Question time…

I AM very concerned about the future of my country.If you are British, I am sure you are too.

Don’t you despair at the ineptitude, intransigence, lack of judgment of our leadership and of so many of our politicians? I find it deeply depressing and extremely dangerous.

I watched PMQs a few weeks ago and I find a disturbing connection between the shambles in parliament and the shambles in handling Brexit.

I feel that the Speaker is ineffective in introducing any discipline into this chaotic House. He allows constant interruptions, howling and braying. Every time a question is posed half the members jump up and down like jack-in-a-boxes. And I should have thought that the whole purpose of PMQs is for questions not merely to be asked but seriously and truthfully answered by the Prime Minister.

Whenever I have watched the procedure (about six times a year), this doesn’t happen and the Speaker just lets it go.

This may be why the whole farce is not known as “Prime Minister’s Answers”. There never is a straight answer and the Speaker seems content to preside over an unruly assembly.

Or is Westminster intended as a comedy show? I recently saw the First Minister of Wales sworn in by somebody dressed as Santa Claus wearing a judge’s wig.

Then there is the Black Rod charade, where members get excited like children at a pantomime. Likewise we have the unconvincing practice of “dragging” the Speaker to the chair. It’s all rather like a primary school play. And these are the people who govern our country. Some of them negotiate with politicians in Brussels.

Theresa May described herself as a “bloody difficult woman”. Let’s say “incredibly obstinate woman”. Her selfish arrogance in insisting on “my deal or no deal” places the UK in a potentially calamitous situation.

And what can possibly be “undemocratic” about having a People’s Vote on the implications that have been clarified over the past 30 months? How can it be a betrayal of the electorate when those who vote now would be substantially the same people who voted in 2016, with the former 16-18 age group replacing the since deceased. Don’t the voters have every right to change their minds now that we have a clearer idea of what we are voting for?

Most Brexiteers that I speak to do not consider us as Europeans and have never been interested in our neighbours. They can’t name a single opera of Verdi or Wagner and have never heard of Helmut Schmidt, Cezanne, Umberto Eco or Antonio Banderas.

They are more familiar with bagels and the Boston Tea Party than mozzarella or Ciudadanos. This is very different from many Europeans’ familiarity with British history and culture.

Finally, what hope would we have in the future, competing with the EU, when we can’t even handle our own Brexit?