End of the PMQ pantomime? Oh no it isn’t!
In devastating news for pantomime fans, Boris Johnson has appeared at his last Prime Minister’s Questions.
Apart from everything else, his departure from the highest office means we get a brief respite from the sound and fury that greets his every move. Obviously that noise will be back with a vengeance when a new leader takes over and a handful of diehards will no doubt wish to carry on having a pop at Johnson as he skulks on the backbenches. Abusing political opponents on social media is the highlight of many people’s day.
Johnson’s final Prime Minister’s Questions was predictably juvenile from all sides of the house, filled with ill-tempered abuse, lame attempts at humour and the sort of holierthan-thou act that politicians still seem to think is a vote winner (it isn’t).
In a world which has never been more conscious of mental health issues and a healthy working environment, the House of Commons strikes me as a uniquely archaic place of employment. MPs form an orderly queue to pour a bucket of metaphorical effluent over their opponents, who must listen politely before it’s their turn to throw the bucket back, normally fully loaded.
No one comes out of it well. If any company conducted its business in a similar fashion, it would fail immediately but this sort of behaviour is somehow accepted when it comes to running the country.
In a parting swipe at another cesspit of ugly, childish and ill-informed political debate, Johnson told MPs “it’s not Twitter that counts, it’s the people that sent us here”, before saying a final “hasta la vista, baby” - a line from the Terminator films and the sort of dated cultural reference we’re all guilty of using to a baffled younger audience.
It’s no more contemporary but maybe a quote from Kindergarten Cop, another Arnold Schwarzenegger film, might have been more suitable for some of the baying infants in the House of Commons.
In a world which has never been more conscious of mental health issues, the Commons seems a uniquely archaic working environment