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The bear pit that is PMQs

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    The bear pit that is PMQs

    I love watching this. On several occasions in my career, I've been priveleged to be asked to draft initial replies to the anticipated questions being asked.

    It's clearly the highest form of debate and discussion in the country today, and not merely a complete slanging match of the kind you might expect between two Irish philosophers at chucking out time in a Dublin pub.

    Take today, for example. Two questions in, and Cameron's just informed Brown that he's "losing touch with reality". The backbenchers are braying like donkeys.

    Apparently people are most concerned about Post Office closures and releasing criminals. Are these two issues related? Are most of Britain's prisoners locked behind those plexiglass counters? Might explain why so many parcels get lost, I suppose.

    #2
    The bear pit that is PMQs

    "This is the man who appears on American Idol wearing more makeup than Barbara Cartland ..."

    Crikey, it's like Socrates and Polemarchus.

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      #3
      The bear pit that is PMQs

      Might explain why so many parcels get lost, I suppose.
      We're still waiting on The Shield season 4 from Amazon. If anyone finds it, will they let me know?

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        #4
        The bear pit that is PMQs

        While not defending the quality of PMQs, there's something admirable about the childishness of the tone. It's much better than the insufferable "comity" and "civility" of the US Congress (especially the Senate).

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          #5
          The bear pit that is PMQs

          Just reading the Guardian's live blogging of it and the image in my head is the end of Return of the Jedi, when a wheezing Darth Vader is helpless to parry Luke's agreesive attack, and lies prone, a beaten man, a shadow of what he once was and feared no more.

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            #6
            The bear pit that is PMQs

            "It is right, that households are suffering as a result of increased oil prices..."

            I'm not sure I'd have advised the use of the word "right", there. Fucking hell, what a soundbite for the next Tory election adverts.

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              #7
              The bear pit that is PMQs

              And one cannot fail to laugh at the question that always gets asked by the sycophantic backbencher: "Can the Prime Minister once again remind us how supremely wonderful he is?"

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                #8
                The bear pit that is PMQs

                What's the point of being a backbencher?

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                  #9
                  The bear pit that is PMQs

                  To represent your constituents and your party in our great and noble Mother of Parliaments. And with the forthrightness and independence of mind for which British politics is rightly renowned.

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                    #10
                    The bear pit that is PMQs

                    I see. Thanks for setting me straight.

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                      #11
                      The bear pit that is PMQs

                      To represent your constituents and your party
                      Constituents only, surely. They might elect you on the basis of your party affiliation and its manifesto, but in the end it is they and not the party put you into office and it is they to whom you are accountable.

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                        #12
                        The bear pit that is PMQs

                        Pedant replies:

                        To represent your constituents by delivering on the manifesto of the party whose name you stood on.

                        People obviously vote for parties the vast majority of times. There have been not many occasions when someone has stood against their original party and won. I can only think of the SDP defector, Robert McLellan. There must be others - can anyone remember?

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                          #13
                          The bear pit that is PMQs

                          Well, an American friend of mine who's spent a lot of time over here once said something that struck me as pretty wise. (Actually more than once, but only once on this subject.) Unlike Congressmen, she reckoned, MPs are, in practice, as much ambassadors of the party to the people as the other way round.

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                            #14
                            The bear pit that is PMQs

                            Another defector who stood against his original party (as an independent) and won was the late Peter Law.

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                              #15
                              The bear pit that is PMQs

                              Chippy- wasn't there a Labour rebel in Blaneau Gwent got elected recently? Dave Nellist came pretty close in Coventry a few years back. And Ken Livingstone in London.

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                                #16
                                The bear pit that is PMQs

                                I think the Blaneau Gwent guy is the aforementioned Peter Law.

                                There's also Dennis Canavan in Scotland - and, of course, George Galloway.

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                                  #17
                                  The bear pit that is PMQs

                                  Will my esteemed colleagues join me in saying that there are a number of foolish and wrong statements about the role of MPs on this thread? And will they not further acknowledge that the true role of an MP is, in fact, to swindle expenses, follow the whip in voting and turn up to the House at least once a month if their business committments don't get in the way?

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                                    #18
                                    The bear pit that is PMQs

                                    Mr Speaker, is the honourable Gentleman aware that the phrase "my esteemed colleagues" is unparliamentary?

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                                      #19
                                      The bear pit that is PMQs

                                      I would rebut such an assertion on the grounds that the wsc debating chamber isn't a Parliament.

                                      Yet.

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                                        #20
                                        The bear pit that is PMQs

                                        Apparently my MP, Glenda Jackson, has turned up to the commons once in the past 3 years, or something.

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                                          #21
                                          The bear pit that is PMQs

                                          Order!

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                                            #22
                                            The bear pit that is PMQs

                                            Mine's a pint.

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                                              #23
                                              The bear pit that is PMQs

                                              Apparently my MP, Glenda Jackson, has turned up to the commons once in the past 3 years, or something.
                                              Bollocks.

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