Meaningless replies to good questions

It's probably not exactly the same, but the phrasal verb "to blow off" suggests itself: e.g. I tried to ask him about his latest project, but he just blew me off.

There's always to make a noncommital statement.

"That George W. Bush guy seems like a real nut case, don't you think?"

"Mmmmph."

I found this translation and background on a wikipedia discussion page:

Also there's Non-sequitur. Norwegian (and Swedish) have a fun expression for it: "God dag, økseskaft" (Good day, axe-handle!). It comes from a folk-tale about a deaf man who was carving an axe-handle when a stranger approached him to ask the way to town, but the deaf man assumed he was asking about what he was carving. So the conversation went "Good day! - Axe-handle."

The way this it is described there, as a non sequitur indeed, is different from what the OP says. Is it an answer that's unrelated to the question or an answer that avoids/purposefully ignores the question?

Completely beside the point, but since økseskaft apparently means axe-handle, I'm wondering whether this kind of weapon could be called something like a "god dag" in Swedish. (In Dutch it's a goedendag; which also means "good day". No idea why it's called that; perhaps medieval highwaymen were polite types.)

Edited by: shilgia, for a glaring mistake.

#3: Definitely "an answer that avoids/purposefully ignores the question" as in He answered Good Day Ax-handle to all questions from the audience.
"An answer that's unrelated to the question" I suppose would be in the case of language problems only.

#3 The goedendag is a morning star in English.

I don't know if morning stars were actually used or made very much in the middle ages. I don't think I've ever seen one in an armaments collection. They look intimidating but they I don't imagine they would be very handy.

I realize that doesn't advance this discussion at all; just thought I'd mention.

Prevaricating?

not prevaricating, which is lying or intentionally misleading.

We're looking for a non-answer, like Have a nice day, or less nicely, So's your grandma, or some other conversation-stopper.

An example of how this expression is used:

I am attending a meeting where a speaker is supposed to answer questions from the audience.

There is nothing wrong with the questions, they are perfectly sensible.
The speaker is not rude and does not use short catchphrases, but nothing he says makes much sense. (Extreme politicianspeek?)

Afterwards I would say to someone who asked me how the meeting went: The speaker just answered Good Day Axhandle to all questions.

With the clarification the OP has provided, I'd now say the closest equivalent in English is The speaker ducked the question. This is what we say when politicians "answer" a question, but fail to say anything substantive or to the point, or answer with a non-sequitur.