Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Tuesday, April 08, 2014

Must see TV

If you haven't watched at least excerpts from Prime Minister's Questions, now's the time to do so. It's the most watched political news in the UK. Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair were expert stars and the current cast is pretty good too.

In the USA, you can see Prime Minister's Questions live Wednesday mornings at 7am (ET) on C-SPAN2 or as replays of Wednesday's sessions on Sunday nights at 9pm (ET) on C-SPAN.

There's a link to an excerpt in this BBC report.

'Dunce v Muppets' at Prime Minister's Questions

David Cameron and Ed Miliband have been hurling insults at each other in a return of the "Punch and Judy" politics both men said they wanted to abolish.

In exchanges on the price of Royal Mail shares, Mr Miliband said the PM was "not so much the 'Wolf of Wall Street' as the 'dunce of Downing Street'".

The PM said he would not take lectures from the Labour leader and Ed Balls.

He branded the pair "the two Muppets" who had advised former PM Gordon Brown on the sale of the UK's gold…

The link doesn't work here; only on the BBC site

The exchanges came in one of most heated Prime Minister's Questions for some time…

Commons speaker John Bercow vowed recently to end the "yobbery and public school twittishness" at Prime Minister's Questions.

Mr Miliband was said to have sought to bring in a less confrontational PMQs style earlier this year and David Cameron said on his arrival as Conservative leader in 2005 that he wanted to end "Punch and Judy" politics.

Despite their efforts the sessions have continued to revert to form, with insults being exchanged and a bear pit atmosphere. It continues to be the single most watched political event of the week.