Paul Goodman makes several good points here about how speeches have changed in the House of Commons Chamber. I have always been in favour of shorter speeches and presentations. Long speeches are usually the result of a lack of planning and message/outcome focus.
I think MPs should only give way selectively – and only after they have made substantial progress through their speech. Otherwise, they risk losing track of where they are and losing momentum in their speech. Not to mention that their speech makes less/no sense and loses its impact when constantly interrupted. This is all the worse when some of the interjections are not on substantive points nor do they add anything to the debate other than increase the speaking record of the MP concerned.
MPs should stick to the maxim of only saying something when they have something to say. And maybe we should judge them on the quality of their words – not the number of their words.
