The Top 10 questions to which the answer is yes

Is the answer to a question in a headline very occasionally not ‘no’? QTWTAIY

Do All Animals Sleep? (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Chris Whiteside suggested this list, a companion to my proudest and silliest Twitter meme.

1. “Do All Animals Sleep?” Fascinating: the evolutionary advantage conferred by sleep must be significant.

2. “Is it just a coincidence that the world has collapsed while the Lib Dems have been without a leader?” Asked by Patrick Kidd as we waited for news of Ed Davey vs Layla Moran in August 2020. As Stewart Slater said, questions of the form, “Can it be a coincidence?” are always be answered in the affirmative.

3. “Is Boris Johnson the most left-wing Tory prime minister ever?” I am afraid I asked that one. Where on the spectrum do you place a government that spent billions on furlough, on subsidising energy bills for the poor and on recruiting nurses, doctors and police officers?

4. “Are our financial lives controlled by biased algorithms?” BBC headline, nominated by Anna Fielding.

5. “Can Britain survive the woke wave?” UnHerd headline, nominated by Greg Ashman and Sam Freedman.

6. “Am I the only one who didn’t want Olivia Colman to win at the Oscars?” Asked by Allison Pearson in The Daily Telegraph. Answered by Sarah Knapton.

7. “Am I Being Unreasonable?” A meme of its own (AIBU) on Mumsnet, to which the answer is often yes. For example: “AIBU to be slightly annoyed that my husband’s barber added him on Facebook and he accepted?” Thanks to Sarah Duggers.

8. “Measles is back with a vengeance – is the anti-vaccination movement to blame?” Headline in The Daily Telegraph, nominated by Pickwick.

9. “If you take the Parthenon Marbles away from the British Museum, is it still the British Museum?” Asked and answered by Rebecca Lowe, who said it was easier than the Ship of Theseus problem (if every part of the ship were replaced one at a time, would it then be a new ship?).

10. “Is the sequence of earthquakes in southern California, with aftershocks removed, Poissonian?” Seismology paper in 1974 whose abstract begins: “Yes.” Thanks to Oliver Morton.

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Ed Lennox tried to nominate The Sun front page in 1998 about the euro, next to a photo of Tony Blair: “Is THIS the most dangerous man in Britain?” As this had already featured in my book of Questions To Which The Answer Is No, the application was not accepted.

Next week: Hinge moments in history decided by narrow margins; narrower than Ed versus David Miliband (1.4 per cent).

Coming soon: Political excuses, after Neil Parish said “it was tractors I was looking at”.

Your suggestions please, and ideas for future Top 10s, to me on Twitter, or by email to top10@independent.co.uk