Wednesday 12 January 2011

Are Scots "too frit" to get their questions out?

The Scottish MPs fairly mashed their words at Prime Minister's Questions just now.

First up SNP Westminster leader Angus Roberston, catching the Speaker's eye, was punished for trying to be too clever.

Robertson asked which was the greatest political betrayal - "a Lib Dem deputy Prime Minister who promised not to introduce tuition fees and then did or a Conservative PM who promised to introduce a fuel duty stabiliser and didn't?"

Cameron flattened him with one blow: "I think you can top all those with an SNP who said they were going to have a referendum on Independence and never did."

The PM could barely stop laughing himself as he added: "As a predecessor of mine (Thatcher)once said - frit." First round knock-out.

The Labour MPs weren't much better. Jim Sheridan (Paisley and N Renfrewshire) tried to combine a tribute to the armed forces with a question on Rupert Murdoch's attempt to gain control of BSkyB which left Cameron, and everyone else, confused.

Lindsay Roy (Glenrothes) then went for convoluted question over the "bonfire of the quangos" being a damp squib - but that's what the question was by the time he got it out.

They could all take a lesson from the Tory backbencher, Anne McIntosh I think, who asked a straight question about fuel stabilizer for her rural constituents. Simple question - left Cameron flannelling and talked directly to the subject Robertson was trying to get at.

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