Prime Minister’s Question Time is a time hallowed tradition in British politics which is based on the openness of the British parliamentary system which opens up government to scrutiny in more ways than one. The Prime Minister, in this case David Cameron from the Conservative Party was talking about the reforms to the National Health Service or the NHS as it is better known and he was taking questions by a number of Opposition MP’s who form the Labour Party. The format is basically always the same with the Prime Minister taking around an hour in questions from the opposing parties but this may also include members from his own political party.
Principally, the programme focused on the reform to the system of General Practitioners which was drawing the ire of several MP’s for the length it was taking to carry out. Mr Cameron was very much in his element deflecting the questions with alacrity and aplomb and forcefully pressing the issue that the reforms needed to be carried out with as much haste and speed as possible. However he was regularly booed and catcalled by the opposing MP’s who seemed to be rather disrespectful of his achievements. Occasionally there were parts when the question time disintegrated into a shouting match and although the PM seemed to handle the situation well, there were times when he was losing control and getting inordinately angry
After some analysis, the open way which the PM conducts Question Time is something which would really be positive for the United States as there is no such thing which exists in the House of Representatives or in the Senate. It is truly a transparent manner of bringing forward certain issues which may otherwise languish unseen or unrecognized. However there needs to be a certain element of control in the way everything is propelled forward as when the time degenerates into shouting matches, nobody gains and the end effect is rather lost.
However the main sticking point in transcribing the British system of Question Time to the United States is the fact that in the UK, a politician is rather different. The UK politician is more suave, without restraint and very much part and parcel of an ingrained system whilst the American politician is more of a bird of passage so it would be intrinsically quite difficult for the system to work properly here. However the way it is open ended and very transparent definitely assists in the way it can be portrayed.
Different Prime Ministers have also treated Question Time differently. Former PM Tony Blair was quite disrespectful of the Commons and was only there when it suited him without much ado or care when the issues impacted were of minimal importance. For example if one were to transcribe these issues to a situation in the Senate, the Majority Leader Harry Reid would not really calculate little issues which could spruce up a Question Time very interestingly indeed.
Earlier Prime Ministers such as Harold Macmillan and Winston Churchill have also given less importance to Question Time in the past as they felt that it was demeaning to their position although this was definitely not always the case. Finally there was the issue of openness and certain state secrets which perhaps were not always revealed during question time for the sake of secrecy and national security. Different personalities have also treated question time with limited ease and productivity and this obviously has an effect and how the whole system is perceived and how it comes about.
Finally I would like to express my profound admiration for the British political system which is focused on openness and transparency in the way that the US never has been. We could do a lot less than learn from the British in the way they conduct their own affairs, bringing forward certain issues of public interest to the fore and also focusing intrinsically on the bigger picture without letting smaller or less important issues take the boil. It is important that Question Time is treated with the respect it deserves so that everything comes to the fore properly and that political secrets are not left to languish anywhere in the dark without any hope of seeing the light of day. The Us System of checks and balances is good in that it promotes certain aspects of transparency but in the end the British system is far more open than the US one which tends to be mired in corruption and holds certain views on transparency which are shocking to say the least. A wholesale review of the US system would definitely be desirable here.
Works Cited:
Bailey, Ric (26 January 2005) "NewsWatch: Question Time for Question Time" BBC News Retrieved 9 July 2005
