Christopher Hitchens provides an exquisite description of the British political tradition known as question time:

Harold Macmillan, who was perhaps the most outwardly urbane and unflappable of the whole postwar Tory generation, once confided that he often had to go and vomit with nerves before entering the crowded chamber of the House of Commons for prime minister's questions. There's no script. The handlers can't come in there with you. There's no warning of the real question, because the topic can easily be concealed inside an ostensible or pretext question. There's no defense against a crisply worded follow-up. Nobody can become prime minister, or continue as prime minister, who cannot stand up to it.

Anyone who's ever seen question time can testify to what utterly mesmerizing spectacle it can be. Imagine how many fireworks there would be watching a US President taking on question time with Congress. It'll never happen, of course, but political junkies can always dream.