Miliband fails to connect

Easy-peasy at PMQs today. All Ed Miliband had to do was slice open the Coalition’s wounds on Europe and dibble his claws in the spouts of blood. But his attack had no sense of bite or surprise. And his phraseology was lumpen. He used all six questions gently stroking the issue of Europe rather than driving a nail through it. 

He asked about growth. He asked about the ’22 committee. He asked about Nick Clegg’s “smash-and-grab” phrase to describe the repatriation of powers. He asked about the social chapter. He asked about everything he could think of, and it was clear he couldn’t think of the right thing to ask. At the climax he sounded like a nursery-assistant scolding Cameron for “pleading not leading” on Europe. Desperately flaccid oratory. 

The desire to seem statesmanlike did for him. He was simply overwhelmed by a barrage of skilful, and thoroughly unprincipled, parliamentary tactics.