Ask a Stupid Question
I watched First Minister's Questions (FMQs) in the Scottish Parliament yesterday - a very bad tempered affair and a poor advert for Scotland - in my view.
What passes for debate these days in Holyrood amounts to little more than a succession of puffed-up people asking the First Minister a series of loaded questions - which are the political equivalent of:
'When did you stop beating your wife, First Minister?'
Now I like a bit of good political knockabout as much as the next person - but I have to day this endless repetition of the same line of questioning is deadly boring and dull.
As things stand we are going to have the following exchange played out at Holyrood week afater week:
Q First Minister are you an mendacious, incorrigible liar or just completely useless and incompetent at your job?
A Neither, of course.
Yet after this pantomime has been played out (with the questions read out verbatim as often as not) the relevant party leader then complains - bitterly and loudly at times - that the First Minister has not answered their question.
Cue - 'Oh yes he has!' - followed by 'Oh no he's not!'.
Now I don't carry a torch for Alex Salmond or the SNP - my days of supporting just one political party or its leader are long gone - I'm pleased to say.
But seems to me that if the same people keep asking the same loaded question - they can hardly complain about their failure to get a straight Yes or No answer.
Are they stupid or what?
