people who have made at least one appearance on a Question Time panel since January 2009 and am looking for a little crowdsourced assistance with the next stage of my analysis.

Yor mission, should ou choose to accept it, is to help out with tagging the political links and associations of some panelists. I’m still working on this at the moment, but you can take it as read that I have all the information I need for the UK politicians in the and for some panelists from other professions/backgrounds where these have a know link to a specific political party, e.g. as a donor, member or known supporter.

So what I’m looking for is information and opinions on some of the other, less obviously political names on the list, either in terms of a verified link to British political party – I thnk we all know now that Carol Vorderman is rabid Tory, even if that wasn’t entirely obvious until she appeared on the show, or a reliable assessment of where they sit on the standard left-right political axis. To keep it simple, stick to left, right and centre as answers where possible, although I’ll also take with neutral or independent if you feel that someone is genuinely operating outside the usual categories.

Final instructions if you do feel like ptiching in:

– any responses in comments and not via Twitter please, as its just easier to keep track of things that way

– no tracking people down via Twitter to ask them about their political views if you don’t already know where they stand, it;s not nice to hassle people for trivial reasons, and

– for the avoidance of any doubt, the Brian Cox who appears on the list is the actor, not the scientist.

So now, without further ado, on with the list, which is given in rank order by number of appearances:

