This country has no opposition

In the minutes before PMQs, my mind always turns to what I think the Government should be grilled on. Every week, I am disappointed.

Every Wednesday, I sit down to cover Prime Minister's Questions. In the minutes before, my mind naturally turns to what I think the Government should be grilled on. Every week, I am disappointed.

This shows one of two things; either I am the only person asking these questions, or the gulf between parliament and people has returned to that of the broken parliament under the May premiership.

With each week that passes, it becomes more glaringly apparent that there is no effective opposition in this country.

A rather slow week of news kept Johnson's opening remarks brief, before the first few questions were fielded; on local government funding and wind power.

The main event kicked off as Keir Starmer took to the dispatch box. He opened with a challenge to the Prime Minister to tackle the vaguely put 'disinformation' within the cabinet. The exchange quickly turned to sparring, as Starmer accused Johnson of dodging questions, and Johnson came back with digs at the Labour manifesto, again.

This weeks face-off ostensibly served as Government accountability in motion, yet it was more of the same. Starmer seems incapable of questioning the severe ramifications of lockdowns. Starmer shares the same folly as the Government — the single-minded approach of throwing money and expertise at the issue without addressing the root cause.

Ian Blackford of the SNP once again highlighted himself as a thorn in the Government's side, but not for the right reasons. Bizarrely, Blackford accused the government of returning to Cameron-era spending cuts, despite government spending being at a post-war high.

Johnson again faced soft questions from his own party. The most egregious example this week came from Suzanne Webb, who wasted parliamentary time to essentially offer the Prime Minister a takeaway.

Interestingly, Ed Davey represented the Liberal Democrats with a timely question on China, which was answered sheepishly. It was welcome to see, but no where near redemption for the party.

The realisation that bothered me this week was the omission of any questions relating to ‘vaccine passports’, a policy which could easily devolve into outright and legalised discrimination against those unvaccinated for any reason.

Going into next week, I hope to see questions from lockdown sceptics in the Tory party, such as Sir Desmond Swayne or Sir Charles Walker. Though — again — I am expecting more of the same.