Geoff Hoon wanted to lamp us

I thought we we’re going to get into a ruckus with Geoff Hoon earlier.

The Post’s parliamentary correspondent first noted that the Transport Secretary might be breaking here.

And at one point at lunch earlier today he even said “c’mon!” to us in the middle of a rant.

Some other regional hacks and myself were having lunch with Hoon when someone inevitably brought up the snow issue and why busses don’t have any chains for their tyres.

“How many snow chains have you got?” Hoon demanded from the hack. There was silence.

“I, I don’t have any,” came the quiet response.

“No. Have any of you got any snow chains? How much are they? £54.50 at Halfords,” he said answering his own question.

“Why has nobody got any snow chains?” More silence. “Then why are you all whinging about what the Government hasn’t got?”

“C’mon! If you live in the Alps you’ve got snow chains, you’ve got them in the back of your car. Why has none of you – intelligent capable people – got snow chains?”

At this point another hack said: “Well, I don’t have a car.”

UPDATE (6th Feb): Hoon pulled the same trick on Question Time last night - demanding to know if anyone had snow chains. He seems to have adopted this new 'attack is the best form of defence' approach all round.