Prime ministers question time

Wednesday at noon. Prime Ministers question time is on again. When the House of Commons is sitting this is the time to question the political situation in Britain.

It is a spectacular event. An argumentative debate. Noise and heckling, shouting, barracking, hundreds of members of Parliament shouting at each other. Conservatives, Labour, Scottish Nationalists, Democratic Unionists and Liberal Democrats put forward their questions about what the government is doing.

Varied questions came up today: private renting costs, the Northern Irish parliament, melanoma, cost of living crisis, accommodating migrants, student debt, steel manufacture amongst other questions.

The Conservatives, who are in power ask mainly soft subject questions, pleased with themselves and smugly denegrating the opposition. The opposition parties try and ask searching questions, but are often sarcastically fobbed off with flippant answers.

This method of questioning is not always enlightening or clarifying. The world might be a better place if the whole procedure was rethought. A lot of it is Members of Parliament trying to get seen by their constituents by asking questions. Some of it does clarify policies. I’ll continue to keep watching this spectacle.