Pmqs

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Not so flash, Dave

The papers report this morning that David Cameron has been urged by his aides to be more polite to his opponents at PMQs or risk playing into the Flashman stereotype of him as a cocky public school bully. Now, as with all advice about making PMQs a calmer affair (remember how Cameron pledged an end to Punch and Judy politics), this is easier said than done. The confrontational atmosphere of PMQs means that it is hard for those involved to resist a withering put down or to meet insult with insult. But if Cameron does learn to rein himself in, it will be a triumph for his new chief political

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans

A session of Dickens, Ernie the Milkman and Jack Dromey

There was an eerie, eve-of-battle calm about today’s PMQs. The real bust-up isn’t due till Friday. The votes will be in, AV will be out, Clegg will be down and Huhne will be calculating his next move. Before today’s session everyone expected Labour to co-ordinate an ambush and try to light Cameron’s ever-combustible fuse. But the chamber was under-populated and the opposition hadn’t troubled to devise a battle-plan. Miliband carried the fight to the PM. With an assured forensic performance he methodically built up the case against Cameron as a promise-breaker, a question-dodger and a budget-slasher. Cameron dealt with the assault by absorbing rather than repulsing it. But at the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A very quiet exchange

PMQs today was dominated by the parties trying to get their lines out ahead of the voting on Thursday. David Cameron accused “Labour local authorities of playing politics with people’s jobs” and urged voters “not to let Labour do to your council, what they did to our country.” He received plenty of chances to make his local election case as Tory backbenchers served up one patsy question on councils after another. Ed Miliband jibed that the coalition was no longer two parties working together in the national interest but “two parties threatening to sue each other in their own interest,” a reference to Huhne’s hyperbolic threat to sue over the

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 4 May 2011

VERDICT: A sedate sort of PMQs today, particularly in comparison to the fizz and fire of recent sessions. The reason is simply the date: with the local elections tomorrow, much of the emphasis was on making a straightforward pitch for votes. Miliband’s was to attack the “broken promises” of the coalition — a charge that, if not exactly new, is one he is deploying more and more. Whereas Cameron’s was to emphasise that councils can make cuts while improving services — and that Tory councils have been particularly successful in doing so. Both men broadcast their messages today, without really scarring the other. The winners and losers will be better

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans

What a carve up | 27 April 2011

Blimey. That was a weird one. PMQs was trundling merrily away when the house was suddenly engulfed in a whirlwind of insults and accusations. Even now the row rumbles on across the blogosphere. Cameron arrived at PMQs looking genial and well-sunned. Quite a contrast with his sallow-faced opponent. Perhaps Ed Miliband’s bookish ways have kept him in the reading-room during the heat-wave while Cameron was roaming his herbaceous borders uprooting dandelions and other troublesome yellow-heads. The session began with the usual blend of opportunism and hypocrisy. Miliband demanded to know why economic growth has flat-lined in the last six months. Cameron lighted on a more favourable set of figures –

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Temper, temper

I have rarely heard the House as loud as it was after David Cameron’s ‘calm down, dear’ put down to Angela Eagle. The Labour benches roared at the Prime Minister and Cameron turned puce, while the Liberal Democrats looked distinctly uncomfortable. There is already a rather over-blown debate going on about whether the remark was sexist or not. But whether or not it was, it was certainly ill-judged. It was a tad too patronising and directing it at one of the more junior members of the shadow made it seem bullying. The Labour benches were heckling Cameron more than usual today, a result of him losing his rag with Ed

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 27 April 2011

VERDICT: To paraphrase that famous football cliché, this was a session of two halves. Cameron put in a confident performance against what should have been the trickier set of questions: on the economy. But when it came to Ed Miliband’s second topic of choice, the NHS, it all went suddenly awry. The PM’s arguments were unusually messy and convoluted, lost in themselves. And he only made matters worse with his Winner-esque exhortation at a Labour frontbencher, “Calm down, dear!” You can argue whether it was sexist of the PM, or not, particularly as it’s not clear whom the remark was aimed at (although the smart money’s on Angela Eagle). But

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans

Mundane duties interrupt Field Marshal Cameron

Cameron was at pains to disguise it, but his impatience finally gave way at PMQs today. What a contrast with the last 24 hours. The nemesis of Gaddafi, the terror of Tripoli, the champion of the rebels, the moral conscience of the West, the world’s latest and greatest international tyrant-buster had to return to earth, and to the House of Commons, to deal with enterprise zones, disability benefits, carbon trading price structures and all the belly-aches of the provincial grockles who put him where he is. What a chore. Ed Miliband had a pop at him on police numbers. The Labour leader asked a clear and simple question. ‘Will there

James Forsyth James Forsyth

An explosive session

This PMQs will be remembered for the Cameron Balls spat. As Cameron was answering a question from a Labour MP, he snapped at Balls who was heckling him, shouting ‘you don’t know the answer, you’re not properly briefed, why don’t you just say you’ll write to her’. A visibly irritated Cameron shot back, ‘I wish the shadow Chancellor would shut up and listen for once’. At this the Labour benches erupted, their aim at PMQs is always to get Cameron to lose his temper and they had succeeded. Cameron then produced a brilliant comeback, saying that Balls was ‘the most annoying person in British politics’ and ‘I suspect that the

