Friday, September 17, 2010

Questions To Which The Answer Is Always No

Andrew Rawnsley asks "Is there a question that you've always wanted Paddy Ashdown to answer, but have never seen him asked?".

14 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

Sure. Traditionally people ask him whether he ever killed anybody when he was in the army, which he so far has refused to answer. So that's what I'd ask him.

Just like when you meet Buzz Aldrin, you ask him whether the moon landing was faked.

Ross said...

I read somewhere that during the Malaya Emergency he personally decapitated an insurgent, rather sneakily.

Yet he is still incredibly dull!

Furor Teutonicus said...

Mark Wadsworth said...

Sure. Traditionally people ask him whether he ever killed anybody when he was in the army,


He was never in the army, what are you ON.....about???

Ross said...

Yes he ws in the Royal Marines and later the Special Boat Service.

Ross said...

Just to be clear in the previous comment I was agreeing with FT, not saying that the Marines and SBS are part of the Army.

marvin said...

Heh. I think I'd have to answer that with a simple "No".

Mark Wadsworth said...

OK, you pedants, let me rephrase that:

"Lord Ashdown, when you were in the Royal Marines and later the Special Bus Service, which are technically not part of the British Army, even though most of us would consider them to be part of the 'armed forces' or 'soldiers' in the wider sense of the words, did you ever kill anybdy?"

Ross said...

"The Special Bus Service"

Is that like being on the short bus?

Mark Wadsworth said...

Ross, imagine that there are terrorists occupying e.g. the Iranian embassy in London.

Do you expect the crack team from the Special Boat Service to dock in The Thames and walk the rest of the way?

Furor Teutonicus said...

No. They get the bus.

Furor Teutonicus said...

And the Iranian embassy job was the SAS not the SBS.

Furor Teutonicus said...

Do you expect the crack team from the Special Boat Service to dock in The Thames and walk the rest of the way?

Th4 answer to that is a YES.

They are also trained to parachute in. Water, and the fact they are a primiraly water borne force, does not stop them marching for bloody miles over mountains to reach an inland target.

JUST to confuse things, the SAS have a boat squadron.

Thought I would cheer up a boring Sunday afternoon for you.

Ross said...

We should make sure that terrorist targets all have adequate waterfront access so as to avoid the need to employ the Special Bus Service.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Furor T - even I know that the Iranian Embassy was relieved by the SAS. That was just an example.

But they didn't arrive by helicopter (too noisy) or by parachute (not accurate enough), did they?

I bet that they turned up by van or bus or armoured car or something. So why not have a 'Special Bus Service' for dealing with terrorist attacks like this one?