Ed Miliband rather effectively made the argument at prime minister’s questions about why David Cameron should be kicked out of office. Cameron breaks his promises. By the standards Cameron set himself he has failed. He has not eliminated the deficit, raised living standards or cut immigration to the extent he said he would.
And Miliband had his members of parliament lined up afterwards to make the same attacks, including Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) who asked a short but effective question. ‘Is the prime minister proud of the fact that in this parliament he has added £430bn to the national debt which is more than all the Labour chancellors this century [Dennis is still living in the 20th century, so please forgive him]. He can’t blame Labour for that.’
‘Oh yes I can!’ replied Cameron, which is all you need to know about pantomime politics.
Back to broken promises. This riff was repetitive and it worked. It was good because Miliband is not a bully like Cameron. When Cameron chants, ‘wrong, wrong, wrong’ with his MPs behind him, it is unattractive. Miliband was more deadly.
‘The prime minister said earlier this year – ‘woe betide the politician who makes big promises and then says oops I didn’t achieve them? Can he tell me any promises that he hasn’t kept?’
And then Miliband told us about some of the broken promises. I think he might have broken a big promise recently on immigration, he said. The prime minister said: ‘’If we don’t deliver our side of the bargain vote us out in five years’ time.’ Did he mean it?
Cameron retaliated by saying that Labour had increased immigration as a deliberate act of policy.
So he did mean it, said Miliband. ‘Throw him out because he broke his promise. He made a solemn promise and he broke it.’
At the nurses’ conference before the election, said Miliband, Cameron had promised there would be: ‘No pointless top-down reorganisation of the NHS’. Mr Speaker, when he said it, did he mean it?’
In his manifesto Miliband said, the prime minister had said he would create an economy where living standards would rise steadily. ‘When he said it, did he mean it?’ Cameron wriggled again and talked of tax cuts and an increase in the minimum wage. Then he used a putdown which is what he does when he is in a hole: ‘We know that Mrs Brown’s boys was a comedy. Mr Brown’s boys was a tragedy.’
Miliband was on it: ‘He’s obviously revisiting the David Mellor school of charm recently. He made a solemn promise to improve living standards and he broke it.’
Then the deficit. ‘The prime minister said he would balance the books in five years’ time. When he said it, did he mean it?’
Cameron said the deficit was down by a third: ‘I can’t reveal what’s in the chancellor’s autumn statement. In a moment or two he will be looking as awkward as when he ate that bacon sandwich.’
He’s failed, ended Miliband, by his own standards and on every promise he’s ever made. ‘When he says it, he doesn’t mean it!’
We know this attack was effective because it basically sent Cameron mad for the rest of prime ministers’ questions, bigging up the economy with a certainty that seemed fantastical and worthy of a dictator who refuses to see what is actually happening to his people. Cameron was forced to retrench so much that the attack served to make clearer the parallel universe in which those with riches like Cameron and his chums live.
Cameron, and again this is a pattern of behaviour that he probably should be seeing a therapist for, also went into full horrid public school mode. He wanted to attack Ed Balls. Balls, he said, had declared that Labour would be ‘’tough on the deficit and tough on the causes of the deficit’. As he is the cause of the deficit I think we’ve seen the first ever case of political maso-sadism (sic).’ The House was in uproar. The speaker said: ‘Order order we all know what the prime minister meant.’
Then came a perfectly reasonable question from a Shropshire Tory MP about the glories of Shrewsbury and its new university. But Cameron wanted to make a correction.
‘I meant to say “masochism” … normally I say, the shadow chancellor likes to dish it out but can’t take it. After this quote, he obviously quite likes to take it too.’
Yuck.
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Sally Gimson is a journalist and Labour councillor in the London borough of Camden. She tweets @SallyGimson
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Photo: UK Parliament