Category Archives: Parliament

At this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions, the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg quizzed Gordon Brown on how he was going to help the millions of families and pensioners set to fall into fuel poverty this year because of rising fuel prices. For the Tories, David Cameron went on about the Lisbon treaty. As usual, it was a no score draw, unless you’re partisan. (And, for the record, I thought this was another strong showing from Nick, who is consistently and doggedly questioning the Prime Minister on bread and butter issues: which is what PMQs should be about).

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

Last week, the Cinderella at the Prime Minister’s Questions’ ball was the Government’s plan to extend to 42 days the length of time citizens can be held without being told what terrorist offence they are alleged to have committed. Not this week. Both Nick Clegg and David Cameron led on today’s Labour bid to shred our civil liberties.

Nick led on two fronts. First, that it’s absurd of Gordon Brown to suggest the House of Commons will continue to exercise oversight in such exceptional cases as present themselves as the evidence necessary to make that decision cannot (obviously) be presented to MPs.

There was a Cinderella at the ball in today’s Prime Minister’s Questions: Labour’s moves to increase to 42 days the length of time terrorism suspects can be detained without trial. Clearly both Nick Clegg and David Cameron decided there was no point going on the attack and risk uniting those Labour backbenchers who might still have the guts to stick up for civil liberties.

Instead, Mr Cameron went six rounds with Gordon Brown over the Government’s so-called ‘green taxes’ on cars. Mr Brown had a strong defence – the Tories’ attempts to suggest they care about the environment up until the point they actually have to do something is sounding increasingly hollow – yet he sounded tired, and almost unsure of himself. The past few weeks has clearly taken its toll on his confidence.

Nick Clegg led on Zimbabwe and demanded the Prime Minister move to strip Robert Mugabe of his knighthood, and take firmer action to make clear the UK’s abhorrence of his regime. Mr Brown’s answers to both were full of good intentions but, to say the least, opaque. All credit to Nick for asking about such an important international issue, and for proposing tough but constructive action the Government could be taking to stand up for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe.

Judge for yourselves how Nick did. You can watch the exchange on YouTube, or read the Hansard transcript, below.

If the Prime Minister was looking for some respite in the Commons today – after last week’s drubbing by the electorate – his hopes were dashed. It’s just one damned thing after another for poor Gordon: the 10p tax fiasco (of which more later), post office closures, 42-day detention without trial, and the Scottish Labour leader going off-piste about a Scottish independence referendum.

The Tory leader David Cameron chose to range widely, attempting to give a sense of Labour’s paralysis. It would have been effective,too – but Dave has a tiresome habit of taking it too far, and tarnishing his rhetoric. Take today’s cheap closing jibe:

This is the Prime Minister who went on “American Idol” with more make-up on than Barbara Cartland; this is the Prime Minister who sits in No. 10 Downing street … waiting for Shakira to call and waiting for George Clooney to come to tea. I have got a bit of advice for him: why does he not give up the PR and start being a PM?

Caustic stuff, and good for rallying the troops. But it’s not exactly Prime Ministerial. The Tory leader is keen to give the impression that he’s not complacent after last Thursday’s results. He’d be well-advised to drop some of the smart-arse quips, and start behaving like a PM-to-be.

Another good PMQs’ performance from Nick Clegg, focusing on the continuing rumblings of discontent of the Labour party’s perverse decision to tax the low-paid more, by doubling the 10p tax rate. The Lib Dems were the first party to identify the issue, back in March 2007, and Nick is right to keep campaigning on it. As he told the Prime Minister today,

This is a matter of principles. Remember those?

You can watch today’s PMQs encounter over at BBC.co.uk; or you can read the Hansard transcript below:

The last Prime Minister’s Questions before the 1st May elections was always likely to prove a rowdy affair: and so it proved. Yet the pattern was wearily familiar.

Gordon Brown and David Cameron slug it out, with Gordon looking embattled but resilient, and Dave looking smart but insubstantial. Then Nick gets up, gets shouted down by MPs determined to put him off his stride, asks a couple of sharp questions targeted equally at the Tories and Labour; and Gordon replies that the country would go to the dogs under ‘the Liberals’ (he still can’t quite bring himself to call the party by its proper name).

Commentators then argue over which of the three leaders emerged best. The honest answer: none of them.

Anyway, you can watch today’s PMQs encounter over at BBC.co.uk; or you can read the Hansard transcript below:

How Gordon must have been dreading this session of Prime Minister’s Questions, after what has been one of his worst weeks since becoming Labour leader: condemned by all sides for his decision to disadvantage the poorest in society by abolishing the 10p tax rate.

In the circumstances, then, he didn’t perform too badly. There was, of course, no apology: simply a restatement of his commitment to help those in proverty. And it was clear Labour loyalists were under strict instructions from the whips to bellow their support for the embattled Mr Brown. As ever, David Cameron came up with a handful of smile-out-loud quips; but he landed no devastating blows.

Nick Clegg stood up to the customary barracking from all sides – this was his first PMQs’ appearance since that GQ interview – and deployed what is becoming a trademark question: asking the Prime Minister how it feels to be out-Torying the Tories. It’s a cheeky but effective way of creating equidistance between the Lib Dems and Labour/Tory parties. It does, of course, guarantee him an even rowdier reception. I suspect, though, his last question may still be echoing in Labour backbenchers’ minds: “if he cannot deliver on poverty, what on earth is the point of this increasingly pointless Prime Minister?” Quite.

You can watch the full encounter on the BBC site here. Below is the Hansard extract of Nick and Gordon’s exchange: