A shift at the whopper-factory
Lloyd Evans 3:39pm
Crack! The sound of the whips lashing Labour MPs into line today was deafening. And the truth didn’t have a prayer. What a draining, depressing, undemocratic spectacle it was to see Labour’s doomed time-servers put in yet another shift at the government’s whopper-factory. Cameron went to the House with a single tactic, to get the PM to admit that Labour must and will cut spending. Did Brown admit it? Fat chance. Instead he insisted that spending was going up. Not just current spending but capital spending too. Up, up up. He hammered home the notion that the Tories will lower spending by ten percent and lower inheritance tax ‘for the few not the many.’
Cameron was dogged, impatient, sometimes exasperated but he masked his impatience with a few decent quips. After the first softball query from a Labour poodle, Cameron observed, ‘Welcome to Prime Minister’s planted questions.’ He mocked Labour’s attempts to hang the ‘Mr Ten Percent’ tag around Andrew Lansley. ‘Some Labour MPs were confused,' he said, 'They thought it meant the Prime Minister’s opinion poll ratings.’ In response to Cameron’s interrogation the PM blithely assert that Cameron had no figures. Cameron offered figures. Treasury figures. ‘Capital spending is going from £44 bn to £20 bn.’ Still Brown told us Cameron had no figures. It’s hard to reason against this deaf-dumb-and-blind approach. Brown doesn’t just lie to the House and the country. He lies to himself too.
Cameron had an awkward moment when he mentioned that the recession had spread across Europe. Inexplicably, this prompted two minutes of Labour jeers and the Tory leader looked uneasy, bobbing and dipping at the despatch box while the Speaker tried to shut the hecklers up. Eventually Cameron collected his thoughts and fired another barb PM-wards. ‘They cheer him on Wednesday and spend the rest of the week trying to get rid of him.’
Nick Clegg again disappointed his new-won band of admirers by choosing yesterday’s issue (bank regulation) and fluffing it. He accused Labour of ‘trying to have it both ways,’ a slur which was bound to boomerang back in his face. As Labour cheered derisively he blamed the PM for ‘passing the buck.’ Dull stuff. Even Brown squeezed out a half-quip at his expense. ‘I think he actually supports what we’re doing but can’t bear to say it.’
Labour's own Mr Ten Percent, Mark Hendrick, MP for Preston, fretted about the effect of lowering spending by a tenth in his constituency. Unsurprisingly Brown shared his concerns and predicted that the move would result in ‘a cut of 15,000 police officers.’ Gosh. Are there are 150,000 coppers up there already? Perhaps two of them could come South and arrest Brown for dishonesty.
This was a PMQs of evasions, obfuscations, orchestrated propaganda and wilful denials of reality. Labour certainly showed plenty of discipline and gave the appearance of unity and cohesion. They’ve lost none of their appetite for a dust-up, and even if they lose the next election the struggle will be heroic, bloody and glorious to behold. One thing Labour can always organise is a romantic defeat. It’ll go to the wire and the battleground will narrow to a handful of words. ‘Ten percent Tory cuts.’ The plan is to spook the electorate with fiscal terror tactics. It worked for John Major in 1992. The difference is that Cameron is not Neil Kinnock.
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Sir Graphus
June 17th, 2009 3:57pm Report this comment"The difference is that Cameron is not Neil Kinnock."
I'm afraid he is, though.
Michael Booth
June 17th, 2009 3:58pm Report this commentWelcome to the Gordondammerung
JWK
June 17th, 2009 4:12pm Report this comment"Inexplicably, this prompted two minutes of Labour jeers..."
You really didn't get that? Brown's whole defence for the past year or so has been that this is a 'global crisis' and that all countries are doing badly, not just Britain. The Tories have been arguing that it was Brown's ten years as Chancellor that set our economy up for disaster. So for Cameron to point out that recession is taking place across Europe bolsters Brown's claim that none of this is his fault, or at least will likely be spun that way by No.10. Surely that much is obvious.
Karma Hickson
June 17th, 2009 4:12pm Report this commentCameron behaved like an arrogant, bully. The exchanges were punch and judy politics at their worst and illuminated us not one jot. But his huge gaffe on referring to Europe wide recession completely threw him. What a lightweight.
cuffleyburgers
June 17th, 2009 4:14pm Report this comment"even if they lose the next election the struggle will be heroic, bloody and glorious to behold" -
No it won't, it will be a squalid spectacle of lies, half-truths, evasions, smears, promises made with no intention of being honoured.
This labour party are a sorry bunch who have dragged political discourse into the gutter.
