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Rats in a Sack Quiz of 2025

How much do you remember about what has been a political 12 months to forget?

Jeremy Corbyn appearing in pantomime in his constituency. Image: TNW

1) Which part did Jeremy Corbyn play in his local Christmas panto?

a) Prince Charmless
b) Baron Hardup-for-policies
c) The Wizard of Oz-lington

2) Donald Trump lambasted the Biden administration for spending $8m on what?

a) Training monkeys as butlers
b) Making “mice transgender”
c) Attaching laser beams to the heads of frickin’ sharks

3) What was the name of the “disturbing new drug” Darren Grimes, former GB News presenter turned deputy leader of Durham Council, was tricked into warning his social media followers about, urging them: “Stay vigilant. Protect our kids”?

a) Looney Toad Quack
b) Strawberry Quick
c) Russell Dust

4)  In January, Suella Braverman told LBC listeners how she had just returned from visiting a wall on Italy’s border with which country, despite no such border existing?

a) Albania
b) Greece
c) Turkey

5) Reform’s new small business tsar, Kevin Byrne, is opposed to Covid vaccinations, Pride marches and abortion, according to social media posts unearthed after his appointment. But which of these does he believe in?

a) The Loch Ness Monster is real
b) The Earth is flat
c) The Moon landings were faked 

6) In February, Elon Musk’s son X Æ A-Xii caused concern after doing what in the Oval Office?

a) Wiping his nose on the Resolute desk
b) Wiping his bum on the curtains
c) Wiping out a Venezuelan boat while playing with Trump’s laptop

7) And how is young  X Æ A-Xii informally known?

a) Muskrat
b) Baby Adolf
c) Lil X

8) What gaffe on a visit to Keir Starmer’s house did Angela Rayner admit to?

a) She advised him on stamp duty
b) She opened and drank a bottle of whisky he’d been saving as it came from a dying friend
c) She set off the smoke alarm by vaping in his toilet

9) What was problematic about Reform’s selection of 70-year-old Sharon Carby as its candidate for next year’s Croydon mayoral election?

a) She was actually a Lib Dem
b) She lives in Bermuda and wanted to do the role remotely if elected
c) She had died six months previously

10) Where was Rachel Maclean, the Conservative Party’s director of strategy, during May’s disastrous local election campaign?

a) Interning with the new Trump administration in Washington DC
b) Working anonymously in the Tory campaign to gauge its defects
c) On holiday in the Himalayas 

11) Comedian turned anti-vaxx influencer turned defendant Russell Brand briefly posted on social media what purported to be a leaked document from the JFK assassination files, claiming who had fired the lethal bullet?

a) The Good Life star Penelope Keith
b) Then-PM Sir Alec Douglas-Home
c) Music producer Phil Spector

12) When the Times interviewed activist Charles Amos at Tory conference, they overlooked which significant detail?

a) He is a pro-slavery campaigner
b) He is a pro-cannibalism campaigner
c) He is a pro-incest campaigner

13) Sunday Times rentagob Rod Liddle wrote a column bemoaning the state of London under mayor Sadiq Khan and decrying the modern capital as “a city of anomie and alienation”. What had sparked his ire?

a) He got a ULEZ fine after driving his ageing sports car into the city
b) He checked into a hotel and found it had no corkscrew in the room
c) He saw a festive decoration on The Strand saying “happy holidays” rather than Happy Christmas

14) What urgent priority did independent MP Rupert Lowe demand from the NHS to improve the childbirth experience?

a) Increased midwife support
b) More maternity beds
c) Dads to be served a bowl of pasta

15) Which African state did Donald Trump misname?

a) “The Republic of the Condo”
b) “Cameroonia”
c) “Bikini Faso” 

16) Friends of Gregg Wallace told the Times that because of autism, the sacked Masterchef host couldn’t do what?

a) Feel shame
b) Wear underwear
c) Apologise

17) Under what pseudonym did it emerge that Reform councillor Sarah Lang, who sits on Pontypool Council in South Wales, had been posting pictures of herself in various states of undress on adult websites?

a) Lady Bird
b) Princess Spyderlily
c) Baroness Butterfly

18) What example did Benjamin Netanyahu use to describe the “personal cost” of war to him?

a) He had to cancel a weekend trip to the Hague
b) He had to cancel piano lessons
c) His son had to postpone his wedding 

19) Brexit botcher David “Frosty” Frost attacked Rachel Reeves for her “teenage” taste in music after it emerged she was a fan of US warbler Sabrina Carpenter, saying “shouldn’t we expect more from our political leaders?”. What did Frost’s hero, Margaret Thatcher, give as her favourite piece of music when asked by Smash Hits magazine in 1987?

a) Lita Roza’s (How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?
b) Wham!’s Last Christmas
c) Black Lace’s Agadoo

20) Residents of a Maidenhead street have asked their local council to change its name from what?

a) Savile Row
b) Prince Andrew Close
c) Epstein Way

21) New Reform party chair David Bull marked his promotion to the role in the summer by giving an interview to Good Morning Britain in which he claimed what?

a) He had written more than half of Take That’s hit singles
b) He was the half-brother of Donald Trump
c) The spirit of his dead grandmother once travelled in the boot of his car before entering the body of Derek Acorah

22) What was Boris Johnson bitten by?

a) A mistress
b) An ostrich
c) A sudden sense of self-awareness

23)  What phrase was used to describe offences by four Labour MPs stripped of the party whip in July?

a) “Persistent tomfoolery”
b) “Persistent knobheadery”
c) “Persistent cockwomblery”

24) Who did JD Vance tell “I know you have not been feeling great, but it’s good to see you in better health”, less than 23 hours before they died?

a) Pope Francis
b) Ozzy Osbourne
c) George Foreman 

25) What was the title of the self-penned song sung by Andrea Jenkyns (in sequinned costume) at Reform’s conference?

a) Insomniac
b) Idiot Wind
c) Insania 

26)  Ted Cruz surprised the US Senate in a discussion about bipartisan agreements by saying, “How about we all come together and say, ‘Let’s stop attacking…’” what?

a) Each other
b) Migrants
c) Paedophiles

27) What did Katy Perry say before her 11-minute Blue Origin flight to the edge of space?

a) “We’re going to put the ‘rock’ into ‘rocket’!”
b) “We’re going to put the ‘ass’ into ‘astronaut’!”
c) “We’re going to put the ‘space’ into ‘space cadet’!” 

28) Why did David Thomas, Reform’s group leader on Torfaen Council in South Wales, walk out of a full council meeting in September, labelling it “shameful” and “absolutely disgusting”?

a) No minute’s silence was observed for murdered US podcaster Charlie Kirk, who had no links whatsoever to Torfaen Council
b) The proceedings were being conducted entirely in Welsh
c) The ‘woke’ refreshments provided were vegetarian 

29) After thieves were somehow able to steal £80m in jewels from the Louvre, it was revealed that the password for its security system was what?

a) Password123
b) Louvre
c) MacronMerde

30) What is problematic about Donald Trump’s claim to have ended the war between Ethiopia and Egypt?

a) The countries are still at war
b) The countries were not at war in the first place
c) The war was ended by Joe Biden

ANSWERS

1) c 2) b 3) b 4) c 5) a 6) a 7) c 8) b 9) c 10) c 11) a 12) c 13) b 14) c 15) a 16) b) 17) b)18) c 19) a 20) b 21) c 22) b 23) b 24) a 25) a 26) c 27) b 28) a 29) b 30) b

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