Playing to a packed house

I have seldom seen the chamber so packed. Brown got his apology in early, thanks to a planted Labour question. In the Brown-Cameron clash, Brown scored a good hit, saying Cameron had proposed cuts on HMRC in the Tory 2005 James review – singling out data processing. Labour loved it.

Cameron hit back, with today’s soundbite for tv: “He tries to control everything, but can’t run anything”. Brown responded by parroting his oft-vented lines about having run the economy—he didn’t, he just taxed it—low interest rates, employment etc. His words were drowned out by cheers – but they were Tory cheers. Labour were silent. Both had the sense that this economic jargon is the only song Mr Brown can sing. And it won’t get him out of this mess.