There was a time when PMQs were doubtless a valuable occasion for holding to account the The First Lord of the Treasury and giving ministers and opponents an opportunity to grill the incumbent on matters of actual importance. One imagines it may even have been an occasion of some gravitas where the workings of parliament were conceived in all their egalitarian glory.
No more however. Now it is a mind-numbingly dull spectacle of infantile caterwauling, hollow remonstrance and tedious point-scoring and triumphalism to 'rally the troops'. Political journalist will assert that party leaders metaphorically bloodying the nose of their erstwhile opponent can reinvigorate a party for the ideological battles ahead.
Really? I would be sceptical of that in the extreme. This is to assert that 30 minutes of partisan name calling and outright yobbery is what keeps our political leaders sustained? the though appals more than it amuses.
Any use for this overwrought and mindlessly soul-destroying, numbingly, wearying, banal so called spectacle is undermined by the fact that it is so stage managed and lacks any real possibility of being pulled from the embers of mundanity by anything purposeful ever occurring.
The contemporary image of Parliament and politics in this country is poor in the extreme and to see this cliche driven, fractious and ultimately politically inane sideshow as the main representation of Parliament to the voters and the outside world can be doing that reputation no favours.
We have two obvious choices, either scrap it for good or rescue it from the embers of its current moribund redundancy by giving the Speaker the power to enforce a ban on the oafish lout like behaviour from all sides of the house that occur when this 'debate' occurs and get back to a debate driven by courtesy which gives the electorate a fair view of opposing ideological stances.
If this were a school debate both captains would have been taken to one side and admonished for the behaviour to their teams by now!
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