bonehead
13-01-2009, 05:28 AM
On 28 December 2008, David Lammy, the Minister for Higher Education, appeared on Celebrity Mastermind.
You might have expected a Higher Education Minister to have done very well on such a show. Particularly as Victoria Derbyshire, a BBC Radio presenter, had recently blown the whistle on her bosses regarding "crib sheets" being made available for the various celebs.
Check out how educated our Higher Education Minister is, himself, in the video below:
YouTube - The 13-Point Mastermind (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VWwyVQ2IQuE)
Perhaps we shouldn't be too hard on our David.
Another over-promoted David once did EVEN WORSE!
The Home Secretary, David Blunkett, who had previously been Tony B's Education supremo, took part in a performance of Celebrity Mastermind on Boxing Day, 2003.
In the long history of this programme, he scored just about the lowest ever total in the general knowledge section of the show.
He got just two questions right!
Here are the General Knowledge questions Blunkett did not know the answer to:
1) Which town in Ireland has been noted for its crystal glassware since the 18th century?
2) Which meteorological phenomenon is known as a twister in the mid-west states of America?
3) Nineteen year old Alex Parks was the winner of which televised talent competition in 2003?
4) What was the nickname of the 12th Century Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I because of his red beard?
5) On which Mediterranean island is the ruin of the ancient city of Syracuse where St Paul stayed on his journey to Rome?
6) Members of a North Yorkshire branch of which organisation posed nude for a charity calendar in 1999?
7) Later better known for his work with young people, who became a national hero in 1900 for his 217-day defence of Mafeking during the Boer war?
8) Which gas first recognised by Antoine Lavoisier did he name azote because of its inability to support life?
9) Bos grunniens is the Latin name for the Tibetan Ox. What is the more common name?
10) In 1980 and 1984 which athlete became the only man to have won an Olympic gold medal for the 1,500 metres at consecutive games?
11) In Greek mythology, who gave Theseus the thread that enabled him to escape from the labyrinth after he slew the minotaur?
12) The won is the unit of currency in which two adjacent Asian countries?
13) Which headstrong southern belle is the heroine of the novel and film Gone with the Wind?
ANSWERS:
1) WATERFORD - Blunkett: PASS
2) TORNADO - Blunkett: HURRICANE
3) FAME ACADEMY - Blunkett: PASS
4) BARBAROSSA - Blunkett: RED BEARD
5) SICILY - Blunkett: SICILY
6) WOMEN'S INSTITUTE - Blunkett: Wonderful ladies who did the film Bottoms Up (given as correct).
7) BADEN-POWELL - Blunkett: PASS
8) NITROGEN - Blunkett: PASS
9) YAK - Blunkett: PASS
10) SEBASTIAN COE - Blunkett: PASS
11) ARIADNE - Blunkett: PASS
12) NORTH AND SOUTH KOREA - Blunkett: THAILAND
13) SCARLETT O'HARA - Blunkett: PASS
For those who haven't checked out the video above, here are the questions Lammy didn't know the answers to:
1) What was the married name of the scientists Marie and Pierre who won the Noble Prize in 1903 for their research into radiation?
2) Cockpit Country is a rugged, inaccessible area on which Caribbean island?
3) Which fortress was built in the 1370s to defend one of the gates of Paris and was later used as a prison by Cardinal Richelieu?
4) In February 2008, which Tottenham Hotspur player scored the first goal of Fabio Capello’s reign as England football manager?
5) James Gandofini played a Mafia boss called Tony in which American television series?
6) What name is used for the highest gallery of seats in a theatre?
7) Which American military award is given to those wounded in action and bears the inscription for military merit on the reverse?
8) Which variety of blue, English cheese traditionally accompanies port?
9) In 2006, Sandy Tocsvig replaced Simon Hoggart as the presenter of which topical Radio 4 quiz show?
10) Who acceded to the English throne at the age of 9 on the death of his father Henry VIII in 1547?
11) In chemistry, what French word is used for a tube for transferring measured amounts of liquids?
12) Which country’s so-called Rose Revolution of 2003 led to the resignation of its president Edward Shevardnadze?
ANSWERS:
1) CURIE - Lammy: ANTOINETTE!
2) JAMAICA - Lammy: PASS
3) The Bastille - Lammy: VERSAILLES
4) JERMAIN JENAS - Lammy (MP for Tottenham): AARON LENNON
5) THE SOPRANOS - Lammy: THE GODFATHER
6) THE GODS - Lammy: PASS
7) PURPLE HEART - Lammy: PASS
8) STILTON - Lammy: LEICESTER
9) NEWSQUIZ - Lammy: PASS
10) EDWARD VI - Lammy: HENRY VII!
