BREGMAN: You want to go there? Why, for God’s sake?

DOCTOR: I’m half-stupid. On my mother’s side.

Anyone requiring further information about cross-species translation conventions should consult Preface III of Professor Thripsted's excellent Genetic Politics Beyond the Third Zone. Ask your local library if they can order you a copy. But only if you enjoy wasting people's time.

When the demand for surrender came, some of the politicians sealed themselves into the Parliament buildings, and let the aliens set the corridors alight with them still inside.

Not out of principle. Politicians don't have principles, not even on this side of Mutter's Spiral. They just had nowhere else to go.