Comments on: Prime Minister’s Questions ‘Cross the Pond

By: Who’s Afraid of the White House Bully Pulpit? « Submitted to a Candid World

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:31:42 +0000

[...] (oh, okay), and implement a formal, regular, and permanent “Question Time,” where the President would entertain and respond to questions from legislators in a free-form dialogue. This sort of “master stroke” would create the kind of moments that modern American [...]

By: Democracy in America: the Fairness Doctrine and the Expensive Marketplace of Ideas « Submitted to a Candid World

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 22:17:05 +0000

[...] a more vigorously partisan culture, and inculcating a theater of politics, such as inventing our own “prime minister’s questions,” would also serve the purpose of informing the people at minimal cost to our first amendment [...]

By: lcc

lcc — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:50:51 +0000

On more minor correction for AMES. Kitty said that IDS was the one being trounced.

By: Karen Simon

Karen Simon — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 01:38:56 +0000

We have “Question Period” in Canada. It’s the only political entertainment we get really, unless someone has an affair.

By: Ames

Ames — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:50:33 +0000

Hey Kitty! Thanks for visiting and for the corrections. I’ll make the latter right away – I can’t believe I made such a blunder. Ugh.

As for Blair getting trounced, the way I heard it was he only got beaten by IDS once IDS had retired and come back, after being coached by a debate expert :-)

By: Kitty

Kitty — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:34:12 +0000

Iain Duncan Smith was leader of the Conservative party from 2001 to 2003 but never Prime Minister.

Tony Blair was PM and regularly trounced him at the Dispatch Box.

The idea of George W. facing the same sort of questioning is something I’d pay to see.

By: gawiman

gawiman — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 02:47:58 +0000

How could we keep it from degrading to the softball-fest our current press conferences have become? Journalists who ask hardball questions of our president lose “access”.

By: Efrique

Efrique — Sat, 31 May 2008 16:30:19 +0000

Something similar to Prime Minister's Questions is common in a Westminster-style parliamentary democracy. In Australia, our own Question Time (not exclusively for the Prime Minister, questions can be directed to any minister - though in practice the PM gets a lot of them, and the first question will generally come from the leader of the Opposition) is televised in Australia, live and then repeated late at night. It tends to be very rowdy.

By: lirone

lirone — Sat, 31 May 2008 16:17:58 +0000

An interesting idea… though as a Brit I am slightly less impressed with the venerable institution of PMQs, which so often descends to mere political point scoring and cheap shots. And skill in this kind of debating is often not necessarily linked to sensible policies – William Hague, as opposition leader, was brilliant at PMQs but not, I would say, because his policies were any good!

Having said that, there are also regular sessions of putting oral parliamentary questions to other Ministers. Probably because this is less high profile, this is often more insightful and an opportunity to for members of parliament to highlight issues affecting their constituents.

By: goesdownbitter

goesdownbitter — Sat, 31 May 2008 15:29:33 +0000

What a great idea! I can just see the sweat beading now on the brow.