The tories probably have the right ideas but are afraid to articulate tem in case they hand ammunition to the labour liars and smearers.
The losers? The electorate and above all the tax payer
Many many nasty plagues on all their houses, duck houses,company flats, second homes
Little Angussie
June 17th, 2009 4:30pm Report this commentBrown is pathologically incapable of telling the truth. His moral compass will not allow it. No wonder church of Scotland attendances are falling if his is an example of the Presbyterian conscious his father instilled into him!
Furthermore, the Conservatives are not ideological cutters, but do it through necessity. Tell me of just one instance of them entering office and finding that the country was solvent and no emergency cuts were imperative?
Brown is a charletan and a lying cheating imposter of an unelected prime minister - surely the worst person ever to hold this office (and I am including Bliar in this too).
Brown's SQUANDER, LIES, INCOMPETENCE AND HUBRIS = BANKRUPT BRITAIN AND BROWN'S CUTS CUTS CUTS
As David Cameron rightly pointed out today Brown is Mr 10% - in office but backed by few and liked by less! FOLLOW SPEAKER MARTIN OUT OF THE TROUGH AND GIVE THE UNITED KINGDOM A CHANCE TO RECOVER
Chuck Unsworth
June 17th, 2009 4:31pm Report this commentIt's my money this profligate is pissing against the wall. Simple as that. So, when is there going to be any sign of value (or is that vaarlue, as Brown would have it) for money? Education? Health? Transport? Employment? What, exactly? What has really improved over the past decade - apart from the quality and volume of Government lies?
Colin
June 17th, 2009 4:41pm Report this commentI think the liar tag will stick to Brown. The more it is used, the more effective it will be. Even normally supine commentators are alluding to his growing penchant for lying.
Cameron and his chums should go for the kill. Now is not the time for faint hearts. This god awful regime will do almost anything to cling to power.
YouCannotBeSerious"
June 17th, 2009 4:58pm Report this commentWhy is bank regulation "yesterday's issue"? I'd have thought that there are few things more urgent, given the way that speculation by financial institutions has destroyed the real economy. Instead you treat the issue in the manner of a bored teenager - "talking about the banks, that's like so yesterday."
Vulture
June 17th, 2009 5:26pm Report this commentI thought Bruin looked more rattled than of late, as well as brain-dead. Dave was effective, the contempt that this God-awful man so richly deserves came through loud and clear. he did miss one trick, however: as Bruin proclaimed that Liebour was the party of 'the many' Dave should have retorted 'Not THAT many - 15% voted for you this month - and 85% against'.
teledu
June 17th, 2009 5:35pm Report this commentI thought Cameron did fine today; the soundbites on the evening news progs. will highlight (I imagine) Cameron's exasperation at Brown's deviuosness plus the witty lines rather than the meaningless (to most) numbers. Brown's "we spend, you cut" line is barely credible and he's mistaken if he believes people believe him. We've had 12 yrs of this imposter spouting figures/statistics and double-spouting them again. No one really trusts him to be straight; they know his answers are propaganda. People just turn a deaf ear to the numbers and judge the man and his actions and mannerisms; none of which show him in a good light. Cameron managed to get in McBride, 10% and that Brown's unelected - all highlighting what a deceiver Brown is.
By the way, I didn't hear Brown's response to the question about Damian McBride (the BBC commentator talked over it). Was that a shifty, disingenious answer too?
PayDirt
June 17th, 2009 5:46pm Report this commentPerhaps if Gordon is so set on investment he should invite the Chinese to take over our country, they are the ones with the cash, not us. Or is his gameplan to take their money and then default?
JONNY
June 17th, 2009 6:07pm Report this comment'The difference is that Cameron is not Neil Kinnock."
I'm afraid he is, though.'
Ha Ha Ha Sir Graphus.
JONNY
June 17th, 2009 6:21pm Report this commentSome people here seem to be getting their knickers in a twist over that so-called 'Europe Recession' gaffe.
Everyone, even the likes of Karma Hickson, can surely understand that the recession happened throughout Europe too.
Everyone surely knows that.
Cameron's point has always been that it found us less prepared than any other country save Ireland.
Got it Karma?
But how revealing the way the Labour Benches seized on it.
How moronic. How thick. How desperate. Looking for some pathetic sliver of hope to salvage their jobs, their seats, their perks. And save them from the dole queue.
Tiberius
June 17th, 2009 7:43pm Report this commentJWK and Karma: a new Bonnie and Clyde act?
