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I live in the UK and have mixed feelings about the 'opposing benches' design of the British Parliament. Government ministers and political leaders need to be i

I live in the UK and have mixed feelings about the 'opposing benches' design of the British Parliament. Government ministers and political leaders need to be interrogated regularly. I agree with the article that the 'opposing benches' design can facilitate this more easily than the 'classroom-style' design where leaders may appear out of reach for questioning. However, the 'opposing benches' design can also encourage a combative, adversarial approach that doesn't always lead to substantive debate. For example, every week the Prime Minister takes questions from the opposition (Prime Minister's Questions or PMQs); because this is televised and often reported in the press and on TV, political leaders are judged by how clever their retorts or jabs are, not on whether they actually have anything substantive to say. Here is a two-minute video clip of PMQs in session (from last week) to give you flavour of what it's like: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2016/sep/14/jeremy-corbyn-and-theresa-may-clash-over-grammar-schools-at-pmqs-video http://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2016/sep/14/jeremy...

anexprogrammer 10y ago
There was a deliberate choice to avoid this when the Scottish Parliament was designed, and they went for the semicircular layout. I have a vague memory of them looking into the pros and cons of quite a number of layouts during early design. Wikipedia doesn't cite anything helpful, and is quite vague on the topic.
- esbranson 10y ago
  Wikipedia doesn't have anything because you haven't added it yet.
AndrewOMartin 10y ago
If you take the opportunity to express your right to visit the House of Commons when it is normally sitting (i.e. during office hours, not during recess and not during PMQs) you'll see very measured, fairly productive and often entirely non-combative debate. PMQs is entirely accepted as a show that gives all MPs and the press a broad view, almost a caricature of the events and issues of the week and the positions of the parties. If you had moved to the UK and had no idea of the current state of politics, you could very quickly get up to speed by simply watching a single session of PMQs. Just for clarity, to attend a PMQs you need to get a ticket from your MP, in most cases a request in a letter is sufficient. As you posted a link to a PMQ, I'll not miss this opportunity to post a link to when Hague met Prescott over the dispatch box in 2006. For those not in the know, when the PM is away the Deputy PM takes over (Who was in this case the famously brash and ineloquent John Prescott), and as is tradition the Deputy Leader of the Opposition asks the question (who was in this case the fairly forgettable and ineffective past-leader of the opposition William Hague). This is a great example of what is known as "Punch and Judy Politics". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBeOafTBoVs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBeOafTBoVs
- chrisseaton 10y ago
  > If you take the opportunity to express your right to visit the House of Commons when it is normally sitting (i.e. during office hours, not during recess and not during PMQs) you'll see very measured, fairly productive and often entirely non-combative debate. It's also all on TV and live streamed on the internet, every day. You don't need to take time out to go and visit it, if you didn't know that. http://www.parliamentlive.tv http://www.parliamentlive.tv http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/bbcparliament http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/bbcparliament

anexprogrammer 10y ago

There was a deliberate choice to avoid this when the Scottish Parliament was designed, and they went for the semicircular layout. I have a vague memory of them looking into the pros and cons of quite a number of layouts during early design. Wikipedia doesn't cite anything helpful, and is quite vague on the topic.

esbranson 10y ago
Wikipedia doesn't have anything because you haven't added it yet.

AndrewOMartin 10y ago

If you take the opportunity to express your right to visit the House of Commons when it is normally sitting (i.e. during office hours, not during recess and not during PMQs) you'll see very measured, fairly productive and often entirely non-combative debate. PMQs is entirely accepted as a show that gives all MPs and the press a broad view, almost a caricature of the events and issues of the week and the positions of the parties. If you had moved to the UK and had no idea of the current state of politics, you could very quickly get up to speed by simply watching a single session of PMQs. Just for clarity, to attend a PMQs you need to get a ticket from your MP, in most cases a request in a letter is sufficient. As you posted a link to a PMQ, I'll not miss this opportunity to post a link to when Hague met Prescott over the dispatch box in 2006. For those not in the know, when the PM is away the Deputy PM takes over (Who was in this case the famously brash and ineloquent John Prescott), and as is tradition the Deputy Leader of the Opposition asks the question (who was in this case the fairly forgettable and ineffective past-leader of the opposition William Hague). This is a great example of what is known as "Punch and Judy Politics". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBeOafTBoVs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBeOafTBoVs

chrisseaton 10y ago
> If you take the opportunity to express your right to visit the House of Commons when it is normally sitting (i.e. during office hours, not during recess and not during PMQs) you'll see very measured, fairly productive and often entirely non-combative debate. It's also all on TV and live streamed on the internet, every day. You don't need to take time out to go and visit it, if you didn't know that. http://www.parliamentlive.tv http://www.parliamentlive.tv http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/bbcparliament http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/bbcparliament