A CHRISTMAS CRICK

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Go to the front page of the Newsnight website & you'll find Crick's Christmas Quiz. This being a Michael Crick production, of the twelve festive questions five are wholly and specifically about the Conservatives (Crick's 'Tories') - inevitably including "Which member of the shadow cabinet said Richard Dannatt was joining the Labour government as a "gimmick"?" and, just as inevitably, 'Liz Truss and the Turnip Taleban' -, one is about the Speakership (with another Tory as the embarrassing answer), one inevitably about Eton where all Tories are educated (sorry to give the answer away if you're doing the quiz!), two about the Liberals (yes, the Liberals - not the Liberal Democrats) - though one of these was prefaced by this bit of praise for a Labour big beast ("Labour's former director of communications Peter Mandelson has been a big help to Gordon Brown."), one embarrassing to the DUP (on expenses), and one (one!) about Labour (who are the government!), though this was a characteristic bit of Crickian fluff ("David Miliband's special adviser Sarah Schaefer announced she was leaving his office. Where is she going?"). Crick doesn't embarrass Labour if he can ever help it. Lastly came a Newsnight-related question: "In November, which former Newsnight political reporter became "Europe's Bill Clinton"? The answer (sorry again!) is Peter Kellner. "He is married to Baroness Ashton who is the new EU foreign affairs chief, while Bill Clinton is of course married to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton." (I hope Crick isn't implying anything else about Mr Kellner marriage with this comparison!!) The quiz reflects the extraordinary biases of this reporter.
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If you score betwee 10-12, a caption comes up saying "Well done. Perhaps it is time Crick was replaced." I couldn't agree more!