Prime minister question time

[Manicminer]

Can anyone explain why they behave as if they were still 5 years old , lots of hilarity and name calling and general arsing about?

Whenever someone asks a serious question either side will generally resort to ripping the piss out of them until they move on to the next question.

I find it a bit pathetic really considering the dangerous state of the economy and the trouble we'll all be in if they don't pull their finger out and get results.

Is it just tradition and underneath serious progress is made during PMQT or is it as it seems on the surface, total banal and flippant?

[The Black Flash]

The latter. It's gone from being a useful chance to ask genuine questions, into a knock-about competition to see who can get the best put-down onto the news.
Waste of time. But equally, there has to be some way of forcing the power of the day to answer for their decisions.

[AJS-]

It's because we keep voting for self serving morons, with no real principals, whose only motivation is to stay in power, of which they really have very little, and privilege of which they have rather more.

[steveatesh]

Politicians exist to give the rest of us something to hate. Fortunately they do it so well!

[StevieBee]

It's more a tradition that maintains the 'theatre' of politics in the public eye. It serves very little useful purpose these days other than to give the lesser known MPs an opportunity to be heard. All of the questions raised have to be lodged to the PM's office in advance who then advises the speaker which questions he wishes to answer.

Blair cut it from 1 hour to 30 mins shortly after he came to power which indicates its true worth.

[Jasandjules]

Given that we are supposed to hold the Govt to account it does seem somewhat odd that this is a method deemed worthy of that issue. Perhaps if they spent more time dealing with issues than acting like 5 year olds the country might not be in such a poor state.

[oyster]

StevieBee said:

It's more a tradition that maintains the 'theatre' of politics in the public eye. It serves very little useful purpose these days other than to give the lesser known MPs an opportunity to be heard. All of the questions raised have to be lodged to the PM's office in advance who then advises the speaker which questions he wishes to answer.

Not quite correct. Most MPs submit a question in advance asking the PM's engagements for the day. They are then entitled to ask a supplementary question of any topic of their choice, which the PM will not see in advance.

StevieBee said:

Blair cut it from 1 hour to 30 mins shortly after he came to power which indicates its true worth.

Incorrect.
Blair changed it from 15 mins, twice a week to 30 mins, once a week. A sensible change.

[oyster]

Jasandjules said:

Given that we are supposed to hold the Govt to account it does seem somewhat odd that this is a method deemed worthy of that issue. Perhaps if they spent more time dealing with issues than acting like 5 year olds the country might not be in such a poor state.

Maybe.
Except many political leaders around the world, never have to face hostile questioning from other elected politicians on our behalf.

They maybe face the press, but 1. they often act very deferentially to political leaders and 2. they aren't elected in the way that opposition MPs are.

[nelly1]

oyster said:

Jasandjules said:

Given that we are supposed to hold the Govt to account it does seem somewhat odd that this is a method deemed worthy of that issue. Perhaps if they spent more time dealing with issues than acting like 5 year olds the country might not be in such a poor state.

Maybe.
Except many political leaders around the world, never have to face hostile questioning from other elected politicians on our behalf.

They maybe face the press, but 1. they often act very deferentially to political leaders and 2. they aren't elected in the way that opposition MPs are.

They should sort things out more like the Russians...

[Caulkhead]

Maybe you should watch the bits of parliamentary debate that aren't PMQ - ie most of it.

PMQ is just the weekly scuffle to ensure the tradition of our confrontational parliament is upheld. I'd hate to see it swapped for one of those semi-circular half-arsed parliaments where nothing ever gets said directly to the opposition.

[Jasandjules]

oyster said:

Maybe.
Except many political leaders around the world, never have to face hostile questioning from other elected politicians on our behalf.
.

Which is irrelevant to the question of whether or not our MPs should act like adults in this situation. Or playground bullies.