Category Archives: PMQs

PMQs: The importance of Doncaster, almost to the exclusion of everything else

By Paul Walter | Published 26th January 2012 - 12:56 pm

At Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, David Cameron and Ed Miliband first clashed on the subject of economic growth (or, indeed, contraction). That entanglement was, more or less, a score draw. But Ed Miliband was much stronger during a later exchange on the NHS reform bill, culminating with this belter:

I shall tell the Prime Minister what is happening in the NHS: waiting lists up, morale down. What does the majority-Conservative Select Committee on Health say about his reorganisation? It says that it will be a “disruption and distraction that hinders the ability of organisations to” release savings.

Let us be frank: this

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Tagged david cameron, economy, ed miliband, eleanor laing, malcolm bruce, NHS, sir robert smith | 3 Comments

PMQs: Miliband hoist by his Balls’ petard

By Paul Walter | Published 19th January 2012 - 8:24 am

Let’s start with what Ed Balls, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor said in the Guardian on January 14th:

My starting point is, I am afraid, we are going to have keep all these cuts. There is a big squeeze happening on budgets across the piece. The squeeze on defence spending, for instance, is £15bn by 2015. We are going to have to start from that being the baseline. At this stage, we can make no commitments to reverse any of that, on spending or on tax. So I am being absolutely clear about that.

So, it was something of a surprise when Ed …

Tagged andrew george, david cameron, david hamilton, economy, ed balls, ed miliband, tessa munt, unemployment | 15 Comments

PMQs: Opposition leader asks: “Can I agree with the Prime Minister”?

By Paul Walter | Published 12th January 2012 - 9:25 am

2012′s first Prime Minister’s Questions started with a bit of a score draw about rail fares. It got rather heated as Ed Miliband said the government had allowed fares to go up by 11%. He said:

The last Labour government saw that the train companies were taking advantage of consumers…we took away that power from them

David Cameron retorted that:

The power (to increase fares well above inflation) was given to them to do that by the last Labour government.

Channel 4 News FactCheck, as usual,has an excellent analysis of this spat, concluding that they couldn’t give either men a “Fact” or “Fiction” …

Tagged david cameron, ed miliband, greg mulholland, mike crockart, railways, sir bob russell | 1 Comment

PMQs: Miliband 1 Barn Door 1

By Paul Walter | Published 14th December 2011 - 12:53 pm

It was the last pre-Christmas Prime Minister’s Questions today and we saw the return of Nick Clegg loyally sitting at the PM’s right-hand side.

Ed Miliband started on the economy, and the news that unemployment is up again. He quoted David Cameron’s words when he came to office, saying that jobs would be “uppermost”. “What’s gone wrong?” asked the opposition leader.

Cameron’s main thrust during the 2010 election campaign was that new private sector jobs should lead the economic recovery and more than replace lost public sector jobs. Miliband did a good job of exposing that this bright idea has allegedly failed. …

Tagged adrian sanders, david cameron, ed miliband, european union, nick clegg, simon wright, unemployment | 10 Comments

PMQs: Penguin in the menage à trois

By Paul Walter | Published 9th December 2011 - 10:45 am

The first big subject at Prime Minister’s Questions this week was Europe. Tory MP Andrew Rosindell asked if David Cameron would show “bulldog spirit” at the forthcoming summit. Later, similar points came from various Tory Eurosceptic MPs, including the Father of the House, Sir Peter Tapsell. He is always heard with great respect, despite his long-winded, rather pompous and, in this case, halting mini-speeches which have barely inquisitive constructions stuck on the end of them.

Ed Miliband started on Europe as well, asking if Cameron would fulfil his promise that treaty change might give the opportunity to “repatriate powers”. The Prime …

Tagged david cameron, ed balls, ed miliband, european union, ian swales, john thurso, spending cuts | 4 Comments

Ed Miliband’s wonky PMQs’ maths

By Stephen Tall | Published 1st December 2011 - 11:35 am

Paul Walter’s LibDemVoice review of yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Questions mentioned the Ed Miliband soundbite which has been picked up by much of the media… but so far without the disbelief it’s due. Here’s what the Labour leader said:

The difference is that, unlike the Prime Minister, I am not going to demonise the dinner lady, the cleaner or the nurse, people who earn in a week what the Chancellor pays for his annual skiing holiday.

A quick reminder for those who don’t live in the Westminster bubble that, last January, it was revealed (by which I mean I read it …

Also posted in Parliament | Tagged ed miliband, george osborne, paul walter | 33 Comments

PMQs: Jo Swinson on the role of women in Aghanistan

By Paul Walter | Published 1st December 2011 - 10:23 am

Liberal Democrat questions first this week:

Jo Swinson asked:

Ten years on from the military intervention, more than 3 million girls in Afghanistan are now in school. With the Bonn conference on Monday, will the Prime Minister send a clear message that the rights of those girls should not be traded away in a false choice between women’s rights and security? The evidence shows that women’s involvement in post-conflict resolution is essential for stability.

