Clegg seemed solid – brevity is always better than waffle…

What struck me though, was the ineptitude of Michael Martin. Ok so he can’t force Brown to answer the question – and I’m sure he wouldn’t if he could – but when a PM is openly demanding that Cameron answers HIS OWN questions, that has to be beyong the pale.
If I had been DC, it would have been a perfect opportunity to offer Brown a job-swap (or that famous General Election) if he wants to be the one asking the questions.

I didn’t see any TV news yesterday, but it seemed to get some pretty decent coverage in the press. In fact the coverage was more extensive and more positive than I was expecting.

As for Brown’s lack of experience at PMQs – I don’t think a man who has made a career at Treasury Questions of steam rollering over the careers of others can claim a lack of operational experience [or lay a claim to sympathy]. He also has a pet referee [Mr Speaker]. I hope Brown doesn’t get away with asking Nick questions until he has had a few more sessions under his belt.

‘Cameron is dull at PMQs ‘ If we were honest, we would be more than happy if our leader did as well. You seem happy already and he hasn’t done aswell. It is not helpful to underestimate our opponents. Setting the bar low for our own and raising it for others is a pointless internal exercise.

I accept PMQs can be a bit of an irrelevance [in SOME, but not all circumstances]. Charles Kennedy wasn’t bad but in any event he had other qualities in bucket fulls which compensated hugely but which were quite unusual.

‘He’s outclassed Brown certainly, but that’s old news ….’
No it is not. It wouldn’t be if he stopped outclassing him. He has used it to better the man with more experience. He has taken something out it to his advantage, like it or not.

If Clegg manages to do as well as he did this week over the next few months I’ll be quite content. As it happens, he’ll inevitably have opportunities to make more of an impact.

It should be noted that one of the reasons Cable was able to make such an impact is that actually Cameron is quite dull. He’s outclassed Brown certainly, but that’s old news now and he never seems to do anything new. As Alex W suggests above, he’s also getting sloppy, taking loads of his slots to make fairly elementary points.

I’ll get my coat.

I tend to stammer when I’m nervous, so I tend to notice other people’s little tics, and Mr Brown’s include repeating himself in ever-more strident bellows as well as the odd amusing Freudian slip (I remember one speech when he was trying very, very hard to talk about values, rather than being the man obsessed with every penny we have, but fluffed out “Noble purses worth – noble purposes worth fighting for…”). He managed both today with a pre-rehearsed line about Mr Cameron’s pre-rehearsed lines which he repeated three times, to heckles. Except that Mr Brown should have rehearsed his line a bit more carefully, as the first time it came out as “herhersed”. Typed, it looks like a written laugh, but out loud it seemed he was looking at Mr Cameron and thinking of hearses…