Ask Tony and win
I got an email from Number 10 alerting me, among others, to the “Question the Prime Minister!” (their exclamation mark not mine) webcast jamboree.
Not being the sharpest of tacks right now, I was momentarily foxed by the email when it said: “You should include your name and the town or city that you live in. Questions will be accepted up to 1200 BST on Tuesday 5 June.”
The email arrived at 12:14 BST on 5 June. Monday though, not Tuesday. I suspect a typo deliberately inserted by the security services in order to dupe dissidents.
Anyway. The email says:
He will be taking questions from two respected newspaper journalists, Sarah Sands of the Daily Mail and Michael White of The Guardian, as well as from users of the Downing Street website.
This is an opportunity for you to submit questions to be answered by the PM. The interviewers will select the questions and put them to the PM on your behalf.
The new forum is open to anyone and is an opportunity for the public to challenge the PM on any subject they wish, just as MPs do every Wednesday at Prime Minister’s Questions Time.
The interview will take place on Tuesday afternoon and be broadcast from 1700 BST that evening via our website.
And goes on to insist that “[t]he questions chosen to go to the PM will not be selected by his office” despite the email address for submissions being questions@pmo.gov.uk. So, above board or not, the whiff of a fix being in abounds particularly when you note the presence of Michael White who, unwittingly or not, is the voice of New Labour in The Guardian.
Still, one or two of us bloggers (two to be precise - Dave Weeden and me) have had some success in the past at sneaking questions into these online rallies. So, I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon and hold a little competition. If anybody sends a question to Tony and manages to get it answered, make it known in the comments here and I’ll sort out a small trophy as a reward. Feel free to advertise your question here in advance if you like.
I suspect only the most anodyne questions or questions cleverly worded to sound anodyne will be selected. Here’s my entry - I’ll be amazed if it actually get asked:
Dear Prime Minister,
There have been several allegations of sexual harrassment made against the Deputy Prime Minister, notably from Linda McDougall, the wife of MP Austin Mitchell who alleges, in 1978, that he “pushed me quite forcefully against the wall and put his hand up my skirt”.
Were these allegations to be made against a teacher, social worker, a doctor or anyone else, do you think they should be treated as “a private matter”, as you regard the Deputy Prime Minister’s conduct, or do you think that person should face disciplinary proceedings?
Kinds regards
Justin McKeating
Go to it - questions to be submitted by noon BST tomorrow (Tuesday). Think of it like being in the trenches and going over the top. If enough of us rush the guns surely a few will get through.
Posted on June 5th, 2006 at 10:20 pm
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Here is my question:
Dear Prime Minister,
When you were offered donations, why did you prefer that they took the form of loans?
Thank you
Davide Simonetti
London
I’ll be very surprised if that gets answered. I have to go out tomorrow evening so could you let me know what he does or doesn’t answer please? I’m fascinated.
Cheers
I went with the exclusion zone round parliament. Tried to keep it just the right side of anodyne but probably didn’t manage:
Mr Blair, your government passed a law which placed limits on the right to free speech in a large area around parliament, the very area
where it is perhaps most important and most needed. As a result of this law, 78 police officers were involved in a night raid to remove most of Brian Haw’s protest materials from Parliament Square. Is this a sensible use of police resources?
And do you worry that future governments may use the law you introduced to essentially censor uncomfortable or embarrasing
protests?
You should email Ms Sands to ask her to test the claim that the panelists choose the questions by asking yours! Regardless, I’ve never seen the Mail so venemous as they currently are about Prezza, I’m sure she’d love to ask it anyway!
My question:
Is it true that you are planning a state funeral for Maggie? If so could you please arrange that she lies in state for a week so that we can come and spit on her corpse, or alternatively do a “orient express verification” of her death?
Ask Tony Blair a question… again…
Chicken Yoghurt - Ask Tony and win Europhobia - It’s “pretend we care” time at Downing Street again BSSC - Don’t miss your chance to ask Blair a question Just remember… when enough people ‘rushed the guns’ and Peter Mandelson……
Mr Burns …err… Blair,
Your campaign is like a runaway express train. Why are you so popular?
Lisa Simpson, Springfield.
Too late to enter, but mine would be:
Dear Prime Minister,
What the fuck? I mean really, what the fucking fuck?
Sincerely,
Sam
Bristol
Dang. Should’ve gotten mine in:
Dear Ton,
How can you get up and look at yourself in the mirror every morning knowing that (a) you’re a war criminal and (b) you’re such a chickenshit that you have to be protected by iron gates and squads of cops armed with automatic weapons on the off chance that some maniac might care enough to blow your worthless hide to Hell, while, in a bygone era, George VI and his family sat in Buckingham Palace daring the Luftwaffe to take them out, and Churchill clambered around the ruins of London offering nothing but blood, toil, tears, and sweat?
Just wondering,
Mike
Woodstock
Dear Mr Blair,
It was recently reported in all major newspapers that your wife, along with your good friend Mr Alistair Campbell, autographed a copy of the Hutton Report into Dr David Kelly’s tragic suicide and sold it under auction to raise funds for the Labour party. I was wondering whether there are any other reports into suicides that you might consider suitable for auction?
(EDIT by Justin: After much thought I’ve [reluctantly] decided to edit this comment. While you’re essentially right in your point, Antipholus, I don’t agree with putting the Prime Minister’s family into play to make it.)
Any clarification would be appreciated.
Yours in good faith,
AP
Are you sure it’s not another email-harvesting exercise?
Given Blair’s latest version of ‘reform or die’, a good question might be: Why do you think the public sector will always be improved by private enterprise, and not the other way round?
Well done Justin,
He answered your question. Still waiting to hear if he will answer mine.
Fame! I gonna live forever.
I wouldn’t call the question “answered”, Davide. Maybe “addressed”, if I were to be generous. “Evaded”, “dodged” or “bottled” if I wasn’t.
I’ll write a post about it later on…
Yeah,
I should have said “addressed”.
*sigh*
Oh well, it was a long shot.
And mine wasn’t? To be honest it seemed to me that not many submitted questions got asked. What would you say, about a half dozen padded out with follow ups from White and Sands?
Congrats Justin, anyone got a voice feed?
There’s an MP3 of it here.
Your mileage will vary depending on how much you enjoy prevarication, obfuscation and sheer brass-necked masturbation.
This made me laugh
No doubt I will look back at it in 5 or 10 years and weep.
What about a question to Michael White along the lines of “What the FUCK do you think you’re doing by acting as a PR man for the government?”
Well done Justin.
I was going to submit one enquiring about his cock-length, but I guess I’m too late.
I saw AP’s comment in its original form yesterday. He does make a very good point, very powerfully, but nonetheless you were right to edit it. I suppose.
The interview was unbearable.
Michael White:
Later, Blair says:
Shall we say that Blair has helped to kill well over 100k of people in Iraq, during the three years after Saddam Hussain was deposed from power and no longer had anything to do with it. If Blair could have divided that number by a factor of 10, he would not have done so.
Cluster bombs ahoy! Don’t retreat until you see the whites of their oil wells!