Gordon Brown may not have been the greatest ever PM, but it's now clear that was not the summit of his political career. No, the role that history has been preparing him for is to resurrect Labour Hame's legendary Questions To Which The Answer Is "Er..." feature, which has been so shamefully neglected by its creator Tom "Admin" Harris for over a year now. For the uninitiated, the feature consisted of a series of 'impossible' questions for Nationalists. They were 'impossible' for the following reasons -1) Approximately 728 answers from Nationalists would be received for each question, of which approximately 701 would be deleted. They simply didn't exist.
2) The remaining 27 answers would be declared "non-answers".
3) When asked why they were non-answers, "Admin" would explain that a legitimate answer could only consist of a 'Yes' or a 'No', without qualification.
4) Subsequent legitimate answers consisting of an unqualified 'Yes' or 'No' would be greeted with the words : "Thankyou for attempting to answer this week's Question To Which The Answer Is "Er...". Unfortunately, your answer was incorrect."
5) The question would then be declared UNANSWERED.
What a lark. Sadly missed.
But now Big Gord has made up for lost time, with more than twenty absolute belters. I feel like a kid let loose in a sweet shop, but I really don't want to make myself ill, so for now I'll just restrict myself to my absolute favourite -
"What happens if the Scottish Parliament has a different view on the line of succession for the Monarchy?"
First of all, the fact that this genuinely appears to be one of the questions keeping Gordon awake at night says something rather profound about his sense of priorities. As Johann Lamont might put it : "a male heir to the throne is no substitute for having a job".
But as it seems to be so important to Gordon, let's try and put this matter in some kind of perspective for him. There are currently sixteen Commonwealth Realms, ie. countries which share our monarch as their Head of State. All of them could in theory take their own view on the line of succession, but all of them have decided that would be extremely silly, and have agreed that any change (most probably allowing a girl to take precedence over any younger brothers) would have to come about through consensus. Scottish independence would simply add a seventeenth Commonwealth Realm to that process.
Now my own question for any passing Labour activist, if they can find the time -
Given the theoretical but unlikely possibility that the parliaments of New Zealand, Jamaica or Papua New Guinea could take a different view on the line of succession for the monarchy, does this mean that the independence of those countries is unviable?
In your own time, chaps...
* * *
Suffering from Denis MacShane withdrawal symptoms? Get fast relief by trying out the Scot Goes Pop Denis MacShane word-search from last year.
Brown always seems to promise something sonorous and potent but invariably, he descends into a shambling bathos.
ReplyDeleteThe Scottish media are partly complicit in this. For the UK media he's a brutal idiot from yesteryear who destroyed the economy. The Scottish media by comparison, are still believers, and hang on his words.
These questions are all very well but I'd prefer if he'd put them in one of his cheery home made video formats.
ReplyDeleteI recall he got one past his advisors before where he made his point bouncing on his heels in an atmosphere of near delirious happiness.
I say we ask him to re submit these questions filmed in his office in a similar cheery fashion.
We'll take a second look and perhaps even add a musical score.
Just send him a copy of this and tell him we'll call him if we need any advice.
ReplyDeleteI miss Bomber’s questions too, they were a hoot, highlight of the week.
ReplyDeleteThe less said about Maggie Broon the better.
As for Denis MacShane, such a lovely man (not). One of many in Labour – in both its British and ‘Scottish’ incarnations – who demonstrated, beyond all reasonable doubt, that Labour really is the nasty party of politics.