Who won? Score draw: Ed with an early lead, Cameron equalising late in the game. Ed has led the charge of those who feel moral outrage at the News International hacking revelations, with considerable skill.
He began PMQs apparently resolute to sound concerned, gracious and determined – and he did.
When Cameron sidestepped a question regarding his then chief of staff’s knowledge of alleged phone hacking prior to the general election, Ed potently replied ‘He just doesn’t get it’. It felt at this stage that Ed was going to walk this one.
The Cameron comeback was swift, his line that the public are more concerned with the bigger picture: media malpractice, police corruption and accompanying political acquiescence, hit the spot. His comment ‘they search our bins and you don’t complain’, addressed to both the House and himself was pitch perfect.
Cameron is beginning to give the impression that he is digging at the root of the problem; Ed needs to be careful not to be seen to be hacking at the leaves.
Best question?
The man of the hour, Tom Watson MP, who no doubt got the same brief as Ed (sound concerned, gracious and determined), asked what might appear to be a game changing question. He wanted to get Cameron to enquire as to whether relatives of 9/11 victims, or victims themselves, could have had their phones hacked. This question could have repercussions for Murdoch across the Atlantic; unusually Britain could sneeze and give the United States a cold.
Best joke?
It all got a bit panto, with the speaker shouting ‘order’ followed by the house jeering in response: this continued until the speaker realised that something was afoot – a wry smile giving away the fact he was in on the joke. We will miss him over the summer.