Why doesn't our Parliament do that?
Why doesn’t our UK Parliament take Gordon Brown to task quite the way that Daniel Hannan did in the Europarliament? Because it can’t.
In Westminster we’re prevented from making the kind of short, pithy speeches that hold squirming ministers directly to account by something called "tradition". Procedures for debates in SW1 make it very difficult to actually say what needs to be said. The closest you can get is a question. If you're lucky.
Indeed, most debates are reduced to bogus, formulaic ritual. The order of speaking often irons out spontaneity. Cabinet ministers invariably clear off to the tea rooms rather than listen to what anyone might want to say.
Other than the weekly Prime Ministers Questions, I'm trying to think when I've ever seen a Prime Minister speaking in the Commons in a way that would allow anyone to hold him to task the way Daniel did.
Like I've been saying, our Commons is monumentally useless at holding government to account. But don't worry, we've a wonderful chap as Speaker ....
Posted on 25 March 2009 by Douglas Carswell