Chuck:

Thanks for that very interesting information, but could i let you into a
secret?  Everyone hewre understands that the weekly House of Commons
Prime Minister's Questions half-hour is never intended to be taken
seriously, least of all by the participants: it's just a survival of the
Oxford and Cambridge university debating society traditions.

What scares me is that so many of your law-makers seem to take
themselves seriously and eventually come to actually BELIEVE what they are
saying and proposing!  We don't have this problem as it is now almost
unheard of for any legislation to pass unless it have been proposed,
presented and supported throughout by the Government of the day, using
very effective internal party discipline to ensure that everyone elected
under a political party ticket obeys what is affectionately known as
"the Whips".  Though "back-bench" Members of Parliament may table
proposals for both legislation and debates these rarely get any sort of
hearing.  Well over 90% of parliamentary time is totally controlled by the
Leaders and their business managers of the Government party and the
"Official Opposition".

Patrick Boylan

=====================================

On Thu, 2 Apr 1998, Chuck Watkins wrote:

> Subject: Our Legislators' Escapades
> Newsgroups:   bit.listserv.museum-l
>
> Patrick Boylan writes of his wonderment about the things our legislators
> get up to (and frankly so do we).  Patrick,  we in the states, courtesy
> of C-SPAN, get a weekly dose of Prime Minister's Questions.  So, we may
> be even.
> Regards,
> Chuck Watkins