What would YOU ask David Cameron in Public Prime Minister’s Questions?

Mile-wide: Mr Miliband explained his idea to bridge the gulf between the public and the Prime Minister to Andrew Marr.

Mile-wide: Mr Miliband explained his idea to bridge the gulf between the public and the Prime Minister to Andrew Marr.

Ed Miliband engaged in a particularly compelling piece of kite-flying today (July 27) – he put out the idea that the public should have their own version of Prime Minister’s Questions.

Speaking to Andrew Marr, he said such an event would “bridge the ‘mile-wide’ gulf between what people want and what they get from Prime Minister’s Questions”, which has been vilified in recent years for uncivilised displays of tribal hostility between political parties and their leaders (David Cameron being the worst offender) and nicknamed ‘Wednesday Shouty Time’.

“I think what we need is a public question time where regularly the prime minister submits himself or herself to questioning from members of the public in the Palace of Westminster on Wednesdays,” said Mr Miliband.

“At the moment there are a few inches of glass that separates the public in the gallery from the House of Commons but there is a gulf a mile wide between the kind of politics people want and what Prime Minister’s Questions offers.”

What would you ask David Cameron?

Would you demand a straight answer to the question that has dogged the Department for Work and Pensions for almost three years, now – “How many people are your ‘welfare reform’ policies responsible for killing?”

Would you ask him why his government, which came into office claiming it would be the most “transparent” administration ever, has progressively denied more and more important information to the public?

Would you ask him whether he thinks it is right for a Prime Minister to knowingly attempt to mislead the public, as he himself has done repeatedly over the privatisation of the National Health Service, the benefit cap, the bedroom tax, food banks, fracking…? The list is as long as you want to make it.

What about his policies on austerity? Would you ask him why his government of millionaires insists on inflicting deprivation on the poor when the only economic policy that has worked involved investment in the system, rather than taking money away?

His government’s part-privatisation of the Royal Mail was a total cack-handed disaster that has cost the nation £1 billion and put our mail in the hands of hedge funds. Would you ask him why he is so doggedly determined to stick to privatisation policies that push up prices and diminish quality of service. Isn’t it time some of these private companies were re-nationalised – the energy firms being prime examples?

Would you want to know why his government has passed so many laws to restrict our freedoms – of speech, of association, of access to justice – and why it intends to pass more, ending the government’s acknowledgement that we have internationally-agreed human rights and restricting us to a ‘Bill of Rights’ dictated by his government, and tying us to restrictive lowest-common-denominator employment conditions laid down according to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a grubby little deal that the EU and USA were trying to sign in secret until the whistle was blown on it?

Would you ask him something else?

Or do you think this is a bad idea?

What do you think?

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41 Comments

  1. Bill Kruse July 27, 2014 at 12:28 pm - Reply

    I’d ask him what the point is in government if he and others there are allowed to keep lying in response to questions.

    • GEOFF REYNOLDS July 28, 2014 at 9:58 pm - Reply

      “A QUESTION FOR JUSTICE HICKINBOTTOM, EX CHIEF SOCIAL SECURITY COMMISSIONER”

      “WHEN DID A SANCTION BECOME PREMEDITATED MURDER?”

      ANSWER/

      ……………..upon your last decision it would seem…….

      THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF A HIGH COURT JUDGE…………….

      TO HOLD THE POWER TO DECIDE WHO LIVES AND WHO DIES……….

      “GOD IN A POWDERED WIG”

  2. Mr.Angry July 27, 2014 at 12:33 pm - Reply

    Where you born a total b*****d or did you have legitimate parents?

    • Mike Sivier July 27, 2014 at 12:36 pm - Reply

      I think you might fall foul of the rules against personal insults there!

      • Mr.Angry July 27, 2014 at 12:41 pm - Reply

        Appreciated Mike just venting anger thankyou.

  3. Dave Rowlands July 27, 2014 at 12:39 pm - Reply

    I would simply want an answer to the question I asked.

    • Mike Sivier July 27, 2014 at 12:39 pm - Reply

      What question is that?

      • Dave Rowlands July 27, 2014 at 1:31 pm - Reply

        Not any particular question, but for a question to be answered. I have never seen a politician answer a question on PMQ that was put to them.

        Maybe my question should be “Why don’t you answer the question”?

  4. Nick July 27, 2014 at 12:43 pm - Reply

    it is a good idea and someone like myself who is long term ill and disabled should be the speaker impartial and for further protection unpaid so that I’m not in anyone’s pocket

    with the likes of skype i can get to see and hear everything so no need to get to the commons

    if that is Ed’s idea then good luck

  5. samedifference1 July 27, 2014 at 12:44 pm - Reply

    Why are you, the father of a disabled child, betraying disabled people and carers?

