Who won?

Luke Akehurst: Unfortunately Cameron. He was on top form today – very relaxed, good humoured and assured. The general tone of PMQs was all very reasonable and amicable which is quite strange given the genuine anger in Labour circles about the coalition’s cuts. I don’t detect the personal animosity between the two principals now that was there between Brown and Cameron, and Cameron treated Harriet’s concerns about short sentences for perpetrators of domestic violence with respect.

Rob Chesworth: I think honours were even between HH and DC this week, although as much as it pains me to say it, I think DC was the slicker of the two once more. They both opened with fitting tributes to the 5th anniversary of the 07/07 bombings, HH in particular commending the valiance and bravery of the emergency services.

Their exchanges were almost wholly centred on crime today – HH’s inference was that the government’s brutal cuts would ultimately lead to less police on the streets at the end of this parliament. One of HH’s better moments was when she clearly, pointedly asked him if police numbers would fall by the end of the parliament, having hitherto alluded to the PM’s propensity to dodge questions on the subject. Predictably DC didn’t give a firm commitment on police numbers, choosing to open with a line about “difficult choices lying ahead” – rather reinforcing Harman’s point that he is increasingly adept at not, in fact, answering questions.

A misstep from HH on short sentencing was rebuffed by Cameron who accused her of reading the headlines rather than the lord chancellor’s speeches – claiming that the government were in agreement that abolition of all short sentences would be a step too far, indeed favouring short sentences for domestic violence.

There was a bit of a furore when DC said crime numbers had risen under the Labour government, and of Labour’s protestations he said David Miliband was ‘flapping furiously’.

HH had another great line about the virtue of listening to your mother over your new partner – in reference to Cameron’s mother (who is a magistrate) versus his new partner – Clegg. Clegg once again sat there, sort of limp, lifeless and ultimately pointless – in fact I thought the Lib Dems may as well have been absent from PMQs today and their negligible influence on today’s proceedings must have a reasonable amount to do with Clegg’s continued presence atop Cameron’s shoulder.

HH returned to her recurring theme of panning the Lib Dems whenever the opportunity arises, citing their campaign pledges to protect frontline services and increase police numbers by 3,000 – only to note that neither of these pledges would in fact be acted upon as their influence on policy is seemingly ineffectual.

Cameron really should drop the line about cleaning up ‘Labour’s mess’, be it about the economy or crime stats – it’s contrived, a little trite and pretty much entirely the opposite of the new politics he spent the entire campaign harping on about. I referred last week to the vitriol with which he addresses the opposition; this was less evident in today’s exchanges but it crept in at times when he wasn’t talking about his mother and keeping himself in check. His affronted smugness was probably offset by HH fluffing a couple of her lines, I’d say DC’s slickness usually means he has the better oratory platform – again this was the case today.

Conor Pope: A few weeks ago I pondered in one of these posts whether the old style of PMQs, shouting and point-scoring, was over. Harman seemed intent on asking real, policy-based questions and Cameron, God bless ‘im, was doing his best to be a real prime minister and answer them.

I fear I may have been wrong. Every Wednesday it starts out all rather jovially: questions are asked, then answered and some jokes are made. But by about ten minutes in, week in, week out, all of that goes out of the window and we’re back to the old ways. Harman, in the end, is not very good at joke delivery and so shouldn’t bother – despite this common belief that has been held since Hague’s days as leader of the opposition, it really isn’t that important. Often the jokes feel like a wasted question, allowing Cameron to move off topic (which he’s prone to do) and scream about Labour “hypocrisy”. Cameron has a real knack for one-liners, but since he became PM they seem to mask a certain unpleasant sneeriness to them. The point I really noticed this today was when he made a joke about Gloria De Piero moving from the GMTV sofa to the green benches. It sounds like nothing now, but when I watched I couldn’t help feel there was some ulterior nastiness to it.

Nothing in it today, as much as I’d love to give it to Harman by default. Perhaps they were all nursing hangovers.

Best backbencher

LA: Jim McGovern – a good question about the impact on the computer games industry in his Dundee seat of the abolition of the tax break for it. Cameron didn’t have a coherent answer. Chuka Umunna was very good too – a really heartfelt question about the stabbing of a teenager in his seat, which provoked a serious and non-partisan response from the PM.

RC: Not so much a question but a statement – Chuka Umunna made a wonderfully composed tribute to 15 year old Zac Olumegbon who was tragically stabbed in a premeditated and planned attack in his constituency this week. I thought his statement was excellent, and he ended by asking the PM respectfully what his government would do to ensure that no more teens were added to the tally of 13 dead in the capital already this year. Cameron’s response I felt was equally well composed; citing the short term objective on punishing harshly those that carry knives alongside the long term goal of tackling gang culture within communities.

Angela Smith also made a great statement, seeking an apology from Cameron for what she called ‘attacks’ from members of the government frontbench on the chief executive of Sheffield Forgemasters – she also mentioned that this gentleman was highly regarded and had received a lifetime achievement award recently from the Institute of Directors. Cameron fluffed his reply, disagreeing with her and saying that Forgemasters didn’t represent value for taxpayers money.

Finally Michael McCann paid homage to Sgt Jamieson of his constituency, who recently returned from Afghanistan as an amputee. McCann implored DC to stay in Afghanistan until the job was done and asked the PM to join him in paying tribute to real British heroes like Sgt Jamieson. My greatest plaudits for Cameron are reserved for his excellent and robust statement on Afghanistan, he artfully married a tribute to Sgt McCann with his firm stance on troop withdrawal by 2015. Interestingly the exchanges between Liam Fox and Bob Ainsworth after PMQs on policy in Afghanistan were worth watching if you can find the time.

CP: Chuka Umunna gave an impassioned account of the death of his constituent Zac Olumegbon, who was stabbed on his way to school last Friday. To see him deal with it in such a tender way was touching, especially after Cameron had been looking to make political ground out of violent crime and gun crime “almost doubling” under Labour (and the statistics I’ve seen wouldn’t support this) and wailing about MPs having to wear “stab-proof vests”.

Of course, I’m not for a moment claiming that Cameron’s response was anything but heartfelt, but perhaps he should be more careful about what he uses his Radio 4 comedy panel show voice for in future.

Best question, answer, comment or joke?

LA: I enjoyed the repartee about Cameron’s magistrate mum and short jail sentences. Harriet urged Cameron to “not listen to his new partner, listen to his mother” and Cameron shot back with “the short sentences handed out from the Newbury bench by my mother were mainly to badly behaved CND protesters outside Greenham Common”.

RC: Really scraping the barrel this week as nothing particularly entertaining took place. Harman said Ken Clarke looked miserable and her quip about Cameron listening to his mother over his new partner Clegg was quite good also. She made a remark about Alan Budd and the OBR which would’ve been ok had she not fluffed it. DC hit back on HH’s claim of government reducing police numbers with a brilliant Alan Johnson quote from his time as home secretary, but other than that there was nothing particularly memorable in the humour stakes.

CP: For me it was Speaker Bercow stopping Cameron quoting from Lance Price’s book. I know Tories are going mad about this but it’s abundantly clear that he should have been stopped. If I cared what it said in Lance Price’s memoirs I’d read it myself. What happened to “answering questions straight”? Or did I miss Harman asking you if you’d kindly quote something from a book that’ll get your backbenchers waving little bits of paper?

Actually, if she did I’m going to look like an idiot.