Do as I say, not as I do

News item: Jack Layton seeks more civility in Parliament

winnipegfreepress.com/local/ … 16094.html

Academic study from McMaster University on the civility issue finds Mr. Layton the least civil in debate in Parliament.

news.nationalpost.com/2011/05/31 … dex-finds/

And flexing their Parliamentary muscle, the NDP seek eviction of long time Liberal MP from his office

theglobeandmail.com/news/pol … le2041287/

Let the discussion begin, but please, please can’t we all just get along.

The National post article talks about negitivity not civility. While I couldn’t find the study online, I suspect that the study looked at the words used during the questions.

Incase people don’t know how question period works MPs, including government MPs, ask questions (through the speaker) to the cabinet. For this reason MPs opposed to what the government is doing will generally be more negitive than those in support. The more they are opposed to (or rather the further they are on the political spectrum from) the government, the more negitive they will be, which is why you see the government MPs with higher scores (which is considered a good thing in this study) whereas the liberals, being more centrist, have a more median score, and the NDP MPs having the lowest score.

Also, when you have fewer MPs than everyone else (like the NDP did in the last parliment) you get less time in the spot light, which means you have to make an impression.

[quote=“Wynn”]The National post article talks about negitivity not civility. While I couldn’t find the study online, I suspect that the study looked at the words used during the questions.

Incase people don’t know how question period works MPs, including government MPs, ask questions (through the speaker) to the cabinet. For this reason MPs opposed to what the government is doing will generally be more negitive than those in support. The more they are opposed to (or rather the further they are on the political spectrum from) the government, the more negitive they will be, which is why you see the government MPs with higher scores (which is considered a good thing in this study) whereas the liberals, being more centrist, have a more median score, and the NDP MPs having the lowest score.

Also, when you have fewer MPs than everyone else (like the NDP did in the last parliment) you get less time in the spot light, which means you have to make an impression.[/quote]

Your hamsters must be getting very tired having to put that much spin onto this story!

Other than calling it spin do you have any actual criticism, or is that the sum of your argument?