An ill-tempered exchange

The first PMQs of the year was a bad tempered affair. The Prime Minister had clearly decided that attack was the best form of defence, hurling insult after insult across the despatch box. He accused Ed Miliband of being a ‘nothing man’, told him that his Shadow Chancellor can’t count and that he doesn’t count and mockingly brought up Miliband’s brother.

But Cameron didn’t do anything to politically detoxify the bonus issue, which is going to carry on haunting this government, note that Lloyds — partly state owned — is going to award its boss a £2million pound bonus. Miliband also scored when he pointed out just how different Cameron’s pre-election rhetoric on bankers was to the reality of what the government is actually doing.  

One interesting thing to watch is that the questions from Tory backbenchers were far less patsy-ish this time round. There were proper questions on union laws, local health closures and air and sea rescue.