Mike Gove on the rigged Dimbleby show last night. A physicist asked the unscheduled question,

"what billion are we talking about Mr Gove, is it 1000 million or a million million?"( a few years ago it was the latter but we changed it to line up with the yanks who couldn't count that high),

Gove looked stupid (normal) and speechless,

Dumbleboy butts in "That's neither here nor there!" ???

"But how do we decide Mr Gove?"

"You decide on the figures"??? What figures?

All together "there's a HOLE in my budget dear Michael..."


Given that one figure is 1000 times more than the other and our ministers don't know which they use, is it any wonder that we are in the crap?

I have posed this question before on blogs and it is obvious that to MP's and Ministers Billion is just a word, they have no idea that they may be spending 1000 times more than planned.


Frightening.

When referring to monetary amounts, it's been decades (not just years) since a UK billion meant 1m x 1m.

The questioner was quite young and obviously must see both definitions used therefore it was a valid question.
The point is that he did not know the answer and for a minister who spends millions of our money it is appalling. He should at least know how to count money.
My second point is that Dumbleboy dismisses unexpected questions, questions are pre submitted and answers pre-prepared, just like PMQs. For this reason I no longer watch Question Time, far better and cheaper for BBC to list the answers for those interested and show a repeat of 'Del Boy' for entertainment.

Out of interest in my youth there were $3 to £1, a $ billion was worth ~£330,000,000 a £ billion was £1000,000,000,000. quite a difference, now that difference is minimal and falling.

"decades"? No ...huudi

https://en.wikipedia.org...i/Long_and_short_scales says " After several decades of increasing informal British usage of the short scale, in 1974 the government of the UK adopted it"

1974 -is- decades ago.

Contrary to Huudi opinion I thought Gove performed remarkably well in the debate.
No fear tactics, no lies, no put downs just straightforward simple answers to all sensible questions. The definition of a billion had no substance in the argument put forward and the particular questioner was just too excitable for her own good.