The pointlessness of PMQs

It’s a different game at PMQs. With fewer than 40 members present, the debates feel more like a committee meeting than a full-throated parliamentary session. It’s bad for democracy if the highlight of the parliamentary week looks so static and uninspiring. When the weather cheers up they should move to a secure location outdoors, (like the gardens of Buckingham Palace), where more members could attend and the sessions would be livelier. Meanwhile, MPs are chafing under the restrictions. They’ve started to mess about like schoolkids in detention. They play games. They needle each other. They stretch the rules, and they dare the Speaker to shut them up or tick them off.

Today they debated border closures. Sir Keir Starmer wants the UK sealed off forever like a sacred monastery on a Greek peninsula. Boris replied that this tempting idea had one slight problem. Everyone would die. Nearly half of our food, he said, and the majority of our medicines originate from abroad so we would rapidly succumb to famine or disease.