Happy Hallowe’en
Bizarre exchange in the House of Commons (Monday):
31. John Mann (Bassetlaw) (Lab): How many people have been killed by falling gravestones in church graveyards in the last 20 years. [160985]
Mr. Gerry Sutcliffe (Bradford, South): The number is not recorded centrally but I understand from the Ecclesiastical Insurance Group, which insures almost all Church of England churches, that it has received no claims relating to such fatalities in the last 10 years—the period for which figures are available.
John Mann: Why is it, then, that hundreds of thousands of gravestones across the country are being staked, as if they were a health and safety risk? Across the country, only two deaths have been caused by gravestones in the past 28 years. Should we not investigate precisely why local authorities and churches are taking such an absurd decision?
Mr. Sutcliffe: My hon. Friend raises a fair point, which I will take up with my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough.
(Transcript here
Comments
Comment from Daithí
Time: October 31, 2007, 1:15 pm
Well to be fair it was a question asked to the Church Commissioner which is one of the weirder features of the British parliamentary system where you can ask questions about the internal admin of the Church of England…
Comment from Robert Synnott
Time: November 1, 2007, 1:45 pm
Was the Halloween theme deliberate, I wonder? 
I hadn’t realised that this was even vaguely an issue. (The killer headstone thing.)
Comment from Keith
Time: October 31, 2007, 1:12 pm
You should have the same question tabled here (JMcD in RQ’s office would put it in for you).
Not because there’d be a strange number of deaths. Just to show how bad our parliamentary system has become.
I’ll tell you what the answer to that question would be:
“The Minister has no official responsibility for that matter.”
You could ask any Minister, and the answer would be the same. In the UK, as above, they’ll go out of their way to answer a reasonable PQ with a reasonable answer. Here, they’ll do everything in their power to avoid answering the question. Sad.