Category Archives: Parliament

Unsurprisingly, today’s PMQs couldn’t quite match up to the excitement of yesterday’s Parliamentary proceedings – or indeed the rooftop excitements. Davd Cameron suffered from poor briefing in his questions on Parliamentary proceedings, and was left deflated by an on-form Prime Minister. Meanwhile, Nick Clegg put in one of his strongest PMQs performances to date, shrugging off the expected barracking of Labour and Tory MPs following yesterday’s Euro referendum walk-out, and focusing on a crucial but under-reported issue: mental health.

Here’s the Hansard version so you can judge for yourselves:

After last week’s half-term break, there were few surprises at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions: the Lib Dems’ Nick Clegg was able confidently to lead with Labour’s mishandling of the Northern Rock collapse (thanks to Vince Cable’s far-sighted statements), while Tory leader David Cameron (who, with George Osbourne, has been all over the place on the issue) avoided mentioning it in his first round of questions.

Nick followed up – after a pointed dig at the Tories’ “economic illiteracy” – with a ‘bread and butter’ question on energy prices, something which is fast becoming his trademark.

Here’s the Hansard transcript of their exchange:

Another week, more focus by Nick Clegg on domestic bread ‘n’ butter issues during his exchange with the Prime Minister at the weekly PMQs: this time taking Gordon Brown to task for the poor conditions of the British armed forces’ living conditions.

The spectres of the last week’s sleaze allegations – Labour’s Peter Hain and the Tories’ Derek Conway – were both absent from the exchanges between Mr Brown and David Cameron. The encounter seemed a score-draw to me: while Gordon lacked finesse, Dave lacked gravitas.

Nick continues to do well: focused questions, punchily delivered. At the moment he’s still sticking to his script, which is far enough while he finds his feet and gets the measure of the occasion. It also works better for media soundbites. But it would be good to see him respond directly in his second follow-up question to Mr Brown’s habitual put-downs of ‘the Liberal party’, and our economic policies – the Government’s mishandling of Northern Rock (and Vince’s assured credibility) gives him just that opportunity.

Anyway, here’s the exchange in full, as recorded by Hansard. If you like, you can watch PMQs in full here.

Both Nick Clegg and David Cameron tackled Gordon Brown on the Northern Rock crisis at Prime Minister’s Questions.

The Tory leader got in a good line against the PM’s protestations that putting the bank into administration would lead to a fire sale of the assets: “Does he not understand that administration and liquidation are different things? Let me put it this way. Administration is what the Government are in at the moment; liquidation is what is going to happen by the British people at the next election.” But the Tories’ taunts are blunted by the fact that their policy on Northern Rock has changed almost as often as the Government’s – a point the PM plugged away at to good effect.

Nick borrowed one of Vince’s bon mots when it was his turn to put Gordon on the spot, asking why Labour was nationalising the risks and privatising the profits in its proposed rescue package. In his follow-up, Nick accused the Prime Minister of “running scared of the Conservatives” by ruling out nationalisation. He’s right, of course, but the line delighted Tories rather too much. Perhaps better to have stuck to the argument that the PM’s fear of losing his reputation for prudence is costing the taxpayer dear.

Anyway, here’s the exchange in full, as recorded by Hansard:

Nick Clegg continued where his debut last week left off – focusing on the ‘bread and butter’ issues that affect the lives of everyday folk. Two good solid questions, both dodged by Gordon Brown, who crow-barred in a ham-fisted reference to the ‘Calamity Clegg’ dossier (to the crowing delight of Labour backbenchers) – ensuring it was in answer to the second question, so there was no opportunity for Nick to respond.

Anyway, here’s the exchange in full as recorded by Hansard – you can watch the encounter here on the BBC website here, or listen to it on The Guardian website here.