It was always going to be much ado about nothing today, wasn’t it? With the NHS bill passing yesterday, Ed was left without a leading theme for this week’s questions. He couldn’t lead with the budget, because parliament hadn’t heard it yet (no matter that the Treasury has leaked more this week than a bucket with a hole in it).
Today’s biggest show was of course George Osborne’s latest prognosis so it was a good opportunity for a break from the usual PMQs partisanship. Ed’s first batch of questions prompted good answers from David Cameron on Afghanistan, who repeated his commitment to a 2014 combat end-date.
For both the sake of parliament and the future of our role in Afghanistan, the break was welcome. Ed chose an issue on which much cross-party agreement exists, which is good for the health of our democracy. We should be proud of our role in Afghanistan, but now the planning must turn to how best to leave behind a country with the political settlement its basic human rights deserve.
There were still the usual bad jokes and comments (they really have to stop if the leadership wants to appear above the politics the public hates), and Ed was better after the budget, but by leading on international issues he has used his opportunities in the Commons well today, staving off criticism that he cannot appear statesmanlike.
For their part, the government benches were attempting to whip up support for some of the already leaked measures in the budget. Lots of rhetoric on British manufacturing and lip service to the public sector made for uncomfortable viewing from the opposition benches, but the usual line of blaming the last Labour government for the financial crisis showed just how little credibility the Conservative party has for their own arguments.
The session only really livened up when Labour’s MP for Ogmore, Huw Irranca-Davies, regaled the chamber with an anecdote about a fellow passenger on ‘the bus on the way to the Commons’. That member’s very public-friendly choice of transport aside, the point he made about Ken Livingstone’s promised fare cuts tripped Cameron up slightly. By getting in a dig about tax, Cameron reminded us he is ‘Teflon Dave’, but there are hints that the PM can let his guard down.
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Alex White is a member of Progress, writes for the Young Progressives column, and tweets @AlexWhiteUK
Our role in Afghanistan has been a complete failure, as forecast by all the experts. Ed should now support withdrawal and then concentrate on not getting the UK into another such mess!
well no, not if talks with the Taliban can be achieved and some say this this has drawn nearer.Not helpful when you hear British soldier say on telly last night about Afghani soldiers that “they are inherently lazy”well go to any council estate here and he could say the same of young men lounging around with no society to go to
or formerly in Ulster where they were being forced to pick a side unless heroin could be their pacifism. A pipe line to bring gas from Kazakhhstan has probably always been the reason,the deal which naturally had to include the Taliban was only signed at the end of 2010. If you have a pipeline oil/gas it has to be secure ,look at Nigeria for example where the oil pipe line gets broken into . The Taliban are not likely to hold gas to ransom in the way say Somali pirates have done with oil ,we hope.