Trapping a minister with socratic irony?

Attempts at socratic irony, the means by which one feigns ignorance in a subject in order to expose a weakness of another's position is a brillaint tool. Some people can do it superbly, and occassionally it shines through in the sequence of questions asked by MPs to a specific Goevrnment department.

Take for example, Grant Shapps, the MP for Welwyn Hatfield. Yesterday he asked the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Hilary Armstrong, a number of questions about the property portfolio of the Cabinet Office. He began with asking how much was raised from the sale of departmental property in each of the last five years. The answer was that only in one year, between 2003-04, was money raised from property sales, and this was to the value of £4.2m. Not a small sum really.

He then followed up by asking how much the Cabinet Office received in letting revenue from its property. No answer, apparently it would cost too much to say. Then he asked what the property portfolio was worth and was directed to some Cabinet Office document in the House of Commons library. Finally he asked how much the Cabinet Office was paying out in rent and leases for office space. No answer again, the "information not held centrally", will cost too much too answer, blah, blah.

The non-answers are of course telling. For whilst they don't provide any information, when placed against the series of question one is left wondering whether Hilarty Armstrong is trying to hide something? Could it be that the Cabinet Office is making bugger all rent, and paying oodles out in leasing fees whilst simultaneously flogging off property? Hmmmmm.