Full marks to Ed Miliband. He had a good Prime Minister’s Questions this week.
One of the reasons he did so well is that he took a leaf out of Margaret Thatcher’s book. He lowered the tone of his voice. Gone was the shrill shouting of recent weeks. Instead we had a calm, firm low tone. And he slowed down his delivery, making it very de-li-ber-ate. As a result he sounded a lot more effective.
First on executive pay, and then on the NHS, Miliband did well against the PM. For me, his line of the week was this one on top …
This week I attended the screening of The Iron Lady and was disturbed by the way in which the film portrayed its subject. Can we therefore have a debate on respect, good manners and good taste, as I found the film—although brilliantly acted—to be disrespectful to a Member of this Parliament?
While I once met Mrs Thatcher, and Denis, it will come as no surprise that, as someone who got involved in politics as …
In the first of a series of monthly posts on Huffington Post, Lynne Featherstone outlines the case for changing perceptions of body image, and the success of the campaign so far:
Every day people are confronted with images of the ‘perfect’ body that just don’t reflect the diverse society we live in. These unrealistic images set an impossible standard, potentially damaging self esteem and crushing confidence.
We need to challenge this culture of conformity and widen the definition of beauty to include all ages, shapes, sizes and ethnicities. And we need to help people recognise that their value goes beyond
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.
He is specifically exercised about immigration and the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights. Employing all his skills as “the Chingford Skinhead” he culminates with this:
It seems that Mr Cameron is prevented from doing anything to bring the nonsense to an end – and the repeal
This video clip shows the complete debate episode which led to Gallagher’s political demise. The discussion centres on a visit to a businessman’s house on behalf of Fianna Fail. Fellow Presidential candidate Martin McGuinness accuses Sean Gallagher of accepting a cheque from the man.
After denials from Gallagher, there is a commercial break. Then, presenter Pat Kenny announces that a tweet has come from Sinn Fein saying that they will produce the man to say that Gallagher accepted the cheque from him.
Under pressure, Gallagher then says, at 7’38” in this video, that he may have taken an envelope from the businessman. The word “envelope” has very strong connotations of corruption in Irish politics. At the very mention of the word by Gallagher, there are loud snorts of derision from the studio audience.
This may be the only time in history that a promising Presidential campaign was ended by just one word – “envelope”.
On Comment is Free, Tim Leunig reveals some alarming impacts of the government’s housing benefit cuts:
Imagine two sets of people, both renting from private landlords. One is an Islington couple who have never worked. The other is an Oldham family with four children, where the working parent has just lost his or her job. The Islington couple currently receive £250 a week in housing benefit, while the Oldham family gets only £150.
Times are tough, and the government wants to save money. Which family should have its housing benefit cut? George Osborne has chosen the Oldham family. He is cutting
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.
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” …
By Paul Walter
| Thu 22nd December 2011 - 10:03 am
Time was when Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions was the closest you got to bloodsports in the House of Commons. The DPM would be tethered, red-faced and growling, to the dispatch box, as Labour MPs taunted him and propelled all sorts of bile at him, augmented by the odd tactical nuclear missile rear-launched by the Tory swivel-eyes.
We’ve come a long way in a few months. Now, DPMQs are relatively sedate affairs. The DPM is well in control and there is little mischief from the Labour benches. Well, none that would spoil LibDem MPs’ lunches.
By Paul Walter
| Wed 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. …
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 …
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
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,
In a speech today to the Engineering Employers’ Federation in London, Business Secretary put forward a wide range of items for consultation aimed at reforming Employment Law. He said that the aim of the exercise is to change to:
A culture that establishes dialogue rather than confrontation as the norm between employers and employees. That trusts people to do the right thing rather than relying on regulation to deal with every single issue that arises. And that ensures businesses have the confidence to hire the talented and committed workforce they need in order to thrive.
By Paul Walter
| Mon 21st November 2011 - 11:23 am
Paul Waugh on PoliticsHome gives three examples where the LibDems “put the brakes on” Conservative policy aspirations in just three hours yesterday morning:
First, Danny Alexander chucked a large bucket of cold water over Tory hopes of abolishing the 50p tax rate, saying:
It’s very very important indeed that we continue to ensure that the wealthiest in society pay a fair contribution. That’s what the 50p rate is doing. We’ll see what the numbers show; I expect it is making money for the Government.
…Well, he’s in a good position to know.
Second, on Sunday AM, Francis Maude raised the spectre of increasing …
By Paul Walter
| Sat 19th November 2011 - 10:25 am
There’s an in-depth interview with LibDem party President Tim Farron on the Guardian website. Conducted by Andrew Sparrow, much of the dialogue is published verbatim.
As we have come to expect, Tim is up-beat and, at times, outspoken.
Some highlights from the interview are:
-Tim Farron says Miliband is “ineffective” and that the Labour five-point plan is “absolute rubbish”.
