The weekly session of Prime Ministers Questions from the House of Commons is supposedly an opportunity for the Leader of the Opposition and ordinary backbench MP’s to question the Prime Minister on any topic of concern.
Since the proceedings were televised in November 1989 the event has become a choreographed piece of theatre where questions are submitted in advance and the answers scripted to make the Prime Minister and the Members look good.
It is also an opportunity for the politicians to virtue signal to the core voters in their constituencies and to burnish their ideological credentials on the national and international stage.
Before the first question is asked it has become customary for the Prime Minister to make a virtue signalling statement by remembering some anniversary or commemorative day to give the impression that they care about something close to their hearts.
With her Brexit policy in a shambles and her government in total disarray Theresa May opened the last session with an apology for the Amritsar Massacre committed by the British Raj in India a century ago.
Since former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have already apologised for the Amritsar Massacre and the fact that Mrs. May couldn’t care less about events in India a century ago this was deflection from her current problems and a cynical use of an historical event for personal and political ends.
Read about it here
Read about it here
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