    • Nick July 27, 2014 at 3:50 pm - Reply

      indeed a good question ?

      maybe that’s the way people like David Cameron operate like the Syrian leader the Russian leader and the likes of all previous heads of government from Iraq and Libya ?

      all smilies on the outside but quite evil on the inside and if this is the case with David Cameron as i suspect it is then that would account for all of the turmoil that we see worldwide today

      i have probably hit the nail on the head first time as the logic from David Cameron is most transparent as to of had a disabled child who died and then go on to make life hell for other sick and disabled people is quite evil and only those named in this post would have done that and cant think of many others that would have done so

      well at least the country knows what David Cameron is like and the public now know first hand when it comes to voting at the next general election on what they wont for the future and I’m sure they wont him continuing with all of his lies and deceit since becoming the prime minister

      he will no doubt go down as the worse prime minister ever to have come about and will end up in years to come on the worlds worst despots league of tables not at the bottom thou that will be for the likes of Hitler but at the top of the despots league as the man who made sick and disabled people suffer year in year out with many dying as a result

  6. Well it might come as no surprise, that my question to Prime Minister Cameron is why he lambasts the 23 million over 50s in the UK.

    • Mike Sivier July 27, 2014 at 1:31 pm - Reply

      I’ve edited this again. You MUST keep your comments to the point. I refuse to stuff my comment columns with up to 20 paragraphs of material from you, most of which says exactly the same thing, time and time again.
      Or would you rather I blocked you from commenting altogether?

  7. Martin Waterhouse July 27, 2014 at 1:00 pm - Reply

    I would ask him: Why were the very institutions that assisted the government with the Royal Mail Privatisation, the one’s to benefit the most?

  8. Joanna July 27, 2014 at 1:04 pm - Reply

    I would ask, why he hasn’t sacked IDS and fester mcvile?

    ( though I wouldn’t use those names ). but then don’t all ministers have to do what the PM tells them to do?

  9. […] brilliant Mike Sivier informs us today that Ed Miliband would like to see a Public Prime Minister’s […]

  10. jaynel62 July 27, 2014 at 1:17 pm - Reply

    All of the above plus – How can a Government of the people introduce Polices they know will cause suffering and harm to the most vulnerable – “In developing the PIP assessment we were aware that the vast majority of recipients of DLA were individuals with genuine health conditions and disabilities and genuine need, and that removing or reducing that benefit may affect their daily lives. ” DWP

  11. aturtle05 July 27, 2014 at 1:30 pm - Reply

    I would ask: As your government has brought in the worst reforms in the Welfare System in history, reforms that have caused thousands to die, when will you resign, and remove yourself from politics forever?

  12. Florence July 27, 2014 at 1:58 pm - Reply

    I think the main questions, that come before all the important issues you list above, may include:-

    – are you and your cabinet followers of neo-liberalism & corporatism, and not one-nation toryism?,

    – can you please publish the full post-coalition manifesto you’ve been following, (as you say that the one used for electoral purposes was invalidated by the process of coalition and you’ve been trying to remove from the internet)?

    – can you show what the desired outcomes – specifically not generally – of the massive transfer of public assets to private hands, and of value (money & assets) from the lower 40% to the top 1% is within the (revised or electoral) manifesto?

    – do you agree with Osborne that the UK welfare state is / should be eradicated, as indicated by Osborne’s stated aim of returning us to the situation prior to 1948?.

    – what are your views on Social Darwinism, and how do they inform your governments policies?

    – will you publish a full list of commercial interests of the full government (all ministers, PPS etc) and their families, across the 2007 – 2015 period including consultancies and shareholdings in any company which have been paid by the state or have benefited from state asset transfer?

    – why is IDS still in charge of the DWP? Is that a vote of confidence by you for his actions, policies and implementation, and ability to manage a mega department AND it’s budgets?

    – would you have wanted you late son to be subject to mandatory medical treatments by non-medical personal not connected with his primary care and treatment, in order to receive benefits that you were entitled to claim, non-means tested, in full?

    There’s a taster of the shed load of questions I have!

  13. jaypot2012 July 27, 2014 at 2:13 pm - Reply

    Could you move out of government before next year when you get booted out?

    Or…

    Wouldn’t it be better to get the removal men booked for May 2015 now?

    Any other type of political question he wouldn’t be able to answer off the cuff, he has to have an adviser speak for him, or have the question asked hours earlier so that he has it written on a nice piece of card with the answer on.

  14. jaypot2012 July 27, 2014 at 2:14 pm - Reply

    Reblogged this on Jay's Journal and commented:
    What would you ask?

  15. sdbast July 27, 2014 at 2:14 pm - Reply

    Reblogged this on sdbast.

  16. Timmo July 27, 2014 at 2:15 pm - Reply

    I would ask: How many have died directly or indirectly as result of the coalition’s botched programme of welfare reforms?

  17. Thomas M July 27, 2014 at 2:36 pm - Reply

    I’d ask him-why are you ruining the lives of disabled people?

  18. Maria July 27, 2014 at 2:55 pm - Reply

    How can they go on making the vulnerable pay for the banking Crisis, and how can they still think of cutting public services when supposedly the age of austerity is over.

  19. Smiling Carcass July 27, 2014 at 3:02 pm - Reply

    Reblogged this on SMILING CARCASS'S TWO-PENNETH and commented:
    Most of the questions I would ask I know the true answer to- “because we are rich Tories who hate the poor with a vengeance.”

