Question Time - Wednesday 24 February 2010

Question time last for an hour every Monday to Thursday and it is the members of Parliament’s opportunity to ask the Government Ministers questions. The Ministers are obligated to answer. There are different times for the different subjects and issues, questions asked directly to the Prime Minister are asked at Wednesday between 12:00 and 12:30. Wednesday 24 February, I got the opportunity to attend Question Time and to be a part of the circus when the prime minister is answering questions from Parliament.

The tension in the room was tense, but Gordon Brown was very calm. He started by sending condolences to everybody who have lost someone in the war in Afghanistan. The people in the room calmed down and he was ready to start the questions. He talks slowly which is an intentional measure, and the people pay more attention and they are concentrating on what he is saying. There are not at all people yelling, disagreeing or agreeing, this means that he has more respect than the other politicians. Because they are shouting their opinions out whenever they feel like it, but not when Brown is talking. The man questioning him in the start is David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party, is not at all as articulate as Brown. Cameron has an arrogant behavior and is criticizing Brown in every question and some of his questions occur to me as irrelevant. It seemed like he did not know enough about the subjects brought up and by avoiding to show that to the people, he made fun of Brown.

All questions considering the Prime Minister was answered, but Cameron had several irrelevant statements, which was not really anything for Brown to answer.

There are very heated debates, people shouted out their opinions on every subject. It is very common to shout out what you think in these debates, which might be rude in other relations. The debates have always been like this and the system is very old fashion, but it works for them. The speaker broke in some times to settle the people, but the Ministers did not show much respect for each other. They are not only interrupting each other, but are mocking their opponent.

The general election must take place before or on 3 June 2010, and different examinations say the Conservative are going to win the election. That is only popularity polls now, and we will continue on following the Labour Party during the nest months.