No 'chuntering' allowed on the House floor

One of my favorite bits of TV occurs early each Wednesday at 4 a.m. (Pacific Time) while I am still sound asleep. Across the Atlantic, eight time zones away from California, as London's Big Ben strikes noon (British Time), it's time for Prime Minister's Questions. Thank goodness for my DVR.

You just never know what you might learn from the British.

Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster,
home of the British Parliament.
(Photo: Michael Dickens, 2005.)

Each Wednesday, when Parliament is in session, Prime Minister's Questions (PMQ) takes place on the floor of the British House of Commons, and it is broadcast live in the United States by C-SPAN2 (7 a.m ET/4 a.m. PT). If you've never seen PMQ, it can be best described as a verbal boxing match, full of high drama, that lasts for about 30 minutes and allows for the opposition leader and other members of Parliament of all parties to grill the Prime Minister with questions on important matters of state and foreign affairs.

PMQ also serves its American audience with an up-close, yet entertaining, look at the art and style of British political culture.  Perhaps, our politicians could learn a thing or two from their British counterparts.

My favorite part of PMQ happens early on when David Cameron, the current prime minister, goes face-to-face with the opposition leader.  Until earlier this year, Mr. Cameron was the opposition leader, and believe me, he found utter joy in sparing with former prime minister Gordon Brown. Often, the lively and passionate Cameron got the best of the droll Brown in these exchanges of spirited oratory and debate. Most weeks, Brown looked like he would rather be anywhere than on the floor of the House being put to task by the Tories. Before Brown, Tony Blair took great delight in being quick-witted with his answers and defending the dignity of the Labour Party.


Last week, Mr. Cameron faced new opposition leader Ed Miliband for the first time.

http://www.newsonnews.net/parliament/5033-prime-ministers-questions-october-13th.html (PMQ starts on the video at 12:00:00).

While this first exchange between the leaders of the Conservative (Tory) and Labour parties wasn't particularly memorable ~ in fact, Mr. Miliband appeared a bit nervous ~ what struck me as funny, and got my attention, was when the Speaker of the House, John Bercow, used the power of the English language to defuse the cantankerous cat calls coming from Tory MPs, who were trying to fluster the young Mr. Miliband, while also lecturing them on decorum.

While PMQ isn't quite a no-holds-barred exchange, there's plenty of partisan bantering, whistling, shouts of "Hear, hear" and, occasionally, laughter.  For a moment, you might have thought you were taking in a night of British theater in the West End.  

Thank goodness, the Speaker, who presides over PMQ and determines which members may speak, steps in from time to time to maintain order and civility during the debate and lecture the MPs on courtesy and manners.  This week, not only was Bercow a master thespian, he also played the role of college professor very well, indeed.  To wit:

http://www.newsonnews.net/parliament/5033-prime-ministers-questions-october-13th.html (Fast forward to 12:10:40).

Mr Speaker: "Order. The Leader of the Opposition will be heard, and if there are colleagues chuntering away who then hope to catch the eye of the Chair, I am afraid they are deluded."

Immediately, I made a mental note to myself:  "Need to look up the word 'chunter' and find out what the Speaker was lecturing the MPs about."  Sure enough, I typed the world "chunter" into the search engine for dictionary.com and here's what I found:

chun·ter:

Verb (used without object) British Informal; to grumble or to grouse mildly, or tediously.

Origin: 1590-1600;  original dialect (Midlands, N. England) chunter, chunder, chunner;  cf. Scots channer in same sense; expressive word of obscure origin.

So, there you have it, a new word for the day: chunter.  It rhymes with punter. Now, if only I can find a way to work chunter into a proper conversation among friends.

Yes, you just never know what you might learn from our friends across the ocean.

Jolly good show: Election Day in the U.K.

It's Election Day in the United Kingdom and as the country goes to the polls to vote in the next House of Commons, this curious observer wonders: Just who will emerge as the next Prime Minister?

The candidates, please: Will it be the dour, incumbent Gordon Brown of the Labour Party; the elitist, Oxford-educated David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party; or the handsome and potential deal-breaker Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrat Party, whose profile was nicely enhanced during two recently televised debates?

Draw your own conclusions, but remember this: You've got to be careful what you wish for in politics.

One British humourist suggests: "This year it's a three-horse race. Or, two horses and one Gruffalo." The suggestion is that Brown looks exactly like the Gruffalo as illustrated for the Julia Donaldson storybook.

It's a long day, so vote early ~ if not often, as they do in Chicago ~ then, go on a pub crawl.

Post script: When the polls closed at 10 p.m. British Time (5 p.m. EDT/2 p.m. PDT), the BBC exit poll revealed the following ~ Conservatives 305, Labour 255, Liberal Democrats 61 and Others 29. What this means, dear Americans, is a Hung Parliament is in the making ~ and time for a lot of deal making to happen to see just who gets to claim the U.K.'s prime address at 10 Downing Street.

Some in British political circles suggest the exit poll points to an "utter rejection" of the Labour Party. Draw your own conclusions, but, again, remember this: You've got to be careful what you wish for in politics.

The tallying of the votes ~ or, at least, revealing the tally has been painstakingly S-L-O-W. After three hours, only 15 of 650 seats had been declared. The magic number for any party to take control of the House of Commons is 326. It's going to take a while for things to sort themselves out.

Let's make a deal!

In the meantime, let's retire to the pub and drink a pint or two ~ or three. It's going to be a bloody, long night.

Cheers!