Answer the f***ing question Gordon

Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday and David Cameron asked "The Irish Prime Minister says that 90 per cent. of the constitution remains in the treaty and the Spanish Foreign Minister says that 98 per cent. remains. What figure would the Prime Minister put on it?"
A fairly straightforward question to which Gordon Brown replied "I see, Mr. Speaker, that we are quickly back to the old agenda. I have to tell the right hon. Gentleman that, if he examines each aspect of the treaty and what we secured in our negotiations, he should support it, not oppose it. The first issue is the charter of rights—it is non-justiciable in British law, so we secured our negotiating objective. The second is justice and home affairs—we have an opt-in, so we secured our negotiating objective. The third issue is security, foreign affairs and defence policy, which remains intergovernmental, so we secured our objective. The fourth is social security—no expenditure affecting us will be made without an emergency brake that we can put on, so we secured our negotiating objective. National security will remain a matter for individual Governments, so we secured our negotiating objective. He might be better off, in the interests of unity within his own party, looking at what the chair of his democracy taskforce said only a few days ago. He said that, as a result of what we had negotiated, a European referendum would be “crackpot”, “dotty” and “frankly absurd”."
Not answered the question there Gordon, so David Cameron had another try "If the right hon. Gentleman wants to trade quotations from former Chancellors, I can tell him about a former Chancellor who promised a referendum and who put it in his manifesto. That former Chancellor is him. He talks about his red lines, but he had red lines with the constitution, and they are pretty much the same red lines. That is why the man who wrote the constitution says that the changes have been few and far between. That is why the President of the Commission is going round saying that it will usher in “the world’s first non-imperial empire”. Mr. Giscard d’Estaing says that more than 90 per cent. remains and Jean-Luc Dehaene, the former Prime Minister of Belgium, says that the figure is 95 per cent., so which is it? The Prime Minister claims to be a numbers man, so is it 90 per cent., is it 95 per cent. or is it 98 per cent.? Come on."
Go on Gordon give us a figure... or not as Gordon replied "Let me just read from the mandate agreed at the Council: “The constitutional concept, which consisted in repealing all existing Treaties and replacing them by a single text called ‘Constitution’, is abandoned.”"

This is true but also crap, what happened is that the idea of introducing a new all encompassing Constititution to replace the excisting Treaties was dropped and instead the majority of the elements of the Constitution were put into amendments to the existing Treaties.

Gordon continied "That was the decision made at the intergovernmental conference in Brussels. The Conservative party should recognise that that was achieved and that all our negotiating objectives, including the opt-outs, so that the charter is non-justiciable in English and British law, were also achieved. The Conservative party has got to wake up to the fact that we succeed when we negotiate in Europe, and we do not need to have an empty chair."

Still no answer to the question, so David Camero tried again "Why does the Prime Minister not wake up and read this quotation from his trade Minister? He said, “This is a con to call this a treaty; it’s not. It’s exactly the same: it’s a constitution.” That is the man whom the Prime Minister put in the House of Lords as his trade Minister. The right hon. Gentleman says that he wants to restore trust in a Government that he has been part of for 10 years; he says that he wants to involve people in the decisions affecting their lives; and he says that he wants the state to be the servant not the master. Yet on the key test of whether to honour the commitment that he personally gave to hold a referendum, he has failed. Why is he afraid to trust the people and hold that referendum?" .
Guess what, Gordon Brown fails to answer the question again, "The right hon. Gentleman is back to the old agenda. It did not take long after the Ealing, Southall by-election for him to retreat—the old agenda on Europe, the old agenda on grammar schools, the old agenda on spending and the old agenda on tax cuts. The wheels are falling off the Tory bicycle, and it is just as well that he has got a car following him when he goes out on his rounds."

Gordon Brown obviously thinks that if Tony Blair could avoid answering questions at PMQs then why shouldn't he and if Tony Blair could get in a few good digs at the Conservatives then why shouldn't he. Well I for one would like a straight answer to a straight question from mGordon Brown so I suggest that everyone who meets Gordon Brown asks him "Mr. Giscard d’Estaing says that more than 90 per cent. remains and Jean-Luc Dehaene, the former Prime Minister of Belgium, says that the figure is 95 per cent, so what figure would you put on it?" Keep asking him for a figure until he either gives one or walks off, I suggest that if Gordon Brown ever deigns to appear on Newsnight then Jeremy Paxman asks this question over and over again, a la the Michael Howard interview, until he actually answers the question.

All quotations above are from Hansard.