PMQs: Wednesday 16 October
With around ten minutes to go, the PM arrived. He put his glasses on and sat, legs crossed on the Government front bench in a dark grey suit, underlining things in the folder on his lap in black ink. He removed his glasses, which have narrow lenses, almost half-moon, and chewed one of the arms. The House was full and loud already, so that the Speaker had to call for calm during Northern Ireland questions.
Cameron talked to his colleagues who were seated about him. Opposite, the Labour front bench was empty. With five minutes to go, Ed Miliband was not in place. It is a familiar pattern. Ed likes to leave it late. Five minutes to go. Then four—still no Ed. Three...
And then at 58 minutes past the hour, the Labour leadership arrived in one dramatic thump on the Opposition front bench: Miliband, Balls, Alexander, Harman.
Both sides were charged up today. Cameron rose and began by giving thanks for the England football team, which had qualified for the World Cup. The House boomed its approval. Football is very popular in Westminster. Uncertain politicians often use it as a subject of last resort.
Paul Blomfield (Sheffield C) asked about payday lenders and whether they were adequately regulated and the PM said that the question of a cap on charges was being investigated. Liam Fox, the former Defence Secretary then asked about the Guardian newspaper and its treatment of the intelligence leaked to it by Edward Snowden. Fox wondered why some members of the Opposition were so exercised about phone hacking by journalists, but relaxed about intelligence leaks. It was a clever question. Fox will be back.
Then came Ed. He stood and delivered a hooray for football, which netted him a broad mumble of approval, though not as loud as that of the PM. He began by welcoming the recent fall in unemployment, and at that, the Government benches erupted. But isn't there a "cost of living crisis?" shouted Ed through the mooing of the Government MPs. To this, the PM replied by listing the precise details of the falls in unemployment. At length. Throughout, the Labour benches shouted at the PM "cost of living!", but on he went, saying that tax cuts and growth are the only way to raise the standard of living. The Government was delivering both.
Ed countered by claiming that living standards were falling and energy bills rising, to which the PM responded by pointing out that youth claimant count is down by 79,000 since the last election and 1m more people are in work. "Whose side is he on?" shouted Ed in reply. "The side of hardworking families," answered the PM. Ed, agitated, asked whether the PM was on the side of companies or the consumer in opposing the energy price freeze which Ed had proposed in his Conference speech. The PM said that if it was such a good idea, why hadn't he done it when he was in government? "He hasn't got a credible economic policy," bellowed the PM.
For all the talk of freezes, the temperature in the Chamber had risen substantially by this point. Ed had become agitated, gesticulating expansively, shouting at the Prime Minister, bending his body into the Despatch Box, modulating his voice well beyond the bounds of rhetorical necessity. In five years, said Miliband, the PM's energy policy had gone "from 'Hug a Husky' to 'Gas a Badger'."
It was meant to be the clinching zinger of the debate and Miliband delivered it at full power. But the effect was not quite that which he intended. In the press gallery, a journalist in front of me slumped forwards and banged her head onto her notepad, overawed by the sheer ghastliness of the line. She banged her head on the pad approximately four times. Others in the gallery shook their heads and shielded their eyes, wanting to be elsewhere and to escape the embarrassment of the joke gone flat, perhaps the greatest of all the faux pas.
The PM stood and remarked on Ed's "tortured performance," saying that he led a "hopeless opposition," a pair of comments that brought Ed to full anger, such that when he stood to shout that the PM was "in total denial about the cost of living crisis," the Government benches emitted a loud, goading "ooooooh!"
Cameron once more listed what he saw as the failings of the previous Labour government, and throughout this downpour of blows, Ed smiled and even chuckled, arms folded, legs crossed. He tilted his head one way and then another. As the PM fielded more questions from the House, he listed several times the weak points of Labour's economic record, and when he suggested that disposable income was increasing, the two Opposition Eds—Balls and Miliband—shook their heads in disbelief, mouths agape at what they were hearing. Miliband looked at Cameron and laughed—though not comfortably. By the end of the session, it was clear the PM had won the exchange. The economic numbers, for now, appear to be on his side.