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 30 March 2011

VERDICT: What happened there, then? The Prime Minister often has a confident swagger about him when it comes to PMQs — but today it went into overdrive. He simply couldn’t conceal his glee at taking on Eds Miliband and Balls; the first over his appearance at the anti-cuts demonstration, the second for just being Ed Balls. It was a little bit Flashman from the PM, perhaps. Yet, on this occasion, it also helped him sail through the contest more or less untroubled. Aside from the theatrics, the serious talk was reserved for whether the coalition should help arm the rebels in Libya. The PM’s official position was that we shouldn’t

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Danny Alexander’s duty

In the aftermath of the Budget, the Lib Dems were keen to let it be known that the idea of a windfall tax on North Sea oil companies to pay for ending the fuel duty escalator was Danny Alexander’s idea. But, as Andy Sparrow notes, this claim has ended up causing them some problems. In the chief secretary’s native Scotland, where the Lib Dems are already worrying about a humiliating set of election results on May 5th, the idea has not gone down so well as it has south of the border. The Scotsman reports,  that Lib Dems in Scotland have been scornful of the move. The Lib Dem MP

Friday

James Forsyth

Welcome revisions to IPSA’s rules

If you want to get an MP going, just ask them what they think of IPSA — the new expenses watchdog. The body is hated: when Cameron joked at PMQs this week that it should be relocated to Croydon there was laughter across the House. IPSA is regarded as rude and inefficient. When Tory MPs were in a particularly grumpy mood before Christmas, David Cameron went to the ’22 and promised that IPSA would either have to mend its ways or be mended. Today’s revisions to the rules by IPSA (£) will go some way to addressing the concerns of MPs. The old rules only allowed children to be treated

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans

Dave’s rave

Friskier than a spaniel. That’s how Cameron seemed at today’s PMQs. The Gadaffi debacle has given him a Falklands bounce – prematurely one senses – and he was glowing like freshly made toast from the praise lavished on his performance on Monday. He seemed to want to share the good cheer with everyone else, even his opponents, and he offered thanks to Ed Miliband for his contribution, ‘which I thought was extremely powerful.’ Miliband sensed that attacking Cameron today would be like serving a writ on a man at his birthday party. He tried to pester the PM for ‘removing the mobility element from DLA’ but Cameron cut him down

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 23 March 2011

1232: And that’s it. And here’s my quick verdict: a solid performance from Cameron is what was, on the whole, a sedate session. The Main Event starts now, follow our live blog here. 1228: More fire from Cameron on the NHS. “Do you want to save … lives,” he quivers,” or do you want to stick with the status quo.” The PM’s rhetorical confidence in this area is striking, particularly given that it is one of his most criticised policy areas. 1226: Matthew Hancock questions why the Labour government used PFI contracts to build hospitals, when there were better value alternatives. The Tories have spent the past few days emphasising

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans

An alternative PMQs

With Libya in metaphorical meltdown and with Japan close to the real thing, it was remarkable how little foreign affairs impinged on PMQs today. Ed Miliband led on the NHS and facetiously asked if Cameron planned any amendments to his health bill following the LibDem spring conference. Cameron replied by accusing Labour of wasting £250m on phantom operations. Would he apologise for this scandalous blunder? Miliband, unsurprisingly, declined even to acknowledge the invitation. The session developed on these familiar, solipsistic lines. Keen to harry the PM on bureaucracy Miliband stumbled on a Cameron quote decrying ‘pointless topdown re-organisations’ of the NHS. He pulled it up by the roots, shook off

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Rattled Cameron battles through PMQs

A testy PMQs today with Miliband trying to pin Cameron down on the specific question of whether the NHS is now subject to EU competition law, and Cameron responding by dubbing Miliband ‘son of roadblock’. The exchange revealed that although Cameron is not a details man, something that will cause him problems in time, he still has enough presence in the chamber to withstand tricky moments. But I suspect that Labour will be happy if Miliband’s parting shot of ‘you can’t trust the Tories on the NHS’ makes it into the news bulletins this evening. There were, as there so often are these days, a couple of questions from Tories

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 16 March 2011

VERDICT: A more evenly-matched PMQs that we have been used to, with both leaders parrying and thrusting to some effect. Miliband’s chosen topic — the NHS — was a surprise, particularly given today’s unemployment figures and the persistent flurry of bad news from abroad. Yet it did open up a clear divide between him and Cameron. On one side, the Labour leader claiming that the the coalition is taking undue risks with a beloved health system. On the other, the PM painting Miliband as Brown Mark II, a roadblock to reform and change. Neither side really won, or lost, the argument today, but you can expect them to return to

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans

A tasty contest

Today’s PMQs was full of verve and bite. A welcome change after last week’s washout. It’s all getting a bit tasty between Ed and Dave. The Labour leader opened with Libya and after making ritual noises about wanting to support the government’s foreign policy he admitted he found it hard not to voice his ‘concern about incompetence’. Nice tactics there. Pose as a statesman and stick the blade in under the table. But Cameron wasn’t standing for it. ‘I don’t want to take a lecture from Labour about dealing with Libya and Gadaffi,’ he said furiously. And the cheers from the Tory benches redoubled when he called for Labour to

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 9 March 2011

VERDICT: A turgid sort of PMQs, where most of the quips were clumsy rather than cutting. Cameron probably won it by virtue of one of the few direct hits – his line about Ed Miliband knifing a foreign secretary, aka MiliD – and because Miliband failed, really, to prod and aggravate the coalition’s wounds over Libya. The Labour leader’s main attack – over the competence of the coalition – was clear enough, though, and could have some purchase depending on, erm, how competent the coalition is. As it is, Cameron’s hint that he still has the occasional cigarette will probably capture the spotlight. 1231: And that’s it. My quick verdict