Who won?
Whether through sheer force of volume in the chamber or a largely middle-class media, the ConDems’ message that the ‘mess is all Labour’s fault’ and hence the savage cuts coming are ‘unavoidable’ is gaining traction. The electorate has been given the apocryphal ‘tune to whistle’ that every party needs to succeed – even though the notes were barely spelt out before the election and on much the Lib Dems were singing an entirely different song.
So going into PMQs this week, just one day after a budget that was tilted heavily in favours of cuts, away from tax as a means of carving a fairer exit out of the situation and into growth, the wind remained in the government’s sails. Cameron is clearly feeling in command of the house and protected by his honeymoon period, but he should take careful note of the Labour MPs’ questions. Many of them heralded the issues of the future, issues of people’s pockets and daily lived experience.
But for now the prime minister stands at the despatch box sweeping away unsavoury questions with ‘it was all Labour’s fault’ and ‘why didn’t you do anything about it at the time’, borrowing the typically Thatcherite plotline of ‘clearing up Labour’s mess’.
Harriet Harman was right to dig into the detail of the budget’s plans, questioning where the money will come from to pay for bringing forward the relinking of pensions to earnings (promised by Labour for 2012) and pointing out how the VAT rise will hit pensioners who won’t benefit from the raising of the tax threshold. She niftily pulled the rug from under George Osborne’s claim to be open and honest ‘breaking his promises before he’s even sat down’. Harman has been doing well against a PM still riding the crest of a wave and is tenacious in pursuing her points.
Best backbencher
Karen Buck’s straightforward question of whether there will be fewer police officers by the end of the parliament is the sort of thing Cameron is able to dance around for now but which he will have to face up to with proper answers in the coming time. In a similar fashion today we had Anne McGuire’s deftly placed statistic on what proportion of the richest and the poorest’s income is eaten up by VAT, and Fiona Mactacggart’s persistence in asking the prime minister to publish tables on child poverty in the years after the budget’s current red book.
Best comment, question or joke
David Cairns got a good laugh when asking about Sky News as an ‘excellent source of impartial news for more than 20 years’. Cameron seems to have overdosed on Star Trek DVDs of late, making another reference to the series today, after last week attacking Harriet Harman over how she was dressed (for looking like a member of a Star Trek convention), this week referring to Star Trek and black holes. Without wanting to advise Cameron, I would say he needs to watch his tongue and his temper. Haughtily questioning whether Harman had read the ‘red book – or should I say unread book in her case?’ and laying into ‘dupes’ makes him look unstatesmanlike and liable to turn on anyone – including, presumably, his own ‘dupes’.
Photo: UK Parliament