    But I suppose if I were pushed to ask a question it would be simply “why?”

  20. pat July 27, 2014 at 3:07 pm - Reply

    i would ask him- how can you sleep at night.

  21. beastrabban July 27, 2014 at 3:46 pm - Reply

    Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog and commented:
    Mike here comments on Milliband’s suggestion that the gap between public and political parties could be bridged by reforming Prime Minister’s Questions so that it’s the public who ask them, not the other politicians. It’s a great idea, and Mike and his commenters suggest some of the extremely hard questions that Cameron should have to answer. I doubt, however, that this reform will be put into practice. As Sir Humphrey would put it, I’m afraid the government of the day would find it far too ‘courageous’. The Tory press under Blair commented on how PMQs became very stage-managed under Blair, and I’ve no doubt this has continued under Broon and Cameron. Cameron definitely will not welcome this reform as it is, because it leaves him vulnerable to having to answer difficult questions from irate members of the public, who probably know more about the issue than he does. In the case of the practical effects of his disastrous policies on the unemployed and disabled, this is pretty much a given. If it did come in, it would be very, very carefully managed and slanted like Dimblebore on Question Time. No question so difficult that the Prime Minister could not give a trite answer would be accepted.
    I also doubt a radical reform of Prime Minister’s Question Time like this would be implemented through the low opinion of the High Tory political class to the general public. IDS has repeated whined that he is not going to release the information on the participants’ in his workfare programme, because this would make them unpopular with the public and so have a chilling effect. Ditto with the number of deaths from his policies. Cameron, RTU, Osbo and Fester McVile have the 18th century attitude that politics are for the responsible upper classes, and are not to be soiled with the presence of the labouring poor. They should know their place and obey their masters. They should certainly not be allowed to question them.

    • Mike Sivier July 27, 2014 at 4:10 pm - Reply

      I think the idea is for the public to have their own question time, in addition to the usual Parliamentary shouting match.

  22. Do either you or ids feel guilty when a disabled person,sick & terminally ill person(s) die due to you policy’s, also Cameron did you sacrifice your disabled child. to carry out your said policy’s, as we all know you being a millionaire you claimed every benefit available for him. IN MY EYE’S YOU DID, I HAVE NO PROOF,BUT IT SUCKS YOUR SON DIED, AND NEXT THING HUNDREDS HAVE DIED, THROUGH YOUR POLICY’S. ORDINARILY I’M SURPRISED THE POLICE WEREN’T CALLED IN. MAYBE JUST MAYBE AN PUBLIC INQUIRY SHOULD BE OPENED UP TO INVESTIGATE THIS. SOMETHING AN’T RIGHT, SORRY BUT THERE YOU ARE !!!!!

    • Steve July 28, 2014 at 6:49 pm - Reply

      Completely agree with you , it is the subject that will finish the Tories at the next election . Natural justice is much more effective than the court system !

  23. Mozart July 27, 2014 at 7:04 pm - Reply

    I would ask him a question, why can’t you answer one! Why are you allowing your government to persecute people with disabilities when you have first hand knowledge of what being disabled is like through your own son and your father. Oh I stand corrected, of course you haven’t had first hand knowledge, you had the money to help your son and your father was wealthy in his own right. Did you apply for disability benefit for your son? Remember now an answer is what one normally receives and should out of politeness provide..

    • Mike Sivier July 27, 2014 at 8:42 pm - Reply

      I can answer the last question for him: Yes he did, and he received it, too.

  24. amnesiaclinic July 28, 2014 at 4:12 pm - Reply

    Why are you not building much more social housing and providing proper jobs for people with proper wages???
    Why are you not scrapping austerity when every economist knows it doesn’t work????
    x

  25. A6er July 28, 2014 at 5:00 pm - Reply

    Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating.

  26. Steve July 28, 2014 at 6:38 pm - Reply

    I would ask him , how he “feels” about restricting and censoring the internet specifically for “esoteric” content and how this is somehow relatable to child porn?.It is my “feeling ” that it is not the child porn issue at all but the “esoteric” content he and the shadowy elements of power in this country want to suppress. Simply because
    the power of such “esoteric ” knowledge is a real threat to the powerhouse at the seat of this sick and corrupt vessel we call the UK .

  27. Steve July 28, 2014 at 6:57 pm - Reply

    I would also ask him to be honest and talk freely about what is it, that Ian Duncan Smith , has on him that stops him from sacking said sociopath ?

  28. Bill Kruse July 28, 2014 at 8:17 pm - Reply

    Me again; I’d ask him who it is that he and Osborne report to. It’s blindingly obvious that he’s in place because he’s without conscience and can lie fluently if not well, and Osborne is malleable being unable to tie his shoelaces without a support team. so, then, whose orders is it they’re following? A member or members of the Establishment obviously, but who exactly, which ones?

    • amnesiaclinic July 29, 2014 at 11:37 am - Reply

      Follow the money! Not hard to join the dots although it does take a little research but not much!
      x

      • Steve July 29, 2014 at 3:03 pm - Reply

        I think it all resides very near to the palace of Westminster, we are a democracy in no sense of the word, in reality .

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