Jan 25 2007
The dying art of answering questions - and Ruth Kelly’s train travel
Many of my constiuents think as an MP I can ask whatever I like in Parliament. If only it were that easy.
If you want to ask an oral quesiton, it has to be about something a government department does, and you have to wait for the one day in the month when that department is available to answer.
If you want to ask a written one, you can only do so when Parliament is in session (another reason this government gives us long holidays) and if the Table office officials think it is a question which a government Minister is likely to answer.
In recent weeks I am pleased to report a welcome mellowing in the Table Office, who now let me table more of the questions I want to.
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John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
Greg Hands asked a similar question to Mr Blair when making a point about how overcrowded the Underground is. I recall that his “answer” was almost identical to the one you received. The truth is presumably that the Govt is embarrassed to admit that hardly any use of public transport is made by Ministers.
My avowed ambition is to live long enough to actually hear any politician answer a question with a straight answer as opposed to reciting a pre-rehearsed response - I live in hope !
Alan Eaves
I suspect you are right that she isn’t travelling by train to stop global warming. She is quite right not to since the whole GW & trains are more ecological stuff is rubbish but obviously to answer would shop she doesn’t believe this any more than Cameron believes he is saving the world by bicycling & letting his briefcase travel in style.
I doubt if passing it on to the unfortunate Angela was disrespect to you - had Kelly answered it (or more likely signed Angela’s answer) while claiming jogging her memory would be expensive.
Unsurprisingly, Michael Gove often receives identically worded responses to requests about government funding of the Muslim Council of Britain. I am sure other honourable members experience the same thing from this obsessively secretive and unaccountable sham of a Government.
Surely John, it is time to work smarter to make life uncomfortable for these departments that try to evade proper scrutiny for fear it would embarrass them or reveal double standards. I discuss this very issue on the Waendel Journal. It would be interesting to know if using such a tactic will wrongfoot the information officers sufficiently to free up information we should be entitled to examine.