Rank Panelist Appearances
1 Vince Cable 10
2 Nigel Farage 9
3 Caroline Flint 8
3 Kelvin MacKenzie 8
3 Theresa May 8
6 Caroline Lucas 7
6 Chris Huhne 7
6 Kenneth Clarke 7
6 Peter Hain 7
10 Andy Burnham 6
10 Diane Abbott 6
10 Liam Fox 6
10 Nicola Sturgeon 6
10 Sarah Teather 6
10 Sayeeda Warsi 6
10 Shami Chakrabarti 6
17 Alan Johnson 5
17 David Starkey 5
17 Douglas Murray 5
17 Elfyn Llwyd 5
17 Jo Swinson 5
17 Melanie Phillips 5
17 Menzies Campbell 5
17 Paddy Ashdown 5
17 Shirley Williams 5
26 Alex Salmond 4
26 Andrew Lansley 4
26 Ben Bradshaw 4
26 Charles Falconer 4
26 Charles Kennedy 4
26 David Laws 4
26 Douglas Alexander 4
26 Ed Balls 4
26 Iain Duncan Smith 4
26 Janet Street-Porter 4
26 Margaret Beckett 4
26 Mehdi Hasan 4
26 Michael Heseltine 4
26 Michael Moore 4
26 Peter Hitchens 4
26 Philip Hammond 4
26 Ruth Lea 4
26 Simon Hughes 4
44 Caroline Spelman 3
44 Charles Clarke 3
44 Chris Bryant 3
44 Chris Grayling 3
44 Christopher Meyer 3
44 Damian Green 3
44 David Davis 3
44 David Miliband 3
44 Ed Davey 3
44 Fraser Nelson 3
44 George Galloway 3
44 Grant Shapps 3
44 Harriet Harman 3
44 Ian Hislop 3
44 Jack Straw 3
44 Janet Daley 3
44 Jeremy Browne 3
44 Jeremy Hunt 3
44 John Denham 3
44 John Redwood 3
44 Julia Goldsworthy 3
44 Justine Greening 3
44 Ken Livingstone 3
44 Leanne Wood 3
44 Liam Byrne 3
44 Max Hastings 3
44 Michael Gove 3
44 Nadine Dorries 3
44 Norman Baker 3
44 Piers Morgan 3
44 Polly Toynbee 3
44 Salma Yaqoob 3
44 Susan Kramer 3
44 William Hague 3
44 Yvette Cooper 3
79 Alastair Campbell 2
79 Andrew Mitchell 2
79 Bonnie Greer 2
79 Boris Johnson 2
79 Brian Cox 2
79 Camila Batmanghelidjh 2
79 Charles Moore 2
79 Cheryl Gillan 2
79 Chuka Umunna 2
79 Clare Short 2
79 Clive Anderson 2
79 Daniel Hannan 2
79 Danny Alexander 2
79 David Mitchell 2
79 David Willetts 2
79 Ed Miliband 2
79 Fern Britton 2
79 Francis Maude 2
79 Germaine Greer 2
79 Gloria De Piero 2
79 Hilary Benn 2
79 Jane Moore 2
79 Jenny Tonge 2
79 John Sergeant 2
79 Jon Gaunt 2
79 Katie Hopkins 2
79 Kirsty Williams 2
79 Margaret Curran 2
79 Max Mosley 2
79 Michael Forsyth 2
79 Monty Don 2
79 Nick Ferrari 2
79 Rachel Reeves 2
79 Richard Dannatt 2
79 Rory Stewart 2
79 Sadiq Khan 2
79 Shaun Woodward 2
79 Simon Jenkins 2
79 Simon Schama 2
79 Stephen Pollard 2
79 Tessa Jowell 2
79 Toby Young 2
79 Will Self 2
79 Yasmin Alibhai-Brown 2
123 Aaron Porter 1
123 Adrian Adonis 1
123 Alistair Carmichael 1
123 Amanda Platell 1
123 Andrew Roberts 1
123 Anna Soubry 1
123 Annabel Goldie 1
123 Archbishop John Sentamu 1
123 Benedict Brogan 1
123 Benjamin Zephaniah 1
123 Bianca Jagger 1
123 Bill Rammell 1
123 Billy Bragg 1
123 Bob Crow 1
123 Brent Hoberman 1
123 Brian Paddick 1
123 Bruce Anderson 1
123 Carol Vorderman 1
123 Carwyn Jones 1
123 Charlotte Harris 1
123 Christina Schmidt 1
123 Christine Blower 1
123 Claire Perry 1
123 Clarke Carlisle 1
123 Clive James 1
123 Colin Blakemore 1
123 Constance Briscoe 1
123 Cristina Odone 1
123 Dambisa Moyo 1
123 Dame Ann Leslie 1
123 David Blunkett 1
123 David Frum 1
123 David Lammy 1
123 David Steel 1
123 David Trimble 1
123 Deborah Meaden 1
123 Derek Simpson 1
123 Digby Jones 1
123 Dr Phil Hammond 1
123 Ed Byrne 1
123 Edwina Currie 1
123 Elin Jones 1
123 Elizabeth Truss 1
123 Eric Pickles 1
123 Esther Rantzen 1
123 Fiona Phillips 1
123 Frank Skinner 1
123 George Osborne 1
123 George Pascoe-Watson 1
123 Gerry Kelly 1
123 Hardeep Singh Kohli 1
123 Helena Kennedy 1
123 Hugh Grant 1
123 Hugh Hendry 1
123 Iain Gray 1
123 Jacob Rees-Mogg 1
123 Jacqui Smith 1
123 James Caan 1
123 James O’Brien 1
123 Jan Royall 1
123 Jarvis Cocker 1
123 Jeanette Winterson 1
123 Jeffrey Donaldson 1
123 Jim Allister 1
123 Jim Knight 1
123 Jimmy Wales 1
123 Joan Bakewell 1
123 John Prescott 1
123 Julia Hartley-Brewer 1
123 Julian Fellowes 1
123 Justin King 1
123 Justine Roberts 1
123 Kate Mosse 1
123 Kirsty Allsopp 1
123 Liam Halligan 1
123 Lionel Barber 1
123 Liz Kendall 1
123 Louise Bagshawe 1
123 Lynne Featherstone 1
123 Margaret Ritchie 1
123 Maria Misra 1
123 Mark Littlewood 1
123 Mark Malloch Brown 1
123 Mark Serwotka 1
123 Mark Steel 1
123 Marta Andreasen 1
123 Martin Bell 1
123 Martin Sorrell 1
123 Martina Anderson 1
123 Mary Beard 1
123 Mary Bousted 1
123 Matthew Parris 1
123 Michael Howard 1
123 Michael Winner 1
123 Mike Russell 1
123 Nerys Evans 1
123 Niall Ferguson 1
123 Nick Griffin 1
123 Nicola Horlick 1
123 Nigel Dodds 1
123 Nigel Lawson 1
123 Noreena Hertz 1
123 Norman Lamb 1
123 Owen Paterson 1
123 Patrick Harvie 1
123 Pauline Neville-Jones 1
123 Peter Oborne 1
123 Phil Willis 1
123 Pierre-Yves Gerbeau 1
123 Priti Patel 1
123 Rageh Omaar 1
123 Richard Lambert 1
123 Richard Littlejohn 1
123 Richard Madeley 1
123 Richard Perle 1
123 Robert Winston 1
123 Roy Hattersley 1
123 Sally Bercow 1
123 Sammy Wilson 1
123 Sarah Sands 1
123 Shappi Khorsandi 1
123 Sherard Cowper-Coles 1
123 Simon Callow 1
123 Simon Heffer 1
123 Simon Wolfson 1
123 Stephen Dorrell 1
123 Stephen Twigg 1
123 Steve Easterbrook 1
123 Stuart Rose 1
123 Suzanne Burlton 1
123 Tariq Ali 1
123 Tim Farron 1
123 Tom Conti 1
123 Tom Hunter 1
123 TristramHunt 1
123 Vera Baird 1
123 Victoria Barnsley 1
123 Victoria Coren 1
123 Will Hutton 1
123 Will Young 1
123 Willie Walsh 1

3 thoughts on “Meet the Panelists – BBC Question Time 2009-2012

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  3. I have been compiling a list similar to this which can be accessed at:
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AguglFwWq8GIdGc0TUZrNVdvQ05Wc1c2YkhaM1VFb1E&hl=en_US#gid=0 

    Feel free to use any of the information on there should it help, though I have tried to avoid using left/right or party affiliations for non-elected officials. I am currently trying to fill up everything for the previous parliament as well, if anyone would find that useful, as well as running a similar exercise for BBC Any Questions.

    I shall also be adding a gender column soon, to make this easier to search.

    I hope this is of some use.

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