Who won?

Who would have thought one month on that we’d still be debating the budget? Yet Ed’s questions today focused on the tax cut for millionaires paid for by millions of pensioners and families up and down the country and the potentially massive hit that charities will face if the government goes ahead with plans to limit tax relief on philanthropic donations.

Unfortunately Cameron didn’t want to answer any of these questions. He attacked Ed for not asking about the unemployment figures, which show a measly drop in overall unemployment in the three months to February 2012 (although there are still 172,000 more people unemployed now than there were at the same time last year, and the long-term trend suggests unemployment will continue to rise). Ed hit back that only this prime minister would be celebrating with over one million young people still out of work.

By my count Cameron answered four of Ed Miliband’s questions with a quip about Ken Livingstone’s taxes and refused to confirm whether four million pensioners will lose over £300 per year as a result of his budget, or that families with children will lose £500 per year from this month as a result of tax credit and child benefit changes.

A win for Ed I think.

Best question, answer, comment or joke?

Difficult this week. Cornwall Lib Dem MP Steven Gilbert asked why people should pay VAT on pasties but not caviar. I think Cameron is going to have a problem with coalition MPs from the south-west who aren’t going to let this one go. Bristol MP Kerry McCarthy contrasted wealthy donors paying hundreds of thousands of pounds for dinner with Cameron with lines at soup kitchens because thousands of families can’t afford to feed themselves as budgets are squeezed and food prices continue to soar.

Anas Sarwar’s joke about everyone’s favourite punchline, Nick Clegg, clinched it for me. In a question about youth unemployment and the deputy prime minister’s lauding of the youth contract, he said: ‘Isn’t the deputy prime minister his broken arrow – he doesn’t work and the prime minister can’t fire him?’

Best backbencher?

David Blunkett asked a very important question about the astonishing decision by Northern Ireland’s attorney-general to dust off archaic and defunct laws about the criticism of judges in order to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Peter Hain for remarks he made in his memoirs about Lord Justice Girvan. Blunkett asked the prime minister to agree with him that respect for the judiciary should be balanced alongside freedom of speech. Cameron seemed to agree with Blunkett.

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Kevin Peel is a councillor on Manchester city council and tweets @kevpeel