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British MPs have a long tradition of yelling whoooooo (see this question).

Are they unique in doing so? Even the Scottish parliament seems more... conventional.

Edit: I've noticed that even at Westminster they only do this during plenary sessions (or whatever they call it when they're in the famous room), not during committee meetings in other rooms.

Edit 2: I'm interested in parliaments where such behaviour is traditional and conventional, not in situations where parliamentarians have recently started fighting but such is not considered acceptable behaviour.

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  • The term "plenary session" isn't really used in connection to the UK parliament. I think the relevant language would be "sitting of the House", but politics may be second only to food in terms of lacking a universal glossary.
    – origimbo
    Commented Jun 27, 2017 at 20:16
  • @origimbo And Westminster in particular needs, and probably has, an entire dictionary of its own (three line whip!). Edited my edit.
    – gerrit
    Commented Jun 27, 2017 at 21:04
  • "Whoooo"? They say "hear, hear".
    – cja
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 16:49
  • @cja To me it sounds like a nondescript primate shout, but you could be right.
    – gerrit
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 16:51

2 Answers 2

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Similar behavior (or worse) occurs in South Korea, Bolivia, the Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Nigeria and Guatemala. Also, Uganda, Japan, India, Turkey and Taiwan. Pie in the face attacks are part of the political tradition in Canada and France. (Also, obviously, almost all of the yelling occurs in the local vernacular language and not in British English).

In contrast, decorum is remarkably strictly maintained in New Zealand.

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  • But do they have a culture of it, or is it just recent rowdiness? The Brits have been doing so for, I suppose, the best part of the past 1000 years.
    – gerrit
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 0:35
  • @gerrit Many of these countries have only had national parliaments since after WWII or later. In Canada, some of this conduct dates to the 1960s (per the link). Also, many have alternated between authoritarian and democratic regimes over the course of the 20th century. I do believe that this is part of the current parliamentary culture in many of these countries. But, the line between tradition and innovation is tough to draw in relatively young regimes.
    – ohwilleke ♦
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 0:44
  • I'm aware that not many countries have the opportunity to have a near-1000 year old tradition, but even when a parliament is only 20 years old that is enough for yelling to be either weird or locally normal :)
    – gerrit
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 0:52
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The Australian house of representatives is (quoting wikipedia) " notoriously rowdy, with MPs often trading colourful insults."

See a recent parlimentary session https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1rN4d_urEo

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