-He says we are picking up votes from the other parties, even from students, who have nowhere else to go in search of a progressive party.
-“Swivel-eyed” right-wing Tories have been prevented from running the country by the LibDems.
By Paul Walter
| Thu 17th November 2011 - 10:10 am
As usual, questions to the Deputy Prime Minister this week covered a large variety of subjects. Nick Clegg was on passionate form on several issues.
Harriet Harman asked if he would “admit that he urgently needs to take further action to help the young unemployed?”. Refreshingly, Nick Clegg did admit this, adding:
…it would be a real dereliction of duty if we did not do more to try to make sure that young people are given a real pathway into training, further and higher education or the labour market. As the right hon. and learned Lady will know, youth unemployment has increased
Here’s a superb clip of Nick Clegg in full, passionate flight as he attacks Sadiq Khan regarding links with the GMB union. There is some background to this story on order-order.com here.
Here’s the exchange in full from Hansard:
Sadiq Khan (Tooting) (Lab): The Deputy Prime Minister has previously endorsed the long-held convention that issues of party funding should—as he has just said—be resolved by cross-party agreement when that is possible. He has told us that the Committee on Standards in Public Life will report shortly: in fact, it will report next week. Is he concerned about the objections from
Prime Minister’s Question Time (PMQs) is often criticised as a bad advert for Parliament. It is confrontational and glib. – That particularly applies to the portion which is shown mostly on news programmes.
Anyone who is concerned about this should watch, or read the record of, the House of Commons Liaison Committee. Each quarter, it questions the Prime Minister for an hour and a half. The sessions are thoughtful, thorough and comprehensive. It is all very polite and earnest.
One could criticise the sessions for going to the other extreme of the style of PMQs. A good replacement for Horlicks, in other …
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.
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.
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 …
In March I wrote here on Liberal Democrat Voice about a report by the Institute for Government which recommended a series of measures to bolster LibDem influence within the government.
I’m delighted to say that there is evidence that this report’s recommendations are being acted upon.
The Telegraph today reports that seven new Liberal Democrat advisers are to be appointed across Whitehall, particularly concentrating on the Health department, the Home Office and other ministries without a lead LibDem cabinet minister.
According to the Sunday Times, three of these new advisers have already been …
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. …
Whisper it. A quiet revolution has happened. Keep this quiet, please!
Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions used to be akin to Bear Baiting (with apologies to bears and ursine mammal lovers everywhere). Nick Clegg would stand up and have all sorts of sticks prodded into his midriff by Labour members, while their sistren and breathren used to shout and jeer. The poor bear Clegg used to get all red in the face and start shouting back at them, before escaping to nurse his wounds.
Something has changed.
This week, apart from the odd bit of rowdiness during a question on the consultation concerning …
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 …
Just as most people were packing up for the weekend, the Twittersphere and, eventually, the Mainstream Media were lit up with the story that Chris Huhne had apparently sent out a private text message to his 8,007 Twitter followers, including many of the great and good of “Fleet Street”.
The message said:
From someone else fine but I do not want my fingerprints on the story. C
So what was this “story”? – we are all now wondering.
Think about it.
Chris Huhne had obviously been having a private text exchange with (that ubiquitous Huhne Aunt Sally) “a staff member” (if you believe what Huhne …
By Paul Walter
| Mon 26th September 2011 - 10:15 am
Many years ago I knew Tom Baldwin when he was a cub reporter on my local newspaper. He is now Ed Miliband’s chief communications guru. He’s a smart cookie, so I am surprised that Baldwin and Ed Miliband have decided to use the traditional opportunity for a trumpet fanfare for their conference week (i.e the front page of The Observer) to announce a distinctly underwhelming policy.
“It’s the economy, stupid” – no more so than at a time like this. So why waste your golden chance for a big media blast by returning, dog-like, to the site of your own …
David Allen Tristan,
You're right in the sense that you didn't specifically call for PFI. But you did say "if you can persuade private money to provide the funding on t...
David Garlick Touted as bringing power to people.
Power brought down from Govt sounds good but power still not reaching the lowest possible levels in our Communities....
Tristan Ward @ David Allen
"PFI won’t help stop the planet burning"
Who said anything about PFI - I didn't.
The private money that is building (not enough) house...
Joey Vimsante I think the EU and UK needs to support not for profit, social media platforms that put the interest of the public, vulnerable people, young people, and nation a...
Nick Baird With regard to client-side image scanning, the danger of mission creep are real, but I have other concerns. One is whether this is truly a practical and effecti...
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Brechtian television: Leo McKern in Galileo (1964)
Good news on political donations?
Conference booked
Are Labour going to cross another red line?
David Allen 
David Garlick 
Tristan Ward 
Joey Vimsante 
Nick Baird 