Hack (left) under vocal attack (big version)
On Wednesday night, a handful of innocent Guardian Technology writers were ambushed by more than a dozen MPs (Members of Parliament) and subjected to a peculiarly British form of torture known as a "pub quiz".
It all started when we published a piece by Richard Sarson saying: Techno world has MPs beat. Guardian technology correspondent Bobbie Johnson was approached with the challenge of a handbags-at-dawn-style confrontation, and we duly agreed to take on three teams of MPs at a Marriott hotel in Westminster. The Guardian Tech team comprised Charles Arthur, editor of the Technology section, Jack Schofield (Computer editor), Neil McIntosh from Guardian Unlimited (and former deputy editor of the Online section), Michael Cross (Technology columnist and Free Our Data writer) and Bo..., oh, and regular contributor Wendy Grossman. (Bobbie went off to the States, or something, and couldn't make it.)
The showdown was splendidly organised by BT's press office, which also put up a £1,000 prize for the charity of the winning team's choice.
The contest ended with the equivalent of a penalty shoot-out, only worse: with an old Elvis Presley number on the SingStar karaoke program running on a PlayStation 2. Charles performed heroically, far beyond the call of duty. However, after taking an early lead, he was finally out-crooned by John Robertson MP, captain of the Tel-stars team.
The Tel-stars also included internet guru Derek Wyatt, Claire Curtis-Thomas, Michael Connarty and Chris Mole. Wyatt is chairman of the All Party Internet group, creator of Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, and used to be Director of The Computer Channel at BskyB. Claire Curtis-Thomas was the first woman engineer (a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, no less) to become an MP, also has an MBA, and used to be Dean of the Faculty of Business and Engineering at the University of Wales, Newport. Michael Connarty is a board member on Post (Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology) and former economics teacher. Chris Mole has a degree in electronics from the University of Kent and used to work at the famed BT Laboratories at Martlesham Heath.
Obviously these were not the sort of people who sprang to mind when we were grumbling about the techno-literacy of the average MP....
There's a great British tradition whereby the losing team claims "We wuz robbed," so you won't expect us to give in gracefully. It turned out we did worst in Round 2 -- which BT's PR referred to as "the BT round" -- about things like internet use and broadband penetration. Are MPs better at absorbing BT briefings than journalists? Or was it just that the Tel-star team included, in Mole and Robertson, two former BT employees?
We'd also dispute the official answer to one question: the first MP blogger was Richard Allan, not Tom Watson, as popularly thought*. Richard -- who now works for Cisco -- was present and confirmed that he started blogging in January 2003, two months before Tom, but didn't shout about it.
* Yes, we know, it says Tom was first in The Guardian.
Quite a few people turned up to cheer on the MPs, everyone joined in the final singalong, and a jolly good time was had by all. Hearty congratulations to the very impressive Tel-stars, who were worthy winners, and to the teams of MPs led by Ian Taylor and Andrew Miller for putting up such a good fight.
Update: Wendy M Grossman has also written about the event at The Register.