The Tories have not said that the financial crisis is confined to Britain or even Europe. What they have said (and which is correct) is that the crisis will be worse here than most Western economies because Brown has accumulated so much debt that our capacity for recovery is reduced.
Verity
June 17th, 2009 7:54pm Report this commentPaydirt, referring to China, "Or is his gameplan to take their money and then default?"
You clearly don't know the Chinese.
John Page
June 17th, 2009 8:00pm Report this commentAsk Brown how he'll close the financial gap to pay for his phantom spending increases. Higher taxes?
And stop calling it 'public' spending. It's 'government' spending. Use that label and have the discipline to stick to it.
Jock
June 17th, 2009 8:00pm Report this commentI think what needs to be spelt out now is that the garngantuan sums this eejit has pissed away isn't all spent on coppers/ squaddies/ teachers/ nurses.... it's mostly spent on superfluous flunkies and over extended QANGOs, for instance. Cameron should pop into the next PMQs with a copy of the BBCs expenditure and ask if any of this "tax" revenue is spent on nurses etc? Or a copy of the Guardian's job pages and pick out the percentage of nurse/copper/ squaddie/ teacher recruitment advertised as opposed to all the non-jobs... he should be having a field day here with this. Broon is a cretin and I imagine it would have him looking like a gaffed fish..... albeit, a one eyed one
Ray
June 17th, 2009 8:41pm Report this commentBrown makes Kim Jong-il sound spontaneous.
Fernando
June 17th, 2009 8:58pm Report this comment"Brown doesn’t just lie to the House and the country. He lies to himself too."
I'm not so sure, Lloyd. After all someone who genuinely believed he had banished boom and bust, is quite capable of believing the economy can sustain borrowing of 12% of GDP for a few years and sees no problem with the national debt doubling in a five year period. I find it more worrying that he believes this nonsense, not that he deliberately lies.
Simon Stephenson
June 17th, 2009 8:59pm Report this commentJONNY : 6.21pm
"Some people here seem to be getting their knickers in a twist over that so-called 'Europe Recession' gaffe ... Cameron's point has always been that it found us less prepared than any other country save Ireland."
Yes, I suppose that's about as far as he can honestly go.
But wouldn't it be constructive for the country if he were also to be able to assert that a deep recession was entirely avoidable? That if the people of the world had listened a bit more to those who have been pointing out for 15+ years the weaknesses of the dominant socio-economic orthodoxy - the crass risks and stupidities, the self-serving assumptions, the stretching of argument beyond the boundaries of intellect.
But, of course, he can't do this because for all but the last 5 minutes the Conservative Party has been part of this orthodoxy. Maybe not as centrally implicated as Brown and Labour, but far too close to be able to say now "I told you so".
The reality is that the entire establishment bought into this nonsense, and the individuals concerned now have a vested interest in preventing it from being exposed. It's a most telling argument against a system that has allowed showy, third-rate intellects to prevail.
Moraymint
June 17th, 2009 9:05pm Report this commentThe guy's a maniac, pure and simple. He's lived in a weird and nasty alter-world of his own for most of his life, until he muscled his way into the spotlight.
In that bright light, now we're seeing the politician for what he really is: little more than a two-bit gangster.
The good things is that we're witnessing the start of an awakening in the British people; and not before time.
Brown is toast and the Labour Party is heading for hell in a handcart at the next General Election.
Is everybody happy? You bet your life we are.
JWK
June 17th, 2009 9:06pm Report this commentTiberius: Of course the Tories have not said that the financial crisis is confined to Britain. I agree with JONNY that it is a measure of the desperation of the Labour backbenches -- and a commentary on the deplorable state of British politics -- that they should cling to such a non-gaffe. My surprise rather stems from the fact that Mr. Lloyd Evans, who is apparently some kind of political analyst, couldn't comprehend the source of the uproar.
Rosie Baby
June 17th, 2009 9:46pm Report this commentHas Cameron got the guts to go for the kill?
I am one of Boris' small business-persons ready to man the barricades!!!
Tiberius
June 17th, 2009 11:30pm Report this commentJWK: I've re-read your first post and can now see what you're saying.
But I have to admit that I can't convince myself that Labour MPs roared for the reasons you state. I wouldn't have thought many of them had the intellectual capability to make such an instantaneous connection.
judith
June 18th, 2009 12:46pm Report this commentCameron's performance at PMQs yesterday lifted my heart- at last Brown is on the ropes.People must realise by now that Brown is simply a political animal-he acts and reacts according to the interests of Labour and will not think of nation before party.Did you notice the stance he posed of a charging gorilla during one of his rants at Cameron? I thought he was going to charge!
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