Constable: “What is going on?”

Sometimes it would be better for the reputation of our Parliament if there was a little less time allocated to debate.

I know that sounds like I’m advocating for less accountability. I’m not.

Of course there should be enough time for everyone willing and able to contribute meaningfully to do so, but the fact is for various reasons, Members are often told to draw out (waste time) discussion. Sometimes this happens for very clever strategic reasons and other times it is as simple (and disappointing) as there not being enough business being ready to transact.

Beside the raw cost of operating an inefficient Parliament, the biggest problem of Members treading water is that after a little while, they tend to start arguing with themselves. Sounds odd, but when humans are asked to speak for 20 minutes on a particular topic ...

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