Question Time cue cards

The request was refused by British Broadcasting Corporation.

Dear British Broadcasting Corporation,

Please provide the text of the cue card that David Dimbleby read from on Question Time on 5 October 2017 regarding Labour's policy on student debt, along with scans of all other cue cards available to Mr Dimbleby that day. Please also explain who writes the cards, where they are kept between shows, and the process used to fact-check and periodically review the cards.

On the edition of Question Time broadcast on 5 October 2017, David Dimbleby read from a cue card to reinforce Damian Greene's claim that Jeremy Corbyn had promised to wipe out student debt. This opinion is based on selectively quoting the five words 'I will deal with it' spoken in an interview to the NME. The claim was not in Labour's manifesto and the full article makes clear that the aim is for fairness between cohorts of students and not eradication of debt.

The host's intervention served to misrepresent Labour policy and promises on student debt to your viewers, and so the public interest and duty to inform outweighs any journalistic exemption.

Finally, I ask when David Dimbleby will read on Question Time a quote long enough to provide context to the words 'I will deal with it' from the full text below, and when he will apologise for any misconceptions that viewers may have taken from previous shows.

NME: You’ve pledged to scrap tuition fees, which has gone down well. But it’s also kicked up a question for people who already have that debt, or people who are currently in university. What does it mean for people who’ve already been paying £9,000 a year?

JC: “First of all, we want to get rid of student fees altogether. We’ll do it as soon as we get in, and we’ll then introduce legislation to ensure that any student going from the 2017-18 academic year will not pay fees. They will pay them, but we’ll rebate them when we’ve got the legislation through – that’s fundamentally the principle behind it. Yes, there is a block of those that currently have a massive debt, and I’m looking at ways that we could reduce that, ameliorate that, lengthen the period of paying it off, or some other means of reducing that debt burden. I don’t have the simple answer for it at this stage – I don’t think anybody would expect me to, because this election was called unexpectedly; we had two weeks to prepare all of this – but I’m very well aware of that problem. And I don’t see why those that had the historical misfortune to be at university during the £9,000 period should be burdened excessively compared to those that went before or those that come after. I will deal with it.”
Taken from the original article at http://www.nme.com/features/jeremy-corby...

Yours faithfully,

Chris Gregson

FOI Enquiries, British Broadcasting Corporation

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Dear Chris Gregson,

 

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Dear Chris Gregson

 

Please find attached the response to your request for information,
reference RFI20171474.

 

Kind regards

 

Information Rights

 

BBC Freedom of Information

BC2 A4, Broadcast Centre

201 Wood Lane

London W12 7TP

 

[1]www.bbc.co.uk/foi

Email: [2][BBC request email]

 

Tel: 020 8008 2882

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