Quiz: Conference question time

The party conferences are over for another year, but were you paying attention? Our quiz sorts the political nerds from the know-nothings (answers at the bottom of the page)

(SUSANNAH IRELAND)

Pot luck

1. Why was Charlie Kennedy late for a rally on AV?

A: Was stuck on a train

B: Was kicked off a train for smoking

C: Was with a personal trainer

D: Had lost his train of thought

2. What did David Miliband's team want to do to Lord Mandelson after his outbursts handed younger brother Ed the advantage in the leadership contest?

A: Strip him of his peerage

B: Force him to proof-read Gordon Brown's book on the financial crisis

C: Throw him in a river wearing concrete boots

D: Give him a big hug

3. Michael Gove said that Dryden, Pope, Swift, Keats, Shelley, Austen, Dickens and Hardy should be at the heart of school life. Which name have we omitted from his list?

A: Marlowe

B: Rushdie

C: Coleridge

D: Byron

4. Higher rate tax-payers will lose child benefit from 2013. Where will the higher rate kick in then?

A: £38,410

B: £42,376

C: £44,699

D: £45,250

5. Who suffered a thumping 99.86 per cent defeat in an election, during the conference season?

A: Diane Abbott in the Labour leadership

B: John Prescott in the trade union block vote, for party treasurer

C: The concept that the Big Society was an asset on the doorstep, in a straw poll of Tories

D: Kim Jong Chul beaten by his young brother Kim Jong Un, as successor to the Supreme Leader, in a vote of the North Korean Workers Party Central Committee

Numbers

1. Media attendance at the Lib Dem conference in Liverpool was up by how much on last year?

A: 0.6%

B: 6.2%

C: 62%

D: 620%

2. How many individual votes separated Ed and David Miliband in the final round of the leadership contest?

A: 6

B: 1,004

C: 46,142

D: 28,299

3. Nick Clegg's speech was the shortest of the three party leaders, but how long did it last?

A: 17 mins

B: 37 mins

C: 57 mins

D: Felt like days

4. Paul Smith made the dress Samantha Cameron wore at her husband's speech on fairness and frugality, but how much did it cost?

A: £4 from Oxfam

B: £50

C: £750

D: £2,000

5. What is the collective age of the three youthful main party leaders?

A: 92

B: 127

C: 150

D: 196

History

1. Ed Miliband was elected the 17th Labour leader. Who was the first?

A: James Keir Hardie

B: James Naughtie

C: James Ramsay MacDonald

D: James Blunt

2. The Conservative party spent how many "days in the wilderness", according to David Cameron?

A: 457

B: 4,575

C: 4,757

D: 45,757

3. Which TV historian is to advise the government on the national curriculum?

A: Tony Robinson

B: Simon Schama

C: Tristram Hunt

D: Mr Benn

4. Three members of Labour's defeated cabinet said farewell to frontline politics from the conference platform. Who is the odd one out?

A: Lord Mandelson

B: Alistair Darling

C: Bob Ainsworth

D: Jack Straw

5. How many times did Ed Miliband mention the word "history" in his "new generation" speech?

A: 0

B: 3

C: 7

D: 10

Music

1. What is the name of the parliamentary band that could not perform at a UK Music event at the Tory conference because the venue did not allow live music?

A: Commons People

B: MP4

C: The Black And White Ministers

D: Never Mind The Ballots

2. Gaps at the Lib Dem conference were filled with bursts of "Dog Days Are Over" by which band?

A: Marina and the Diamonds

B: Martha and the Vandellas

C: Florence and the Machine

D: Elspeth and the Cigarettes

3. Which politician let a false claim that they had been the singer in a punk band stay on Wikipedia because they "wish it was true but it's not"?

A: Ed Miliband

B: Vince Cable

C: Lembit Opik

D: Peter Hain

4. Who tried to bolster their street cred in an eve-of-conference interview by claiming they were fans of Mumford & Sons, Eilen Jewell and Emiliana Torrini?

A: Ed Balls

B: Simon Hughes

C: David Cameron

D: Ken Clarke

5. A video played before Ed Miliband's main leader's speech was soundtracked by which band?

A: U2

B: Vampire Weekend

C: Kings of Leon

D: JLS

Quotes

1. "All she thinks of is sex. You can't get her away from a penis. I think it comes from growing up with all those boys." Julia Budworth, co-owner of The Lady magazine, on the sister of which top Tory?

A: Boris Johnson

B: William Hague

C: David Cameron

D: George Osborne

2. "***** ****** is the only Cabinet minister you can spot on Google Earth." Who was Nick Clegg being rude about?

A: William Hague

B: Iain Duncan Smith

C: Eric Pickles

D: Danny Alexander

3. During the conference season, who said, "Capitalism takes no prisoners and kills competition where it can"?

A: Caroline Lucas, the Green MP

B: Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Business Secretary

C: Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union

D: "Red" Ed Miliband, new Labour leader

4. Who mentioned "the shape of a carbon tetrabromide molecule as predicted by the valence-shell repulsion theory" in his speech?

A: David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science, as an example of cutting-edge British innovation

B: Chris Huhne, Energy and Climate Change Secretary, talking about the next generation of nuclear power stations

C: Michael Gove, Education Secretary, as an example of an exam question answered by 16-year-old Americans

D: David Cameron, Prime Minister, checking the sound system before his speech

5. "All our leaders from Edward Heath onward have let us down, have betrayed us and are guilty of treason". An uplifting contribution from which senior Tory on Britain's leadership since the entry into the Common Market?

A: William Hague

B: David Lidington, Europe minister

C: Harry Beckhough, the 96-year-old party member praised in David Cameron's speech

D: Iain Duncan Smith

Answers

Pot Luck: 1A, 2C, 3D, 4B, 5B; Numbers: 1C, 2D, 3B, 4C, 5B [Cameron 44, Clegg 43, Miliband 40]; History: 1A, 2C, 3B, 4A, 5C; Music: 1B, 2C, 3A, 4C, 5B; Quotes: 1A, 2C, 3B, 4C, 5C.

How did you do? 0-10 Party pooper; 11-20 Party animal; 21-25 Party on, dude; 26-30 Get a life