MPs call for end to booing and jeering in Commons. Former Tory prime minister David Cameron once said he wanted to bring an end to the “Punch and Judy” show of PMQs, but later admitted it was a vain hope.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgyleldl27o

Posted by Make_the_music_stop

29 comments

  2. I know it’s history and tradition, but the House of Commons looks so archane compared with the Parliament in Edinburgh and the Assemply in Cardiff.

    Why does not every MP have an allocated seat, with space for their papers, tablet or laptop? And arranged in a semi-circle in a modern chamber.

  3. As a member of the public I find it horrifically offensive how they treat decisions about our lives like a sports game. The lack of respect is vile

  4. Let’s go back to making them all stand in a big crowd and hope a fight breaks out 😂

  5. I quite like the way parliament works, and has worked for hundreds of years.

    There is something grounded about the Prime Minister making a false or misleading statement and being immediately laughed at and jeered by the opposition and even on occasion their own side. It’s an immediate put down, I do not want my leaders to be dictating down to us and the people elected to hold them to account sitting by in silent reverence.

    There are many problems in this world we need to tackle, the antics of parliament aren’t one of them in my opinion.

  6. PM questions is like pro wrestling of European politics, you watch it for the promos and audience participation.

  7. I would rather sycophantic questions were ended. Both main parties do it and it is really cringe. They waste time, produce non answers, and show up the offending MPs as brown nosers.

  8. Little Jonny says to his friend ‘what’s a parliment?’, friend says ‘it’s a place where grown men go to act like children’. Hale and Pace, a long time ago, still as valid as ever.

  9. The HoC is no more than theatre anyway these days. All the important decisions are made by committees in back rooms and through whips and party lines you know which bills will pass before they are voted on. Removing the jeering and booing and such will just make it an even more boring theatre.

  10. It’s embarrassing to think that’s how our government is run. If I did that in a clinical governance meeting I’d just be asked to leave.

  12. Half the time MPs behave worse than football fans at places such as Old Trafford, Elland Road and Hillsborough. I wouldn’t mind so much if there were at least some funny chants but it sounds more like the inside of a cattle shed.

  14. I’d much rather there was a legal requirement for online responses.

    You’re asked a question, you avoid it, you hurl an insult because the times up. But the question is still online and your government has got to answer it, and it’s allowed to be rebuked by the MP that asked. Parliamentary debates are behind the times of the modern world. Were in a position to demand proper answers, but we’d rather just let them fluff it

  15. Was it Robin Williams who said that the House of Commons was like Congress but with a three-drink-minimum?

  16. It’s an absolute farce. They never answer a question. Only talk in sound bites. Jeering like a load of school kids. They get paid for this, it’s a bloody disgrace. It should be a time for them to be held to account and actually have to answer questions. Complete joke.

  17. They don’t want feedback on what they are saying.

    If they can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen.

  18. It’s absolutely pathetic when they do it, it just shows the level of contempt they have for the electorate.

  19. Ok, but what do we replace it with?

    Having pure silence just allows bullshit to go unopposed because of parliamentary rules and how tightly scheduled parliamentary time has to be.

    There has to be a quick way of showing either approval or displeasure

  21. Imagine collective decisions at your work would be resolved in this manner. It is a farce.

  22. And they don’t always answer the questions they are asked and blame others for failings

  23. Jeering and booing … not much else they are capable of.

  24. PMQs is like WWE. Just good entertainment. The jeers are all the old boys Eton club. They live in places like Kensington plus perks it’s a different life. I’m not warming to Badenoch yet. Starmer has majority support of the country still but the Tories are justing waiting for Labour to mess up like it gives the conservatives a pass or reason to re-elect them again in the future and as it stands without Starmer and Reeves I’d still have Rayner in charge over Badenoch.

  25. I’m convinced this is an effort to make Parliament so utterly boring that even the news outlets stop watching it, and then we won’t know what they’re up to. Leave the one bit of theatre intact, for mercy’s sake.

    It’s bad enough that they all spend most of a debate tweeting about Donald Trump rather than taking part in it. Then we had the truly uninspiring lockdown sessions that devolved into long-winded prepared speeches read aloud over Zoom without even a hint of panache, or dare I say wit. Parliamentarians used to have to think on their feet and actually know their stuff. The cut and thrust of debates, the clashes of personality, the style, the playing to the crowd – it was a crucible of ideas and intellect and careers were made and ended at the Despatch Box.

    Now it’s more akin to Ted Talks Amateur Hour, where student activists read dissertations from their phones, career politicians drone on in sterile language desperately trying not to offend anyone, and the only bit of excitement comes from bewildered South East MP’s having to politely ask the SNP delegation to repeat themselves.

    How I miss Dennis Skinner.

  26. It just sounds like a bunch of screaming children in a playground the way they all act in the Commons.

  27. Definitely agree. It’s fucking pathetic. This should be a professional job with professional standards. Instead their standards are lower than almost any other job.

  28. Mad thing is, it’s Brexit that kiboshed Cameron’s hope. Jeremy Corbyn was down for polite, genteel PMQs and if the pro-Brexit vote hadn’t torpedoed the Cameron government, we’d have had five solid years of it, which would have been long enough to change the culture around PMQs. 

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