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Prime Minister's Questions really isn't the holding-to-account airing of issues that we all hope it should be.
It's something we've just accepted over the years, that MPs will bleat from benches and turn genuine inquiries into an opportunity to smear and spout the party line.
It's a tiresome show, but this week it reached new heights of ridiculousness when David Cameron decided to take a potshot at Nigel Farage by calling his name 'poncey'.
Ben Bradshaw, Labour MP for Exeter, asked the prime minister:
With the United Kingdom facing our most momentous decision for a generation in eight weeks time, does the prime minister think it makes more sense for us to listen to all of our closest friends and allies around the world or a combination of French fascists, Nigel Farage and Vladimir Putin?
Cameron replied:
I'm glad he takes the English pronunciation of Farage, rather than the poncey foreign sounding one that he seems to prefer. I think it's a thoroughly good thing.
Cameron then continued to answer the question, saying that one would be hard pressed to find an ally of the UK that would advocate anything other than remaining in the European Union.
What most people have focused upon is his joke, which Cameron had hoped for, but mostly due to his use of the word 'poncey', which he probably didn't hope for.
The definitions of the word, commonly recognised as a homophobic slur, make for uncomfortable reading when you realise it was just used by a prime minister in parliament:
Most of politico-Twitter jumped on it early:
Many had reservations about their prime minister using that kind of language:
Even comedian Al Murray got involved, telling the PM to back off from his Farage-mocking turf:
And now we're at the point that it seems Nigel Farage is in the right:
I mean, how did we get to this? Really?
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