Question for DUers from the UK:

[brainshrub]

I'm watching the British Parliament's "Prime Minister Questions" on CSPAN.

My question is this: Is the Prime Minister prepped on what kind of questions are going to be asked? Maybe not the exact wording, but something along the lines of: "Mr. Watson is going to ask a question about the school system in his district."

I ask because it seems that Tony Blair answers so quickly. No matter how obscure the question might be, he knows everything about it.

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Doesn't he have that big book? PS... can you imagine W going thru this?

:rofl:

[brainshrub]

2. I don't know many politicians on either side of the aisle who could do tha

Clinton probably could have, and possibly Reagan.

[BlueEyedSon]

3. Reagan?? The POTUS with Alzheimer's???

I think not.

[brainshrub]

6. Pre-assasination attempt, I think he could have.

He was pretty fast thinker until the assasination attempt. After that, I think it was Senior Bush who was calling the shots.

[Arugula Latte]

4. Reagan had everything scripted.

Basically he was a cue card reader. I could never understand how people called him "The Great Communicator" with a straight face.

[99Pancakes]

5. Remember Bubba Shrub had a box...

...on his back. Maybe Rove is Blair's brain, too.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. He has assistants who guess what questions will come up

and, in the past at least, they sometimes did practice questions with him, imitating the style of the opposition leader. Some of the questions he gets from his own side are undoubtedly pre-agreed. Which MPs (apart from the opposition party leaders, who always get a set number) get to ask a question is drawn by ballot, so he does know who is going to ask a question. That gives his team a chance of predicting what will be asked as well.

If the question is really obscure, he does just sometimes say "no, I didn't know that" or "I will have to have the answer sent to you". The MPs know there's no point in asking such an obscure question that he'll never be able to answer - people appreciate that it's not an exam; but the idea for the opposition is either to surprise him with a relevant fact that shows up government policy in a bad light, or to bring up things that just aren't getting talked about.

[brainshrub]

8. Thanks.

I wish we had something like that here. Prime Minister Questions is a great tradition that would benefit this country. It's also a lot of fun to watch.

I'm not a big fan of Blair, but in awe of the way he answers difficult questions, even when I don't like the answer.

[Spazito]

9. In Canada, not unlike the British Parliament

they certainly know,for the most part, what issues the Opposition will try and hammer them on and prepare their responses accordingly but the Opposition sometimes catches them totally unprepared with questions on issues they have deliberately not leaked to the media, etc. It makes for some 'fun' days during Question Period, lol.