Politicians are said to "sing from the song sheet" or to demonstrate "message discipline" when they repeat the party line rather than answering questions directly. For example, if you watch or read question period, you will see ministers attack the former government rather than answering questions about their own performance. They turn to the song sheet rather than engage in real debate.

We will hear more singing from the song sheet on Wednesday, August 15, when the Campbell government holds its third "open cabinet" meeting.

The government website now hosts the entire verbatim transcript of the so called open "cabinet" meetings. This is probably the first time in parliamentary history that verbatim transcripts have been made of anything that pretends to be a cabinet meeting.

The question is whether the transcript is actually a script, that is, was it written before or after it was read by the participants. Some may wonder what key the transcript should be sung in. They might look at the flat notes.