PMQs sketch: A trip down memory lane
If you’re ever in need of a history lesson, there are worse places to head than the storied and ancient House of Commons for a PMQs.
But when it comes to political debate, we tend to hope our leaders will have their fingers on the pulse of the nation.
Not so during this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions. With Sunak glad-handing at NATO, it was another PMQs outing for the deputies and – dutifully biding time until their bosses return – Dowden and Rayner appeared to be prepping us all for a pop quiz.
Hits on the bingo card ranged from the “magic money tree”, NATO non-aficionado Jeremy Corbyn, as Dowden drily noted, Lord John Prescott and Margaret Thatcher.
And it was less GMB (other television presenters may be relieved to learn) and more TMB as Rayner trotted out her party’s “Tory mortgage bombshell” line once again.
With the Labour side accusing the government of citing the “ghosts of PMs past” and Dowden branding Rayner (who, TBF, kept bringing up 1996.. a whole *checks notes* 27 years ago) and her questions “hackneyed”, the stagnant proceedings appeared to descent into a contest of who could be least current.
Why, the Labour deputy, implored was she still asking the same questions the opposition had been asking? Why indeed, viewers may have been left wondering.