This episode of Politics Unboringed is brought to you by The Great Courses Plus.
Have you ever watched Prime Minister's Questions? It's brilliant.
Every Wednesday at Midday MPs are given 30 minutes to ask the prime minister any question,
about anything they like.
She doesn't know what the questions are going to be, and she has to answer all of them on live TV.
It gives the PM a chance to prove how good she is under pressure
And the Leader of the Opposition who gets to ask six questions gets a chance to prove himself as well.
Democracy at its best!
Or is it?
(♫ ♫ ♫)
PMQs is like any other House of Commons debate and all the usual strict rules apply.
These ancient and befuddling rules resemble a rowdy student drinking game.
(CLINK)
You have to say, "Mr. Speaker does the Prime Minister agree?" You can't say, "Prime Minister do you agree?"
- Aaaaaaaah - Ohhh.
Will the Prime Minister...
Can't the Prime Minister...
Does the Prime Minister...
Boing the Prime Minister...
Clapping would drown out the sound of sensible debate, which is why they make this noise instead.
- Reeeeeeeer!!
By the way that used to be the words "hear hear", but it's slowly evolved over time to sound more like "'ere 'ere."
And then "eeeer" and then eventually...
- Reeeeeeeeer!!!
The members refer to each other as:
The Right Honourable Gentleman...
My friend...
My honourable friend.
- My honourable friend.
Her friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire.
And so on and so on and so on and so on and so on.
All these rules have been put there with the express purpose of making sure MPs respect each other
and debate like mature adults.
Ironically it's these very rules that allow them to act like nine-year-old children, especially in PMQs.
Most of the PM's answers are surprisingly polished and well rehearsed.
Like a good stand-up comedian she's an expert at dealing with hecklers
and segueing into her own material.
- I think that word actually describes the Right Honourable Gentleman's leadership...
...incredible(!)
(LAUGHING)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
And the responses from the Leader of the Opposition aren't much better.
In fact, if you listen very carefully you'll notice there's very little interaction between the leaders at all.
Since dinosaur times PMQs has been a theatrical display of one-upmanship from all sides.
It's an opportunity to show how united your party is in decibels
to get good sound bites on the news
and perhaps most shamefully of all, to ask questions you've been told to to make your leader look good.
- Can I ask the prime Minister, given her unwavering commitment to deliver economic stability...
will she ensure that economic cr... stability and national security
remain the guiding principles of her premiership?
That man sleeps at night.
PMQs shows politicians that their very worst and can put people off politics entirely.
So that's why some people are now calling for the whole thing to be scrapped.
But for now Prime Minister's Questions is here to stay,
and it looks like it'll be with us for many more Wednesday afternoons to come.
And that noise they make will probably evolve into...
(VACUUM CLEANER)
- Hello, what are you doing? - I'm studying.
No, you're not you're watching a video.
Ah, but it's not just any video, it's a video from the Great Courses Plus
GREAT COURSES PLUS!
That sounds interesting, what's it all about?
I'll tell you what it's all about. Basically The Great Courses Plus is a subscription on-demand
video learning service with really good lectures and courses
from very very good professors from Ivy League universities.
That sounds really good.
It is really good, and there's no exams or homework.
That's good 'cos I don't like either those things. How many different video lectures are there?
There's like seven thousand of them.
Oh my god, that's loads!
It is loads isn't it? And they add more lectures every month.
So could I find video lectures about something really specific if I wanted to?
- Like what? - Like about the history of England in the 16th century
including information about how parliament came about?
Yes they've got a really good video lecture about that.
And could I also find video lectures about stuff that's not that specific in the grand scheme of things?
What do you mean, "not that specific"?
Like maths.
Yes they've also got maths.
Ooooh, that's really good I like The Great Courses Plus, GREAT COURSES PLUS!
Is there a way I could try it out for free for about four weeks?
As a matter of fact there is if you go to...
Click on the link in the description below to start your free trial today.
- Oh that's really good, that's really useful - That's quite alright, I'm happy to help
- Thank you, I'll do that, I'll do that straight away - I knew you'd like it THE GREAT COURSES PLUS
- It sounds like a really good idea - is really good, that's quite alright
- I wish I'd done it already, thanks for that... - I hope you enjoy it, I know you're gonna like it...