Thursday 5 November 2015

Prime Ministers questions

PMQs [Prime Minister's Questions] is a constitutional convention in the United Kingdom, currently held as a single session every Wednesday at noon when the House of Commons is sitting, during which the Prime Minister spends around half an hour answering questions from MPs [Members of Parliament].

Prime ministers have answered questions in parliament for centuries but in 1881 fixed time-limits for questions were introduced and questions to the prime minister were moved to the last slot of the day as a courtesy to the 72-year-old prime minister at the time, William Gladstone. Since then there has been several changes until we get to the current system.

PMQs have been filmed since 1989 by the BBC [British Broadcasting Corporation] and shown on it's own channel and at times on BBC2. It has gained popularity because of the bear pit action for the 30 minutes where the public can seen both sides fighting each other without exchanging blows, however, recently it appears that the public no longer has a taste for the rowdiness as it detracts from the purpose of challenging the government over current affairs and issues.

Yesterday was particularly prominent when the leader of the opposition was having trouble asking the Prime Minister questions with the racket from the government benches. The speaker intervened as always but the usual 30 minutes was extended to 39 and the PM was heard to say "this is getting longer" as he left the chamber.

Well if is too difficult for the PM to manage his benches he will have to expect longer PMQs.

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