How cool is your nation´s parliament?

[Buck Birdseed]

Ours must be one of the duller ones I think. It's so dull that several MPs plan their maternity/sinck leaves to co-incide with the plenary session.

[VetLegion]

Croatia - very dull.

I am envious of the Japanese / Korean / what have you parliaments where they know martial arts and fight all the time. I could watch that!

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by VetLegion
Croatia - very dull.

I am envious of the Japanese / Korean / what have you parliaments where they know martial arts and fight all the time. I could watch that!

Yeah, saw that too. I just hope some things are still decided per voting there....

[Japher]

I wanted to show everyone how cool Texas state leg. is, but it's so hard to get pictures of them as they are always running away...

I did, however, find one of the "four horsemen", leaders of their fine state:



And one from a few years back, things really haven't changed a whole lot:

[SlowwHand]

Those pictures are very significant to our State history.
Thank you so much, Japher.
You're ok.

[Whaleboy]

Northamptonshire County Council

[Monk]

Every member of is able to use our parliament as a platform from which the so-called §20-questions on any issue can be presented to a relevant minister. I guess it's generally okay, but unfortunately, it allows for absurd situations to arise. On August 19 last year, one of the countless bright heads that constitute the Danish People's Party called upon the Minister of Justice to personally answer the question of whether or not there was any news regarding the recent abduction of Skipper the dog. The Minister of Justice.

[Chilean Presidentâ„¢]

Chile's parliament is boring... they never fight like in the Asian countries

Although the building is pretty.

[Q Classic]

the us congress is usually boring. we don't have big fights like we did in the good ol' 19th century days, when rep. brooks beat the **** out of sen. sumner over some slavery thing. with a cane.

http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/The_Caning_of_Senator_Charles_Sumner.htm

May 22, 1856
The Caning of Senator Charles Sumner

Cartoon Depiction of the Caning of Charles Sumner (New York Public Library)

On May 22, 1856, the "world's greatest deliberative body" became a combat zone. In one of the most dramatic and deeply ominous moments in the Senate's entire history, a member of the House of Representatives entered the Senate chamber and savagely beat a senator into unconsciousness.

The inspiration for this clash came three days earlier when Senator Charles Sumner, a Massachusetts antislavery Republican, addressed the Senate on the explosive issue of whether Kansas should be admitted to the Union as a slave state or a free state. In his "Crime Against Kansas" speech, Sumner identified two Democratic senators as the principal culprits in this crime -- Stephen Douglas of Illinois and Andrew Butler of South Carolina. He characterized Douglas to his face as a "noise-some, squat, and nameless animal . . . not a proper model for an American senator." Andrew Butler, who was not present, received more elaborate treatment. Mocking the South Carolina senator's stance as a man of chivalry, the Massachusetts senator charged him with taking "a mistress . . . who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight -- I mean," added Sumner, "the harlot, Slavery."

Representative Preston Brooks was Butler's South Carolina kinsman. If he had believed Sumner to be a gentleman, he might have challenged him to a duel. Instead, he chose a light cane of the type used to discipline unruly dogs. Shortly after the Senate had adjourned for the day, Brooks entered the old chamber, where he found Sumner busily attaching his postal frank to copies of his "Crime Against Kansas" speech.

Moving quickly, Brooks slammed his metal-topped cane onto the unsuspecting Sumner's head. As Brooks struck again and again, Sumner rose and lurched blindly about the chamber, futilely attempting to protect himself. After a very long minute, it ended.

Bleeding profusely, Sumner was carried away. Brooks walked calmly out of the chamber without being detained by the stunned onlookers. Overnight, both men became heroes in their respective regions.

Surviving a House censure resolution, Brooks resigned, was immediately reelected, and soon thereafter died at age thirty-seven. Sumner recovered slowly and returned to the Senate, where he remained for another eighteen years. The nation, suffering from the breakdown of reasoned discourse that this event symbolized, tumbled onward toward the catastrophe of civil war.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Of the UK parliament, I think Robin Williams summed it up brilliantly (if slightly exaggerately) with this following fictitious exchange:

"And furthermore, I would like to say-"

"PISS OFF!" "SHUT UP!" "OFF THE FLOOR!" "TOSSPOT!"

"...please remove Mrs. Thatcher from the room."

[Whaleboy]

@ AC

[ravagon]

Well, all in all, I rather doubt that any European Parliament comes anywhere near as close to entertaining as a number of their counterparts in Asia.

Which nation was it that had the great punch-up a year or two ago?
Japan, Thailand? I don't quite remember...

[The Andy-Man]

Naive as I am, I think the major concern in a parliament shouldn´t be that a plan for new law or something else comes from the government or the opposition, but perhaps if such a plan makes sense.....

Radical idea

[Alinestra Covelia]

ravagon - last year in summer 2003 the Japanese Diet had a punch up. There was an off topic thread started to commemorate the occasion.

[Kuciwalker]

Didn't Taiwan start the whole fistfighting thing?