11) PIPETTE - Lammy: PASS
12) GEORGIA - Lammy: YUGOSLAVIA
To reiterate: when Lammy was asked who acceded to the English throne upon the death of Henry VIII, his answer was Henry VII!
Tony Blair installed Richard Caborn as Minister for Sport in 2001.
Soon afterwards, he accepted an invitation to take part in a radio quiz where his sporting knowledge was put to the test. He was asked 10 pretty easy questions and he failed to answer any of them correctly.
When a Radio Five Live presenter sprung an unscheduled question on an unrehearsed Stephen "Lyers" Byers, Byers, Schools Standards Minister at the time, declared that 8 x 7 equalled 54!
The former pornographer and alcoholic, Alistair Campbell, appeared alongside his paramour Fiona Millar (a top Blair aide also) in a celebrity version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
Their £2,000 question was:
"Which country launched the Skylab space station in 1973?"
The options were: Great Britain, France, the USA and Russia.
They got it wrong! USA was the right answer, France was the answer our bonehead betters offered up.
On 23 February 2006, when it became known that Neil Kinnock, the former leader of the Labour Party believed that the UK should ditch the mile and replace it with the kilometre, Tony Blair, himself, was put on the spot.
A journalist at his monthly press conference asked him if he knew how many kilometres there were in 50 miles. He had no idea and didn't even try to answer the question. In fact he asked the journalist to tell him what the answer was.
This is elementary stuff! It is extraordinary that the most powerful man in the UK, with the power of life and death over us, would not know the answer to this question.
And couldn't even hazard an intelligent guess!
Here is "a little learning" for our superdim betters:
1 kilometre equals 5/8 of a mile, thus 50 miles = 80 km.
I don't know about you but, if I have to be ruled by someone, I'd rather that someone be academically sound.
Blair, Lammy, Byers, Caborn, Blunkett, Campbell and co. can inspire no one with confidence in their intellectual worth. With the possible exception of the the jobsworths New Labour employ and the PC Crowd, that is.
The poet, Alexander Pope, said this in his 1711 Essay on Criticism:
A little learning is a dangerous thing.
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring;
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain;
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Perhaps the horrors we have been forced to endure in recent times have something to do with those who haven't drunk too deeply.
Perhaps some have, because of the PC determination of their sponsors to destroy what went before, been promoted way beyond their abilities, acumen and morality.
You might have expected a Higher Education Minister to have done very well on such a show. Particularly as Victoria Derbyshire, a BBC Radio presenter, had recently blown the whistle on her bosses regarding "crib sheets" being made available for the various celebs.
Check out how educated our Higher Education Minister is, himself, in the video below:
YouTube - The 13-Point Mastermind (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VWwyVQ2IQuE)
Perhaps we shouldn't be too hard on our David.
Another over-promoted David once did EVEN WORSE!
The Home Secretary, David Blunkett, who had previously been Tony B's Education supremo, took part in a performance of Celebrity Mastermind on Boxing Day, 2003.
In the long history of this programme, he scored just about the lowest ever total in the general knowledge section of the show.
He got just two questions right!
Here are the General Knowledge questions Blunkett did not know the answer to:
1) Which town in Ireland has been noted for its crystal glassware since the 18th century?
2) Which meteorological phenomenon is known as a twister in the mid-west states of America?
3) Nineteen year old Alex Parks was the winner of which televised talent competition in 2003?
4) What was the nickname of the 12th Century Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I because of his red beard?
5) On which Mediterranean island is the ruin of the ancient city of Syracuse where St Paul stayed on his journey to Rome?
6) Members of a North Yorkshire branch of which organisation posed nude for a charity calendar in 1999?
7) Later better known for his work with young people, who became a national hero in 1900 for his 217-day defence of Mafeking during the Boer war?
8) Which gas first recognised by Antoine Lavoisier did he name azote because of its inability to support life?
9) Bos grunniens is the Latin name for the Tibetan Ox. What is the more common name?
10) In 1980 and 1984 which athlete became the only man to have won an Olympic gold medal for the 1,500 metres at consecutive games?
11) In Greek mythology, who gave Theseus the thread that enabled him to escape from the labyrinth after he slew the minotaur?
12) The won is the unit of currency in which two adjacent Asian countries?
13) Which headstrong southern belle is the heroine of the novel and film Gone with the Wind?
ANSWERS:
1) WATERFORD - Blunkett: PASS
2) TORNADO - Blunkett: HURRICANE
3) FAME ACADEMY - Blunkett: PASS
4) BARBAROSSA - Blunkett: RED BEARD
5) SICILY - Blunkett: SICILY
6) WOMEN'S INSTITUTE - Blunkett: Wonderful ladies who did the film Bottoms Up (given as correct).
