Author Archives: Stephen Tall

This being Prime Minister’s Questions, the burning topic of the day – should Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross be publicly flogged for crimes against Andrew Sachs – was not tackled. But, this being PMQs, there was plenty of other puerile posturing and manipulative outrage on display.

The Tories’ David Cameron returned to the questioning that brought him no joy last week: demanding that Gordon Brown accept that ‘boom and bust’, far from being vanquished, is alive and well in UK plc today. The rest of his questions got bogged down in trying to prove the Prime Minister has abandoned his infamous fiscal rules.

Mr Cameron is right about this, but it’s poor strategy for three reasons: (i) the Tory leader just doesn’t sound convincing when talking about the details of economic policy; (ii) the Prime Minister (rather as Tony Blair did after 9/11) is quite content, at least for the moment, to say extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures; and (iii) because, as The Spectator’s Fraser Nelson argues here, the Tory leader is failing to project any form of Tory narrative that might connect with voters. More than usual, Mr Cameron is adopting slick debating society schtick during these recession reality PMQs. It worked once; it’s not working now.

By contrast, the Lib Dems’ Nick Clegg used his two salvoes to make two big, connected points: that there are billions of government spending that not only can be cut, but should be cut (eg, ID cards and the surveillance database); and that the best and fairest way to stimulate the economy is to cut taxes for low- and middle-income earners. In doing so, Nick gains high praise from Fraser (again):

Finally, the right line from Prime Minister’s Questions – and it’s one that Gordon Brown will fear the most. “What people need now is more money in their pockets. He could deliver big tax cuts for people who desperately need help”. It was from Nick Clegg. You can argue – as I do – that the Liberal Democrats’ proposed tax cut is paltry. But the rhetoric and positioning is precisely right. It’s a binary distinction: Brown trusts the state, and wants to spend his way out of a recession. Clegg is saying he trusts the British public, and wants to stimulate the economy by letting them keep more of their own money. When Brown retorted that the “Liberal Party” would somehow damage the British economy by taking out £20 billion of spending, it sounded irrelevant. Clegg has astutely judged that the Tories are missing an open goal because of internal struggles with the concept of tax cuts. It’s a no-brainer in the current environment – has anyone see Barack Obama’s website recently? Obama’s figures, like Clegg’s, are paltry if you add them up. But the positioning is right. Clegg is showing the Tories how to do it.

Anyway, you can judge for yourselves, below, via YouTube and the Hansard transcript:

No surprises that the financial crisis again dominated the slanging-match exchanges at Prime Minister’s Questions this week.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg stuck to his week-in-week-out brief – asking punchy questions about the ‘bread and butter’ issues affecting the lives of everyday folk – this time focusing on fuel poverty, and the estimates that up to 80% of single pensioners will struggle to heat their homes this winter. Nick even managed to get in a sly dig at both Labour and the Tories over the Mandelson-Osborne Russian donor imbroglio, noting that Gordon Brown “is all at sea, if not in a luxury yacht, like some prominent members of the Opposition.”

David Cameron once again found himself on the defensive when challenging the Prime Minister, with his frustration levels visibly rising as he sees the Prime Minister growing in confidence in inverse proportion to the growth of the British economy.

The Tory leader has a problem at the moment: in times of crisis, you have to sound like you have a firm grip on policy, that you can offer solutions not just identify problems. Everyone knows the economy’s gone tits-up on Labour’s watch. But most of the public recognises that this is a global financial crisis, and that the Tories, just like Labour, failed to see it coming, and when it did happen stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Labour. So politicians are currently being judged on the proposals they put forward now, not the degree of foresight they showed previously (sadly for the Lib Dems and Vince).

Anyway judge for yourselves how Vince did, via the magic of YouTube and Hansard: