This is a first. I've been reading parliamentary written answers for 15 years and I've never seen them used as an opportunity for comedy. Until now.
Dominic Grieve, the shadow justice secretary, asked Jack Straw how many hours were worked by the special advisers in his department in June. According to today's Hansard, this is how Straw replied:
As working for me as a special adviser is, I am told, pure pleasure and stress free, my special advisers work exceptionally long hours, often at weekends and late into the evening without complaint, and have not therefore felt the need which they otherwise might to complete timesheets to show that I was sweating their labour.
At least, I assume he was joking ...
