Another miserable PMQs for Brown
Fraser Nelson 12:38pm
What does Jon Mendelsohn know? Enough, it seems, to keep his job. There was muffled laughter in the house when Brown said a "former bishop of Oxford" would look into all this. Who else? Graham Norton? Cameron did well venting incredulity that Brown would use the old Blair-style inquiry device to kick this into the long grass.
Good to see Brown had Harman beside him. Dumping on her seemed cowardly. Perhaps, he has finally decided that he needs to start standing up for his Cabinet rather than using them as human shields.
Cameron was right about 155 days of incompetence and asking if Brown was simply not up for the job (today’s TV soundbite). Brown tried to ignore the prolonged Tory roar that followed and start speaking, but it didn't die down and the speaker had him sit down and start again.
It is becoming pitiful to hear Brown return to his bleat about Black Wednesday, minimum wage, low interest rates, yada, yada, yada. It is like R2D2 running into battle armed with nothing but a war cry. He later mentioned floods, foot and mouth and terrorism in his defence. How far away those days seemed now.
Human memory is rationalising and, therefore, treacherous. I suspect Brown knows the history of his ten years in No11 is being rewritten in the minds of those who now consider him a dud. His handling of the floods certainly has been.
Good to see Vince Cable cheered by everyone before he stood up. His simply fantastic critique of Brown for going "from Stalin to Mr Bean" had the Tory half of the chamber in stitches. (It was all the more cutting for its memories of Blair's point about how he went from "Bambi to Stalin" in the eyes of the media.) What bathos for Brown.
Brown told Peter Tapsell that "this job is an important job and I will continue to do it to the best of my ability". Yes, Prime Minister, that's what we're all worried about.
Previous
Comments
Oscar Miller
November 28th, 2007 1:45pmHe later mentioned floods, foot and mouth and terrorism in his defence. How nostalgic he must be for that phoney Summer of Success.
mark
November 28th, 2007 1:52pm"you couldn't make it up" - unfortunaltely this is pretty serious stuff - Mr B is after all the Prime Minister of a country fighting a two-front shooting war and a wider philosophical "war" between liberal democratic tradition and fundamentalism. Never mind an impending financial crisis. What the UK needs is a strong leader completely on his game. Not sure that Dave is the answer though - scoring points at PMQs does not solve the wider problem(s).
SJH
November 28th, 2007 1:57pmThis the 10 Downing St website headline summary of PMQs today "The armed forces, education, alcohol and capital gains tax were on the agenda at today's PMQs. The Prime Minister also took questions on apprenticeships and climate change." I could have sworn there was soemthing else...
Patrick
November 28th, 2007 2:08pmWe should now rename him as Gordon Clown.
newmania
November 28th, 2007 3:02pmGood to see Fraser, good to see.... Sound gloating but "It is like R2D2 running into battle armed with nothing but a war cry." does not work does it ?
Rick
November 28th, 2007 3:31pmMr. Bean ? More like Mr. Has Been. This Labour administration is making the country resemble a banana republic. When can we overthow them ?
Phil Hornby
November 28th, 2007 5:56pmFraser - how long ago those floods seem now. Quite right. Unless you were flooded. Maybe the Spectator should revisit some of those flooded areas and see how the people are preparing for their first Chrsitmas under Brown. Just a thought.
Nicholas Millman
November 28th, 2007 6:28pmWell, I thought his performance in PMQs was better than of late whilst David Cameron's "telling off" style is becoming a tad too repetitive and unfocussed. I would have liked to see David Cameron a little less heated and a little more icy. The opportunity for a couple of really difficult questions seemed to have been lost. McStalin aka Mr Bean appeared to have the last word and in his answers to other questions managed to get in a few side swipes at the Conservatives. As has been mentioned before the Conservatives really need to lay the "Black Wednesday" ghost that seems to have become Nu Labor's rallying cry. Is Nu Labor's brass neck going to carry them through the crises? They seem impervious to scandals that would once have brought down whole governments? Is the public becoming inured to their shamelessness? Is McStalin going to transform himself into the Robert Mugabe of Westminister, countering criticism upon criticism by stubbornly inhabiting his own world of fantasy and dementia?
mark
November 28th, 2007 7:15pmI agree Nicholas - "Punch and Judy" is great fun at the seaside, but calm analysis and use of logic will, I think, be the more powerful weapon at this point. And of course they will survive, clinging on "in office, but not in power" - I can't see them saying "aw, gee, you are right, we are c**p at this so we had better resign and hold an election!!
Lee Jakeman
November 28th, 2007 11:29pmI get the impression that more and more English people would like to see England's Scottish prime minister replaced by an English one. This is why the Tory vote isn't going up, even though the Labour vote is collapsing. It's the NATIONALISTS who are gaining from all this mess - NOT the Tories or Lib-Dems.