The Prime Minister agreed:

All those of us who have been to Afghanistan and met women MPs and other leaders in that country who want to stand up for women’s

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Tagged bob russell, david cameron, ed miliband, jo swinson, pensions bill, roger williams, tax credits | 1 Comment

PMQs: Ding-dong over youth unemployment

By Paul Walter | Published 25th November 2011 - 9:10 am

The focus of the Cameron v Miliband this week exchange was the new figure of one million unemployed young people. It started with a battle between the government’s Work Programme versus Labour’s Future Jobs Fund. Miliband blamed the Work Programme for increasing Youth Unemployment:

…in June, when the Work programme was introduced, 85,000 young people had been unemployed for more than six months; now, there are 133,000—a massive increase since he introduced the Work programme.

But Cameron countered with figures saying that:

The Work programme is helping 50% more people than the future jobs fund: it will help 120,000 young people this year,

…

Tagged david cameron, ed miliband, youth unemployment | 2 Comments

PMQs: Miliband misses a golden opportunity

By Paul Walter | Published 9th November 2011 - 1:06 pm

LibDem Julian Huppert started Prime Minister’s Questions with a zinger today. He said that jobs and growth depend on consumer confidence, and asked if, therefore, the PM thinks that telling 25 million people that they have no job security and could be fired tomorrow will help consumer confidence (this refers to the proposal from Tory businessman Adrian Beecroft). David Cameron had no answer but instead, as always, threw his briefing notes at the questioner (metaphorically speaking).

I should also mention, en passant, that Julian asked for suggestions for his first question via Twitter. Good man.

After the MiliCam exchange, I was …

Also posted in News | Tagged annette brooke, david cameron, ed miliband, julian huppert, tessa munt, uk border agency | 7 Comments

PMQs: Tim Farron asks “Question of the week” – Ed Balls signals four runs

By Paul Walter | Published 4th November 2011 - 7:53 pm

In my ever-earnest toil to prepare this review, this week I have been reviewing web sites which explain cricket umpire signals. I also checked the umpire signals for netball, American football and baseball.

There is no doubt about it. Ed Balls was signalling a four at Prime Ministers’ Questions. His hand was a bit lower than normal, but it would pass to signal a boundary at Morley Cricket Club.

For a change, I’m going to stand this review on its head this week and concentrate on questions from backbenchers, starting with Liberal Democrats.

Question of the week came from Tim Farron:

The world population

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Also posted in Parliament | Tagged alistair darling, caroline lucas, ed balls, mike crockart, simon hughes, tim farron | 3 Comments

PMQs: Nadine Dorries asks question. No-one dies.

By Paul Walter | Published 26th October 2011 - 6:54 pm

Today was the fiftieth anniversary of Prime Minister’s Questions. And it was a fairly typical session. As always, it was in two parts.

Part one: Lots of jeering, cheering, knockabout, winding-up and prepared lines exchanged between the PM and opposition leader.

Part Two: Generally hum-drum but important questions from various back-benchers, largely heard in earnest silence.

The bit that most people will see will be the short bit on the telly, which will be a few seconds of ya-boo politics. In itself, that is a good piece of democracy in that it highlights the weaknesses of the government and the opposition. The longer …

Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged david cameron, duncan hames, economy, ed miliband, european union, stephen lloyd, tom brake | 5 Comments

PMQs: You can’t gesticulate your way out of a Balls-up

By Paul Walter | Published 21st October 2011 - 6:53 pm

He still looks like a clever sixth former to me, but it is fair to say that Ed Miliband has cracked Prime Minister’s Questions. His performance this week was excellent.

“Just a bit late” was David Cameron’s description of Miliband’s raising of the Fox affair. It is easy to understand why Miliband did not raise the subject last week. Labour played a canny game with Dr Fox. They did not call for his resignation and at the last PMQs, Miliband did not ask directly about the issue. This allowed Dr Fox to swing in the media wind, without obvious Labour encouragement. …

Also posted in News, Parliament | Tagged adrian sanders, david cameron, ed balls, ed miliband, inflation, john pugh, liam fox, martin horwood | 2 Comments

PMQs: Ed Miliband just about hits the barn door

By Paul Walter | Published 12th October 2011 - 1:53 pm

From memory, this was the first time the Cameron/Miliband exchange centred wholly on the economy.

There was plenty of ammo for Miliband to fire at Cameron. Unemployment up to its highest for 15 years. Women’s unemployment at its highest since 1988. Youth unemployment at its highest since 1992. He started with a quote from David Cameron himself saying that “Unemployment will fall this year, next year and the year after”. (Bit of daft hostage to fortune that was.)

Cameron was well armed with all the programmes the government is starting: Welfare to Work programme, Welfare reform, Apprenticeships etc etc. And we have …

Also posted in News, Parliament | Tagged david cameron, economy, ed miliband, Sir Alan Beith | 14 Comments

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