Answer the question
There are several ways of answering a question. Bombast, bluster, frankness, evasion, desperation, a smile, a glare, even a simpering wheedle.
Equally, there are one or two ways of avoiding a question. Alex Salmond was able, with some assistance, to deploy two of those at Holyrood today.
Wendy Alexander chose to interrogate Mr Salmond about free bus travel for pensioners.
This is part of a pattern: Labour is equating a review of said scheme with the prospect of cuts. The SNP says that is scare-mongering.
Ms Alexander asked the first minister to provide a guarantee about continued provision. The FM replied by stressing that the criteria for eligibility would remain unchanged.
That is not quite the same thing as saying that the scheme will remain unchanged in its entirety. A pensioner may remain eligible - but the benefit itself may change.
For example, the scope of the scheme may alter in terms of the times the concession applies or the number of journeys that may be made.
Easy menu
The first minister, however, was able to stress that the review of the scheme was presaged some two years ago - by the previous administration.
Secondly, Mr Salmond was assisted by Ms Alexander's decision to include a range of other topics in her question. She asked about the impact on pensioners of, among other things, energy prices and local taxation.
Ask a politician a single question and you may - may - get an answer. Ask a politican four questions at once - and said politician will, understandably, choose the most convenient topic and answer that one.
To be fair, Mr Salmond did attempt to address the menu of questions placed before him. But it made things rather easier for the FM. He was not obliged to address any one topic in any great detail.
Perhaps, on the day, a single question on the detail of bus travel provision would have been more pointed.
Ms Alexander's fellow opposition leaders chose to pursue the issue of .
We learned relatively little from these particular exchanges - except that MSPs do not seem inclined to let this issue go. Quite right too.
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