Reminds me of a story from a US guitar amplifier repairer =
Bloke called him and asked if he could repair his amp because the speaker was shot.
"Sure" he said, checked delivery time for a new speaker. "Bring it round on Tuesday".
So the amp was dropped round on Tuesday. The speaker was perforated, there was a lot of lead splattered around the cabinet, and it was apparent that the amp needed more work than the original quote for a replacement speaker.
"Man, I told you that speaker was SHOT" said the customer.
It emerged that he was in the habit of playing guitar on his front porch, which irritated the man next door - to the extent that he had come round with a 12 bore and emptied both barrels into the back of the amp!
Tony Blair would never allow anything so amusing in the UK ...