Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Speaker tutors Ministers on how to answer questions

This little question made me chuckle. The subject of the question was the Constitutional Affairs Minister, Vera Baird MP.
Mr. Desmond Swayne (New Forest, West) (Con):On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Is there nothing that can be done about lawyers who are somewhat used to being paid by the hour and, as a consequence, take an inordinate amount of time to ask a question and even longer to answer one?

Mr. Speaker: I have been giving some tutoring to the Under-Secretary, because I know that she came from the courts to Parliament. I would not say that she took too long today; it is just that she is improving, and there could be more improvement.
The thing is, is it appropriate for the Speaker to be providing tutoring for Ministers on how to answer questions?

1 comment:

James Higham said...

Is it appropriate? If she's female and you have private chambers, possibly.