UK Parliament now offering live webcasts of debates.

January 14, 2002 9:59 AM

UK Parliament now offering live webcasts of debates. Fascinating. Don't miss Prime Minister's Questions every Wednesday at 3pm GMT, it's always good for a few laughs. Would give some of the slower debates a miss though. Via The Register.
posted by mokey (8 comments total)

Thanks, mokey. I'm a Commons junkie and disliked the excerpted bits they give us on TV. That scheduler is cool, too.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:29 AM on January 14, 2002

Back when I could afford cable I loved watching Prime Minister's Questions on CSpan, even though I have no idea what's going on in British politics. Good fun.
posted by schmedeman at 10:30 AM on January 14, 2002

When I lived in London for 5 months, I went to Parliment a couple of times. One time it was really really boring...a couple of old guys droning on. The other time it was crazy. There were lots of people and they were all talking and booing and cheering. What a riot.
I'm fascinated by British politics. This is cool.
posted by aacheson at 11:24 AM on January 14, 2002

Imagine if they had that in the U.S. I'm thinking weekly President's Questions in a joint session of Congress would go a little something like this:

Q: Mr. President, what do you have to say about the alleged impropriates committed by members of your administration regarding the collapse of Enron?

A: We will punish the evil-doers

*pause*

Q: Mr. President, I'm talking about the fact that the largest bankruptcy case in the history of this country involved a corporation whose head was one of your largest individual campaign contributers. Do you acknowledge that there is at least a very large conflict of interest in your administrations investigation of this matter?

A: See...the probl...*ack*....PRETZEL!...*choke*
posted by thewittyname at 11:30 AM on January 14, 2002

How long till people scour the video files and find a good moment, and it gets posted on the front page?
posted by panopticon at 11:45 AM on January 14, 2002

Being a loyal British subject and the proud possessor of cable TV I get this allreafy through the might of BBC Parliament.

Welsh Assembly=Insomnia cure.
posted by nedrichards at 2:42 PM on January 14, 2002

i think it's a laudable move and shows a pleasing bit of nous on the part of whichever gov't dept was concerned, especially like the cool .tv domain. must be good for democracy, or at least accountability...?
posted by mokey at 2:48 PM on January 14, 2002

thewittyname's comment points out an already growing PR nightmare for our spiffy country: Our leader was almost assassinated by a pretzel.

Seriously, I'm not staying here unless the next guy has a standard-level IQ (or can at least chew his food.)
posted by phalkin at 2:51 PM on January 14, 2002