12 junkie points for Tom!

I liked this: 20 telltale signs that you’re a political junkie, from Tygerland (hat tip: Patrick H).

Ones that I score on are in bold.

1. The first thing you do in the morning is check the BBC’s politics website, followed by the broadsheets
(I don’t actually have internet access at home – not even an old steam-powered dial-up…)

2. You can name 10 Lib Dem MPs
(I said yes to this and then wondered… let’s try: Ming and Charlie obv, Simon Hughes, Sarah Teather, Chris Huhne, Lembit Opik, Evan Harris, Mark Oaten… that’s eight – this is harder than I thought, um, Julia Goldsworthy, Ed Davey. Phew! I think.)

3. The Today programme is as much a morning routine as brushing your teeth and taking a piss

4. You know the URL’s for the Top Three political blogs from memory
(I’m assuming that I get to define which the top three are…)

5. In your briefcase is a copy of Private Eye, an iPod, and Alan Clarke’s biography

6. You read Boris every week, even if its only to disagree

7. You record Question Time via Series Link on your SKY + box or TiVo

8. You know the Huffington Post is not a newspaper from a town called Huffington

9. You know who Nicholas Sarkozy is

10. Your family never brings up politics in your presence
(They’re also political, so it doesn’t really apply.)

11. You have a complex opinion of Tony Blair
(All my opinions are complex, actually. I’m a pretty complex kinda guy. Plus a real looker and a great cook…)

12. You actually know where the politics section is at your local Waterstones

13. You always vote
(Once, in the 1998 local elections, I let myself get waylaid by a spur-of-the-moment trip to a pub on the other side of town. I still feel guilty.)

14. Your water cooler conversations usually revolve around a recent Westminster scandal, whether your colleagues like politics or not
(No, but probably only because they and I know that a ‘quick politics chat’ with me is an unlikely prospect. Between this and question 10, I reckon I deserve a point.)

15. You have given money to a political party, via either membership or a donation

16. Your dream is to appear on QT yourself
(Do nightmares count as dreams?)

17. You read political blogs during your lunch hour

18. You see more of Iain Dale than your children, sadly
(I have no children and I’ve never seen Iain Dale. Score draw?)

19. You can name the last four foreign secretaries
(Before Beckett we had Straw, Cook, Rifkind and Hurd.)

20. You have a ‘handle’ at Comment is Free
(Yes, but I never actually post there; I mean, the place is full of crazed political junkies…)