Thursday, March 28Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

Author: Jack O'Neill

The Political Theatre Losing its Audience
Opinion

The Political Theatre Losing its Audience

For centuries we have heralded ourselves as the champions of democracy, but could you think the same after watching PMQs? Political disenfranchisement has always been there, but I now think it is in fever-pitch. With politicians rattling their cages like an imprisoned animal, jeering and sneering like a pantomime crowd and waving their papers like they were at the races; how many people can truly relate to the political theatre of PMQs? Despite the questioning of Prime Ministers being a part of British politics for centuries, PMQs was not formally established until later in British democracy’s life. In 1881, with William Gladstone as PM, questions to him were fixed to certain time-limits. This became more structured in 1953 when Winston Churchill agreed for questions to be submitted on ...