SNP's New Crop Of MPs Blast 'Ridiculous Shambles' That Is Prime Minister's Question Time

New SNP MPs Really Didn't Enjoy Their First PMQs
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Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) on Wednesday looked like a very different landscape to the party leaders' final clash just weeks before the General Election.

Familiar faces had been struck from the Labour frontbench, Nick Clegg ousted from his perch beside the Prime Minister, and one less Ukip MP was seen tailgating on the so-called 'rebel's bench'.

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Top: Balls, Miliband, Harman. Bottom: Creagh, Harman, Shuker

But perhaps most strikingly of all was the large contingent of new SNP MPs, many of whom dutifully filed into the Commons chamber on Wednesday to witness their very first PMQs from the vantage point of those famous green benches.

A large number were left more than unimpressed though, and wasted no time in telling their tens of thousands of Twitter followers exactly what they thought of the big event.

Some branded the proceedings as "infantile" while others rubbished David Cameron for being "a bully".

One newbie, Gavin Newlands, who overturned a more than 15,000 Labour majority in his Paisley and Renfrewshire North constituency, committed the ultimate social media faux-pas, accidentally tagging his commentary with #FMQ (First Minister's Questions - the equivalent of PMQs in the Scottish Parliament).

But while the latest Scottish additions to the Commons chamber seem scathing in their criticism of PMQs, SNP members are by no means the only MPs with a disdain for the weekly parliamentary proceedings.

Sarah Champion, the re-elected representative for Rotherham, told the BBC on Wednesday she felt PMQs had become "a screaming pantomime".

Labour's Stella Creasy and Ian Austin followed suite and also quickly weighed into the debate:

Even David Cameron has previously said he finds the whole setup a "nightmare".

But this isn't the first time SNP MPs have clashed with ancient Commons cultures.

Many of the new intake were reprimanded for rallying against Parliamentary procedure, first for clapping in the chamber, then for posting selfies taken in Westminster on their Twitter profiles, and finally for attempting to uproot veteran Labour MP Dennis Skinner from his spot on the 'rebels bench'.

They even managed to cause a stir after Mhairi Black, the 20-year-old who ousted former shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander from his Scottish seat, was snapped eating a chip buttie.

Scandalous.

We've got the definitive list of ways the new Scottish parliamentarians are defying, what one called, "eighteenth century" traditions.

SNP cause a stir at Westminster
Causing a kerfuffle: Clapping in the chamber(01 of06)
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While clapping is not banned, it is traditionally something members do not do, and are scolded by the Speaker for. But that certainly hasn't deterred MPs from north of the border. All 56 of them broke into "rapturous applause" after one session, according to Glasgow North West's Carol Monaghan. Simon Burns, a Tory MP, said of one recent culprit clapper that their actions had been "totally unacceptable". Oo-er! (credit:PA)
Shocking standards: #SNPselfie(02 of06)
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The Commons chamber played host to a smattering of selfies after the arrival of #Team56 (SNP MPs self-identifying twitter handle) but managed to cause quite a stir in the process. In between Roger Mullin posing for a photo "pretending to be prime minister" and snapping a quick shot with Kirsty Blackman and Neil Gray, he and other Scottish parliamentarians managed to upset a fair few of their fellow members. The picture perpetrators were allegedly told off for behaving like children. Oh dear!
Appalingly in attendance: Those pesky debaters(03 of06)
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While these sorts of graphics are not always the best representation of how active or involved an MP is in fulfilling public office, you certainly can't criticise the SNP for their time given to scrutinising proposed bills. Those who decried the party for not having a mandate in Westminster should take heed of the fact that they seem the only large party left in Parliament up for a good old-fashioned verbal jousting.
Sickening seat stealing: Skinner ousted from his perch(04 of06)
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One of Labour's longest serving MPs had a face-off with a rogue Scottish newbie and it certainly wasn't pretty... The SNP member Pete Wishart ousted Dennis Skinner from his space on the far-right of the so-called 'Rebels Bench', the closest an opposition MP can be to the Prime Minister without being in the shadow cabinet. But conniving Labourite Kevan Jones outflanked the Scot, RE-reserving Skinner's place during the daily evacuation for a police sniffer dog search at 1pm. "Wishart was furious," he claimed.
Scandalous sandwich choice: Chip butty causes uproar(05 of06)
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Some media went into meltdown when Anne McLaughlin posted a picture of her rookie colleague, Mhairi Black, about to tuck into a hearty meal - none other than one of the nation's favourites, a chip butty. The Westminster and media establishments were well and truly shaken by the revelation that somebody in Westminster could be eating such a carb-heavy meal, it seems. Even the notion...
Preposterous photobombing: SNP park their tanks on Labour benches(06 of06)
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In a bid to 'photobomb' acting leader of the opposition, Harriet Harman - and only on their first day - Mhairi Black and her party's colleagues took over Labour's usual places on the second row of benches. It caused quite a stir among indignant MPs, that opposition members were sitting - er... - on the opposition benches. So having ousted Labour from tens of seats in Scotland, the SNP added insult to injury by then expelling their rivals from the benches in Westminster. Oh dear...