Backbench MPs wishing to ask a question must enter their names on the Order Paper. The names of entrants are then shuffled in a ballot to produce a random order in which they will be called by the Speaker of the House of Commons. The formal question on the Order Paper is to ask the Prime Minister if he will list his engagements for the day, after which the MP may ask a supplementary question about any subject which might occupy the Prime Minister's time. The Leader of the Opposition is allowed six supplementary questions (which he will normally use as two groups of three), and the leader of the third largest party (currently the Liberal Democrats) has two. The Speaker tries to alternate between government and opposition questioners, and MPs who have drawn a low number or did not enter the ballot can get called in order to provide this balance.
If the Prime Minister is away on official business then a substitute, usually the Deputy Prime Minister, will answer questions. It is customary on these occasions for the Leader of the Opposition also to send a substitute.
Since the televising of Parliament "PMQs" have formed an important part of British political culture. Because of the natural drama of this confrontation it is the most well known piece of Parliamentary business. Tickets to the public gallery for Wednesday are the most sought after Parliamentary tickets. One of Tony Blair's first acts as Prime Minister was to replace the two 15 minute sessions, held on a Tuesday and Thursday, with a single 30 minute session on a Wednesday, a move for which he was criticised.
The small PMQs that I and others have built seem to perform at least as well as their more distinguished cousins, in fact, I harbor an uneasy notion that they might actually be better casters.
Particularly as, in the PMQ, we are cementing the rod together across the less dense material of the inner pith, who knows, we might even more than pick up the weight difference we have assumed we have lost there, in additional glue penetrating the porous central material of the section.
So the builder who embarks in the PMQ direction will obstruct their achievement of far more meaningful weight advantages to be achieved by hollow building techniques, at the cost of retooling for truly superior (and demonstrable) weight advantages.
As was the case at 2 Wing Grostenquin, the PMQs were arranged in a square, with long four story buildings that were identified with terms such as "A Block", "G Block" etc.
Assorted photos of the PMQ area at North Luffenham - 1997.
Assorted photos of the PMQ area at North Luffenham - 1954.
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