The dsigrace of PMQs

In what should be one of the most revered establishments of democracy in the UK Prime Minster's Questions is farcical. As always the Prime Minister avoids answering questions and answers the one he wish they had asked.  The end of his response will be a jibe at the oppositions record, from which he would of had researchers delve into dubious statistics. Of course the use of reports and statistics is something both sides of the House use. However, they do not use the same sets and choose to use those which favour their own.  So what the public get is a skewed view, or not a lie but dubious truth of what the present state of the country is.  Maybe Mr Not-so-honourable Cameron does not like answering questions properly. If he were to do an exam paper at secondary school he would not get marks for answering a question he thought was asked but wasn't, he'd fail and never pass his exams. But he got where he is today, after going to a high profile University.  Therefore he must know how to answer a question, but he chooses not to answer the question.  He could be embarrassed by it, or the true answer would make him and his party look incompetent, or he just doesn't know the answer.  So it is a matter of avoidance and it is purposeful.  This can be seen when Cameron has nothing but a counter attack strategy to a question, as the saying goes "the best form of defence is offence." Which he certainly does advocate.

At PMQs MPs engage in what can only be seen as barbaric behaviour.  Every PMQ is as worse than supporters at a football match.  There is booing, jeering, shouting, screaming, the Speaker stands up and with a red and angry face points in one direction of the house and tells them "the question will be heard."  It is no wonder the online group called Mumsnet partitioned Berco about this behaviour.

What is needed is a set of rules, rules set out on the expected behaviour of all MPs at PMQ, expected behaviour on how questions should be answered, because they frankly never are, unless they happen to be benign.  However, politics is a cut throat game, and PMQs shows how bad it has become. It's only a pity both sides of the house are not working towards a strategy of government for everyone's advantage.  At the moment, it is only MPs themselves who are coming up on top, possibly because of their large pay cheques.