Question Time
As his fellow MPs know all too well, Norman Baker always has a question to ask.
Just take written parliamentary questions to government ministers. Since the start of this year (i.e. January and February) he has asked 100 questions.
And at only £134 a question why not? It’s £13,400 of public money well spent, especially with probing questions like these:
“For what reasons the chairs in Refreshment Department catering outlets in Portcullis House were recently replaced?” Answer: Because they kept breaking
“How much was spent by the House authorities on (a) additional cutlery and (b) replacing missing cutlery in 2006?” Answer: We don’t monitor the whereabouts of individual spoons
“To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the incident which caused the closure of part of the M1 on Christmas Day?” Answer: A road accident
What interesting questions will Baker ever come up with next?
4 comments:
Parliamentary questions may work out at £134 on average per question, but that doesn't mean that an extra parliamentary question incurs an extra £134 cost - in fact, given that the overall cost is relatively fixed, the marginal cost of a single question is virtually nil, and serves to bring down the overall average.
Just sayin'.
That kind of maths must be the product of a NuLabour education.
Using that logic Baker should be asking loads more pointless questions to save taxpayers' money.
Golly, Norm seems to be generating thousands of Parliamentary Questions(PQs) and he seems to have been doing so at an amazing and quite disproportionate rate (as compared with other MPs) since 1997. It must be costing the taxpayer a 'bomb' for Government Departments to respond. If every MP in Westminster generated the same quantity of PQs, most Governement Depts would grind to a halt ! Perhaps Norman should take a breather !
Golly, Norm seems to be generating thousands of Parliamentary Questions(PQs) and he seems to have been doing so at an amazing and quite disproportionate rate (as compared with other MPs) since 1997. It must be costing the taxpayer a 'bomb' for Government Departments to respond. If every MP in Westminster generated the same quantity of PQs, most Governement Depts would grind to a halt ! Perhaps Norman should take a breather !
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