With around ten minutes to go, the PM arrived. He put his glasses on and sat, legs crossed on the Government front bench in a dark grey suit, underlining things in the folder on his lap in black ink. He removed his glasses, which have narrow lenses, almost half-moon, and chewed one of the arms. The House was full and loud already, so that the Speaker had to call for calm during Northern Ireland questions.
Cameron talked to his colleagues who were seated about him. Opposite, the Labour front bench was empty. With five minutes to go, Ed Miliband was not in place. It is a familiar pattern. Ed likes to leave it late. Five minutes to go. Then four—still no Ed. Three...
And then at 58 minutes past the hour, the Labour leadership arrived in one dramatic thump on the Opposition front bench: Miliband, Balls, Alexander, Harman.
Both sides were charged up today. Cameron rose and began by giving thanks for the England football team, which had qualified for the World Cup. The House boomed its approval. Football is very popular in Westminster. Uncertain politicians often use it as a subject of last resort.
Paul Blomfield (Sheffield C) asked about payday lenders and whether they were adequately regulated and the PM said that the question of a cap on charges was being investigated. Liam Fox, the former Defence Secretary then asked about the Guardian newspaper and its treatment of the intelligence leaked to it by Edward Snowden. Fox wondered why some members of the Opposition were so exercised about phone hacking by journalists, but relaxed about intelligence leaks. It was a clever question. Fox will be back.
Then came Ed. He stood and delivered a hooray for football, which netted him a broad mumble of approval, though not as loud as that of the PM. He began by welcoming the recent fall in unemployment, and at that, the Government benches erupted. But isn't there a "cost of living crisis?" shouted Ed through the mooing of the Government MPs. To this, the PM replied by listing the precise details of the falls in unemployment. At length. Throughout, the Labour benches shouted at the PM "cost of living!", but on he went, saying that tax cuts and growth are the only way to raise the standard of living. The Government was delivering both.
Ed countered by claiming that living standards were falling and energy bills rising, to which the PM responded by pointing out that youth claimant count is down by 79,000 since the last election and 1m more people are in work. "Whose side is he on?" shouted Ed in reply. "The side of hardworking families," answered the PM. Ed, agitated, asked whether the PM was on the side of companies or the consumer in opposing the energy price freeze which Ed had proposed in his Conference speech. The PM said that if it was such a good idea, why hadn't he done it when he was in government? "He hasn't got a credible economic policy," bellowed the PM.
For all the talk of freezes, the temperature in the Chamber had risen substantially by this point. Ed had become agitated, gesticulating expansively, shouting at the Prime Minister, bending his body into the Despatch Box, modulating his voice well beyond the bounds of rhetorical necessity. In five years, said Miliband, the PM's energy policy had gone "from 'Hug a Husky' to 'Gas a Badger'."
It was meant to be the clinching zinger of the debate and Miliband delivered it at full power. But the effect was not quite that which he intended. In the press gallery, a journalist in front of me slumped forwards and banged her head onto her notepad, overawed by the sheer ghastliness of the line. She banged her head on the pad approximately four times. Others in the gallery shook their heads and shielded their eyes, wanting to be elsewhere and to escape the embarrassment of the joke gone flat, perhaps the greatest of all the faux pas.
The PM stood and remarked on Ed's "tortured performance," saying that he led a "hopeless opposition," a pair of comments that brought Ed to full anger, such that when he stood to shout that the PM was "in total denial about the cost of living crisis," the Government benches emitted a loud, goading "ooooooh!"
Cameron once more listed what he saw as the failings of the previous Labour government, and throughout this downpour of blows, Ed smiled and even chuckled, arms folded, legs crossed. He tilted his head one way and then another. As the PM fielded more questions from the House, he listed several times the weak points of Labour's economic record, and when he suggested that disposable income was increasing, the two Opposition Eds—Balls and Miliband—shook their heads in disbelief, mouths agape at what they were hearing. Miliband looked at Cameron and laughed—though not comfortably. By the end of the session, it was clear the PM had won the exchange. The economic numbers, for now, appear to be on his side.
