I like British Prime Minister's Questions.

[UrbScotty]

Each week in Parliament, members of the Parliament are allowed to ask questions of the Prime Minister. It's funny when the conservatives ask Blair questions, and Blair responds. They go back and forth, yelling at each other (they're allowed to do that).

I think we should have something like that in the US. Maybe not with all the yelling at each other, but at least Democrats could go after Bush, and people could see him for what he's worth (his mind and his policies, that is, not his campaign war chest).

Not that it will ever happen, especially with Bush and DeLay in charge, but just sometrhing to consdider.

Prime Minister's Questions airs on C-SPAN on Sunday Nights at 6 and 9 PM Eastern and Pacific.

[Nikia]

1. I think it is cool too

That is real political debate. I used to love watching British Parliament on CSPAN.

[scottcsmith]

2. I love it

I try to watch it each week. I'd love to see Bush be addressed by Congress the way Tony Blair is.

[rwenos]

3. Can You See Bushie Boy . . .

even TRYING to say the things Tony Blair says? Bush couldn't even look them up in the dictionary.

Unfortunately, as a Rhetoric professor of mine said in college, in America we have a political culture of "non-articulateness." The articulate politician is distrusted. In Britain, they have a political culture of oratory and articulateness.

The dumbing down of American political discourse makes me want to puke. If you don't believe it's happened, listen to Dwight Eisenhower's "Military Industrial Complex" speech, given in 1959. Eisenhower sounds like a college professor, compared to most current American politicians. Of course, he sounds like a philosopher-king, compared to the current occupant of the White House.

[JohnLocke]

4. Me too!

[Eureka]

5. I agree

We (in Aus) have the same deal, it's called "Question Time" and it has to be faced.

What amazes me is Bush* is somehow able to hide from questions, like by having Ari and Scotty handle it all for him, and just not have press conferences etc. Just attempting to dodge being asked questions like that would have our little fool thrown out on his ass in an instant.

You should try and get it into the US system, if nothing else it's fun to watch, I would pay just about anything to see Bush face a nice little three hour session like that.

[jakefrep]

8. Absolutely

Bush*'s head would explode if he were subjected to Question Time. Never mind the collateral damage to the English language that would result from his answers.

[Gildor Inglorion]

6. But the P.M. is only the head of government,

not the chief of state. It would be unthinkable for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to face parliamentary questions like that. Under our system, the powers of head of government and chief of state are vested in one person, so while it would be great to have the head of government grilled weekly, there's something unseemly about doing the same thing to the chief of state. Well, not *, but he won't be the last president. Maybe we should separate the two offices. Have a ceremonial president and a prime minister to run things until kicked out of office.

[UrbScotty]

7. Since our President is both, it would be diferent.

He is both head of state and head of government, so he would face more broad questions than Blair.