7) BADEN-POWELL - Blunkett: PASS
8) NITROGEN - Blunkett: PASS
9) YAK - Blunkett: PASS
10) SEBASTIAN COE - Blunkett: PASS
11) ARIADNE - Blunkett: PASS
12) NORTH AND SOUTH KOREA - Blunkett: THAILAND
13) SCARLETT O'HARA - Blunkett: PASS
For those who haven't checked out the video above, here are the questions Lammy didn't know the answers to:
1) What was the married name of the scientists Marie and Pierre who won the Noble Prize in 1903 for their research into radiation?
2) Cockpit Country is a rugged, inaccessible area on which Caribbean island?
3) Which fortress was built in the 1370s to defend one of the gates of Paris and was later used as a prison by Cardinal Richelieu?
4) In February 2008, which Tottenham Hotspur player scored the first goal of Fabio Capello’s reign as England football manager?
5) James Gandofini played a Mafia boss called Tony in which American television series?
6) What name is used for the highest gallery of seats in a theatre?
7) Which American military award is given to those wounded in action and bears the inscription for military merit on the reverse?
8) Which variety of blue, English cheese traditionally accompanies port?
9) In 2006, Sandy Tocsvig replaced Simon Hoggart as the presenter of which topical Radio 4 quiz show?
10) Who acceded to the English throne at the age of 9 on the death of his father Henry VIII in 1547?
11) In chemistry, what French word is used for a tube for transferring measured amounts of liquids?
12) Which country’s so-called Rose Revolution of 2003 led to the resignation of its president Edward Shevardnadze?
ANSWERS:
1) CURIE - Lammy: ANTOINETTE!
2) JAMAICA - Lammy: PASS
3) The Bastille - Lammy: VERSAILLES
4) JERMAIN JENAS - Lammy (MP for Tottenham): AARON LENNON
5) THE SOPRANOS - Lammy: THE GODFATHER
6) THE GODS - Lammy: PASS
7) PURPLE HEART - Lammy: PASS
8) STILTON - Lammy: LEICESTER
9) NEWSQUIZ - Lammy: PASS
10) EDWARD VI - Lammy: HENRY VII!
11) PIPETTE - Lammy: PASS
12) GEORGIA - Lammy: YUGOSLAVIA
To reiterate: when Lammy was asked who acceded to the English throne upon the death of Henry VIII, his answer was Henry VII!
Tony Blair installed Richard Caborn as Minister for Sport in 2001.
Soon afterwards, he accepted an invitation to take part in a radio quiz where his sporting knowledge was put to the test. He was asked 10 pretty easy questions and he failed to answer any of them correctly.
When a Radio Five Live presenter sprung an unscheduled question on an unrehearsed Stephen "Lyers" Byers, Byers, Schools Standards Minister at the time, declared that 8 x 7 equalled 54!
The former pornographer and alcoholic, Alistair Campbell, appeared alongside his paramour Fiona Millar (a top Blair aide also) in a celebrity version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
Their £2,000 question was:
"Which country launched the Skylab space station in 1973?"
The options were: Great Britain, France, the USA and Russia.
They got it wrong! USA was the right answer, France was the answer our bonehead betters offered up.
On 23 February 2006, when it became known that Neil Kinnock, the former leader of the Labour Party believed that the UK should ditch the mile and replace it with the kilometre, Tony Blair, himself, was put on the spot.
A journalist at his monthly press conference asked him if he knew how many kilometres there were in 50 miles. He had no idea and didn't even try to answer the question. In fact he asked the journalist to tell him what the answer was.
This is elementary stuff! It is extraordinary that the most powerful man in the UK, with the power of life and death over us, would not know the answer to this question.
And couldn't even hazard an intelligent guess!
Here is "a little learning" for our superdim betters:
1 kilometre equals 5/8 of a mile, thus 50 miles = 80 km.
I don't know about you but, if I have to be ruled by someone, I'd rather that someone be academically sound.
Blair, Lammy, Byers, Caborn, Blunkett, Campbell and co. can inspire no one with confidence in their intellectual worth. With the possible exception of the the jobsworths New Labour employ and the PC Crowd, that is.
The poet, Alexander Pope, said this in his 1711 Essay on Criticism:
A little learning is a dangerous thing.
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring;
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain;
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Perhaps the horrors we have been forced to endure in recent times have something to do with those who haven't drunk too deeply.
Perhaps some have, because of the PC determination of their sponsors to destroy what went before, been promoted way beyond their abilities, acumen and morality.