What goes on in the British House of Commons?

Question

I was flipping through the channels and came across CSPAN where the British House of Commons was in session. Some dude or lady approaches the table and says something, a bunch of people yell, then Tony Blair responds. What is going on here?

Answer 1

The house of commons runs rather differently to the senate or house of representatives. You probably saw prime minister's questions, this is what is most often put on TV as it occurs for half an hour every Wednesday.

Backbenchers (people not 'minister of' whatever) have to put their names in a ballot box to be randomly chosen by the speaker if they want to speak - or they have to stand up and catch the speaker's eye. In PMQ they ask the prime minister some form of question - this is usually greeted by cheers from their party and boos from the other if especially cutting. The prime minister will then answer, again to cheers and boos. The speaker will usually alternate between inviting someone of the government to speak, and then someone of the opposition.

The leader of the opposition may ask 6 questions per session, and the leader of the secondary opposition may ask 2.

Most of the MPs will often try to outwit or ridicule the opposition, and the sessions are often quite lively and one of the best attended, both by MPs and the public.

Answer 2

From what I understand, it is similar to the Congress in the U.S. but in some ways more open to verbal sparing. The House of Commons is made up of MP's (Members of Parliament) that have been elected by the people (i.e. "common"), as opposed to the House of Lords which consists of MP's that have inherited their political status. What you saw was probably a debate concerning a law or political question or situation. Each "side" or party has a chance to say their peace and then the opposing side gets a chance to rebut (I'm not sure how many times it can go back and forth). That's about all I know. Someone else can fill in the blanks or correct what I got wrong :)