Yes, it's another round of that classic guessing game - Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Abstract [or any combination thereof]. This effort - '03/'04 should address any queries, but then again, may just serve to confuse and baffle which some might say is the point of the game. Patience, integrity and a decent search engine may be useful ....
Softers] NO (appreciative 'ooh' from some audience members) Bism] YES (if I'm understanding your question to be whether the AOTC is the name of a specific tree)
Raak] NO... CdM] YES! General Sherman popped into my head as a potential AOTC, but on research I found that this coast redwood, named after a mythical titan, is feted as the world's tallest known living tree. A very long wooden baton to you!
Found in someone's house? No. * audience laughter* Begin with P? Regrettably, no. There is one P-adjacency that I can think of, but it does not appear on the card.
Functional? Yes. (Perhaps not a word that would naturally come to mind for the AOTC, but that has to be the best answer.) Hedge? No (not alive, remember). I'll also slightly qualify my answer to the "Pointy?" question to add a parenthetical "well, sometimes, sort of". Probably not helpful, though; just trying to pre-empt appeals at the end of the round.
Pooh stick? No *laughter* A caber? Yes! *applause* I now have this image of highlanders playing poohsticks with cabers tossed over the side of the Forth Bridge.
I was handed a very long wooden baton, and I now hand on a shorter—but still very long!—wooden baton to Bismarck.
This thing could do with some handles, you know. Also its swishability is lacking somewhat. But on we go! This is VEGETABLE with a bit of ANIMAL and MINERAL thrown in as accessories.
Is it the steam that's on a winter's morning gently rises from the chimney of a steam engine which has just started to heat up for its first run up to York?
(R the G) Alas, NO. That's smoke BTW. Lighting up a steam loco is a dirty job. (Boolbar) NOT a well-known phrase or saying. (Softers) Generally, though not always, YES. (Raak) NO. Not location-specific.
(Chalky) A political ideal? Very often, YES. *audience sit up and take notice* (Bismarck) A specific event? NO. (Boolbar) YES, quite a lot to do with voters. *even more buzz from the audience.*
(Superman) Votes for women? NO. (Duj) NOT a ballot. (Raak) NOT universal suffrage. (Softers) Brexit Opportunities? I think they'd keep quiet about it, so NO.
remote, common name: no again. A word related to the AOTC does come from a 'group' with a shared name. This is too broad to be a hint IMV - it's just a side observation.
[country, hatty] No and no [5 alive] Yes. To clarify, the AOTC refers to a singular generic specimen. How many AOTCs there actually are would be difficult to estimate.
[alive and yet not] Treating that as a question, I think it highly probable that some AOTCs have met their end in the last few weeks, so, Yes. [political] No. [Illuminatuses] No [a matter of choice] Tricky. A hesitant Yes.