Oh that convention!

Jsut in case any of us doubted that Parliament is now a complete waste of time, lets look at this little exchange from Prime Minister's Questions - the one time that the Prime Minister has to respond to questions from MPs on the floor of the house.

Mike Weir, SNP Angus, asked about the prospect of Mr Blair being questioned by police in relation to the cash-for-honours inquiry, asking how he would explain the fact that 80p in every pound donated to Labour came from people given honours.
Mr Blair, who denies wrongdoing, said he had "no intentions" of debating that issue and asked why Mr Weir did not want to debate the forthcoming Scottish Parliament elections.

Mr Blair then answered his own question, saying that the reason was that the SNP policy of "ripping" Scotland out of the UK would be a "disaster for Scotland and a disaster for the UK".

What a relief that the Speaker of the House picked up Mr Blair on his total failure to answer the question, and rebuked him for focusing instead on the policies of opposition parties. Oh no, wait, that didn't happen at all. If anyone can suggest a use for Gorbals Mick other than an oversize paperweight please write in...