Brown pummelled in PMQs

With four more troops dead in Afghanistan, the campaign in Helmand led PMQs. Gordon Brown wished to pay tribute, and I’m afraid it did not go well. “The freedoms that we have in Britain are in no small part due to the fact that we have taken on the Taleban in Afghanistan and refused them to allow to break the democracy of Afghanistan,” he said. Garbled nonsense: I agree that the cause in Afghanistan is noble but in what way are British freedoms “due” to the Afghan campaign? I’m not even sure what Brown was trying to say. Paying tribute to the military does not come naturally to him, as we all saw. Cameron looked almost sorry for Brown as he drowned in his own words. “I thank him for his reply,” he said before moving on to Europe.

Lisbon is today’s hot topic and Cameron had a few good lines cooked up.