Daily Junction.mobi portal<p>Prime ministers often say they want to change aspects of PMQs. Burnham himself has indicated that he wants a different, less Punch-and-Judy tone. Back in 1997, Tony Blair made the move from two shorter sessions a week <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/news/05/0521/questions.shtml">to one longer one</a>. Blair said he wanted a more considered approach, with more questions and more answers. Whether prime ministers get what they want, of course, is not entirely down to them. They may get the last word, but they don’t control the cast.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/291084/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
<p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/paula-keaveney-259027">Paula Keaveney</a>, Associate Tutor in Politics, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/edge-hill-university-1356">Edge Hill University</a></em></span></p>
<p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/andy-burnhams-first-pmqs-heres-what-we-learned-from-this-bloodless-affair-291084">original article</a>.</p> </div>