I'm officially jealous of the British.

[Bouncy Ball]

Did you see The Daily Show? The clips of the debates with Blair?

REGULAR PEOPLE COULD ASK HIM QUESTIONS? Regular people could ask him hard-hitting questions and say what they wanted to?

Fucking A.

We SUCK. Freedom of speech my ASS.

[Fenris]

1. I'd rather just be able to throw things at the candidate.

Like tomatoes or pies. Or bottles.

[Bouncy Ball]

3. Cream pies, yeah.

[Fenris]

4. Hee hee.

:hide:

[yvr girl]

23. We have a history of throwing pies at hour politicians in Canada

:-)

[Not_Giving_Up]

2. Isn't that great?

Local radio actually stated that the crowd in Galveston for the Social Security speech was hand picked...TV gave some coverage to those protesting the event.

[LynneSin]

5. He also had to go to the House of Commons...

..and answer questions directly from them about the war.

I watched it on c-span - it was a hoot

[Bouncy Ball]

6. GRR RRRR RRRR RRR!!!!!!!!!

That just burns my fucking ass. We have NO accountability in this country.

[tjdee]

11. And he does it regularly.

Every week or so they show it on C-SPAN. Conservatives get all up in his face, people boo and cheer, and that's their Parliament!
Very entertaining, and very cool.

Blair gets up there and answers pretty well, considering.

You're right, we do suck in that department.

[evlbstrd]

21. That's a weekly occurrence.

It's called Prime Ministers' Questions. I used to watch it on CSPAN back when I had the technology.
Oh, wait. I'm typing on it now.

[Aristus]

7. Did you see that "people's forum" or whatever on C-SPAN the

other night? Man! They were really holding his feet to the fire! He nearly drowned in his own flop-sweat.

Sheesh, I wish the British would invade us and bring us democracy like they have.

:hide:

[MissB]

8. LOLOL

Just what America needs. A British invasion. :rofl: I love it.

[Bouncy Ball]

10. That's what I was talking about.

DAYUM.

Can you even imagine if we had that here with bush? Shit. It would last about 15 hours and he'd be torn up six ways to Sunday. He can't even speak in complete sentences, much less defend his evil shit.

[MissB]

12. He would be crying in the first minute.

"Mommmmmyyyyyyyy they're being mean!"

[Aristus]

17. "Now son, we talked about this:

You can't be thin-skinned if you want to be President; wouldn't be prudent."

[jeff30997]

13. Damn Boston tea party !

:)

[deadparrot]

9. I'm with you.

I wailed, "I wanna be British!" when I saw that.

[valis]

14. I was thinking the same this morning when they had an NPR

piece on that. They said the campaign is short, just a few weeks, not much money involved. And the candidates were questioned non-stop, often by regular folks! Oh my God, that is like a dream... What they hell is wrong with the US?????

[Left Is Write]

15. Oh, man.

I'm so tired my eyes crossed. I really thought that said, "I'm officially jealous of the Bitch."

[Bouncy Ball]

19. Oh, hon.

Time for bed for you!

:D

[valis]

16. Chimpy would not survive one day in Blair's shoes...

[Huckebein the Raven]

18. I like how the PM has to go before Parliment and answer questions

every week. I also love the jeers he gets from the MPs sometimes.

[Rabrrrrrr]

20. Yeah, instead of just being able to tell them what this week's "truth" is

he has to actually be accountable.

What a concept!!

[valis]

29. Damnit! We would NOT have Chimpy if that were the case.

Something has to change in the US...

[Bouncy Ball]

33. AMAZING!

:grr:

[tjwmason]

32. It's because we don't have separation of powers

This is one of the most central precepts of the American constitution, but is entirely contradicted in the British.

The executive is drawn from, and is accountable to the legislature. Parliament has the right to demand answers to any questions it has from the government, if the House of Commons votes that it has no confidence in H.M. Government (as happened last in 1979) then there has to be a new government (and in reality a new election would also be needed).

The P.M. answers questions weekly (it used to be twice per week, but blair changed that), but all government minister have to answer questions and each Parliamentary day begins with an hour of question time (the various departments taking it in turn). There are also the committees, although these have far less power than Congressional committees, every so often the P.M. will be questioned by a committee which is even more difficult as the questions can probe more deeply than is possible in a short question.

P.M.Q.s used to be more fun than it is now, it was formerly before lunch, and it was quite obvious than some of the members had imbibed a wee dram or so; now it's in the morning they're all sober which is a tad less fun.

[Bouncy Ball]

34. LMAO!!!

I'm tellin' ya, in a lot of ways, the British just know how to do things better.

Can you IMAGINE the US Congress questioning bush that way? WEEKLY?

Well, first we'd have to have some members of Congress willing to say more than "I just wanted to say I love you and want to have your baby even though I'm a man and that's physically impossible."

:eyes:

In other words, we'd have to REMOVE most members of Congress' heads from his ass first.

[NoPasaran]

22. But for all that

The British, who have a leader who lied his way into the Iraq War despite overwhelming public disapproval are a few hours away from returning him to power in a landslide. So their system has a few flaws too.

[Bouncy Ball]

35. Oh yes, most definitely.

I'm scratching my head at that. The level of anger I saw just on those short clips made me think "now there's a guy who won't win re-election" but he's going to!

:wtf:

[Swede]

24. We have the parliamentary system in Canada too.

Any member of Parliament can ask a question of any other member,this includes the Prime Minister and all his cabinet. No ducking out of it allowed.

[CottonBear]

25. Oh why are you jealous? Maybe it's because...

They have free and fair elections, national health care and a free press? What about their good public transportation, excellent schools and great beer?

Pfft. *sarcasm off* :cry:

[Anarcho-Socialist]

26. Canada's Question Period is cool too...

...someone on DU described it as "like the British House of Commons, but with a 2 drink minimum".

[Bouncy Ball]

36. Now THAT sounds cool, too!

I'd love to see that.

[Emops]

27. And even when their leader blatantly lies his way into war,

he still keeps the economy afloat. Jeez, could you imagine if Bush had even one redeeming quality?

[valis]

30. Chimpy could have kept the economy afloat.

He does not want to. The UK is gonna have to save us like we saved Europe.

[Bouncy Ball]

37. OMG I love that Dean poster in your sig!

[ComerPerro]

28. "Can you tell which one is Britain?"

That was painful...

And did you see how much Blair was sweating?

[CanuckAmok]

31. why? The Third World plumbing? The terrible dental work? The fried...

...everything? The sharp rocks which substitute for sand on Britain's beaches? The eye and kidney pies? The damp pastry? The warm beer? The choice of four television stations?

I can say that, because I'm British.

[Bouncy Ball]

38. The health care?

The ACTUAL freedom of speech?

I bet they have more to eat and drink than eye and kidney pies, damp pastry and warm beer (warm beer doesn't bother me, anyway).