And the winner of PMQs is ... Boris Johnson
Fraser Nelson 4:00pm
The best part of PMQs came just after it ended, in the form of an irate Boris Johnson. "I am sure the Prime Minister inadvertently misled the House when he said I want to cut spending on the Metropolitan Police".... Brown was walking out the door, to Tory roars. "I'm the only one who has to stay and listen to it" says Michael Martin. Boris had just done what the other Tories should do all the time: refuse to put up with falsehoods said by the Prime Minister.
There were plenty. Brown said the Tories opposed increases in education spending. Untrue. He told MPs recently that inflation is down from 10% in the early 90s to 2% today. Untrue. He told them Britain has the world's second largest defence spending. Untrue. Normally, Tories roll their eyes and let this pass unchallenged. But it took Boris to point out that while Brown may mislead in interviews, it is against the rules to do so in parliament. Brown has spent such little time debating in parliament that he forgets this. BoJo put the record straight. Bravo.
Anyway, to PMQs. Derek Conway wisely absented himself (as far as I could see). But maybe it would have been safe for him to go. Labour did not make one joke about Tories and nepotism. Both sides know they are in glass houses. I rather hoped Norman Baker would make a point, but he didn't. I rather fancied at least a third of the House is thinking "there but for the grace of God...". Robert Winnett, who broke the Conway story last May, works in parliament now. So they shouldn't feel safe.
I blogged last week that Brown has a succesful strategy for Cameron: to ignore the question, and make a wee speech. This time, Cameron had his own response: to lambast "People watching this will conclude that this Prime Minister cannot make a decision and cannot answer a question." etc.
But this week, Brown wasn't really trying. Last week, he was on the ropes and fought back, strongly. This week's PMQs had a downbeat feel to it. People were walking out towards the end, and little wonder.
Huge cheers for Killer Cable, and Brown almost cracked a joke. A "pleasure to see Cable back in the position", he said, "and.... and.... and.....". You feel like shouting out "and I'm sure it won't be long before he's back in the acting leader's chair again" or another payoff that would come naturally to Blair. Instead, it kind of petered out.
As ever, Cable had a great subject. 1m homes at risk (Brown has previously boasted that Americans face 2m repossessions, unlike Britain). Brown responded by saying how baaad things were under the Tories. He sticks to his theme, hammers it home. Unlike the Tories.
Brown's misleading stats get worse. Today he claims he led the first government since 1939 to see crime fall, down by 32%, violent crime down 31%. As Polly Toynbee rightly said (the words stick on my Blackberry), why are they building new Titan prisons if crime is not rampant?
In response to Clegg, Brown said defence spending fell by 20% between 1992 and 1997. I wonder if he thinks collapse of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War might be connected to that?
Finally someone (Keith Vaz) mentioned the police march, which no MP did last Wednesday when thousands of them were outside. Daft of Tories not to say they'd stump up, in the same way they respected every independent pay arbitration panel in office. Brown again says he didn't pay the police to combat inflation. If he's so worried, why not act to cap the outrageous 4.4% average council tax rise on the cards?
So overall a 0-0-0 match won by Boris Johnson.
Previous
Tiberius
January 30th, 2008 4:20pm Report this commentFraser, have you asked anyone from Team Cameron why they don't go eyeball to eyeball with Brown over the false statistics? Perhaps a supplementary question should be why does Brown persist with such risible rantings when no one believes them, and they don't appear to be improving his polling.
michael m
January 30th, 2008 4:49pm Report this commentI believe that the story is doing the rounds that whilst at Davos last weekend, Blair and Cameron talked. Evidently, the latter was told not to hold his punches against Brown Something I have been saying for months- why don't we expose the Brown lies? As they used to say, the more often you repeat a lie, the more often people will believe it. We have absolutely nothing to fear by saying the truth, often and loud. Why do we still hear so little of the front bench?
SJH
January 30th, 2008 5:12pm Report this commentOne intriguing aside by Brown at PMQs today was the fact that the new Secretary of State for Wales was also the minister responsible for "digital inclusion". Don't you think this dithering government would gain more from the appointment of a minister for digital extraction?
Nicholas Millman
January 30th, 2008 5:37pm Report this comment"Digital inclusion" sounds like a euphemism for more micro interference in our lives. In fact, in Scotland Wendy Alexander describes it thus:-
"The Scottish Executive is committed to working to achieve social justice. A socially just and
inclusive society is one where communities are empowered and each individual has
opportunities to maximise their potential.
Our society is changing. A key driver is information and communication technologies – the digital revolution. Some are part of this revolution more than others. We need a digitally
inclusive society – where all can play their part in new ways to strengthen communities and
where each individual can gain the benefits of being “online”."
Presumably the same old cobblers is being rolled out for the Welsh?
And Another Thing
January 30th, 2008 5:57pm Report this commentWhat was a man standing for the Major of London doing in the House of Commons in the first place? If he was so confident of winning he would of resigned by now.
Francesca
January 30th, 2008 6:05pm Report this commentWould have.
Verity
January 30th, 2008 6:18pm Report this commentAnd Mayor of London, not Major.
Chuck Unsworth
January 30th, 2008 6:36pm Report this commentWhat is a Major of London? Is it something to do with a former Conservative Prime Minister? Anyway, good for Johnson. Nice to see the Conservatives beginning to call Brown's bluff.
mark
January 30th, 2008 6:46pm Report this commentSo, now we demand not only the truth from MPs, but also correct English like wot it is spoke proper.........
Caroline
January 30th, 2008 7:06pm Report this commentFraser - if you'd had a look around the blogsphere you might have found this comment attributed to Boris at last September's hustings: "We have got to be absolutely clear where the scope for real economies is and the real big ticket for spending is the Metropolitan Police and Transport for London. That's where the real savings, believe me, are to be found." Bravo? michael m says - "I believe that the story is doing the rounds that whilst at Davos last weekend, Blair and Cameron talked. Evidently, the latter was told not to hold his punches against Brown" Well - LOL. Blair wouldn’t even bovver to advise Cameron the time of day – are you inhabiting Tory dream world or what? I’ve heard of desperation, but really….
TGF UKIP
January 30th, 2008 7:39pm Report this commentWOW! Big Big News! Tory challenges Labour Porky Pies. It really is a moot point - do we have a Government more useless than the Opposition or an Opposition more useless than the Government. Pretty close run thing I'd say. And, according to the polls, so say the voting public.
Richard Jenkins
January 30th, 2008 7:51pm Report this commentThe suspicion has to be that Cameron has plateaued against Brown at PMQs because he can memorise an entire conference speech but he can't hold a complex brief. What he needs to do is get on top of all the data on a topic - crime, infaltion, whatever - so he can come straight back at Brown with a BoJo type challenge, on the numbers. Yes it will look and sound boring (no soundbites), but the payoff would be the Brown reaction. Can he do it?
Caroline
January 30th, 2008 8:52pm Report this commentFraser if you'd had a look around the blogsphere you might have found this comment attributed to Boris at last September's hustings: "We have got to be absolutely clear where the scope for real economies is and the real big ticket for spending is the Metropolitan Police and Transport for London. That's where the real savings, believe me, are to be found." Bravo? michael m says - "I believe that the story is doing the rounds that whilst at Davos last weekend, Blair and Cameron talked. Evidently, the latter was told not to hold his punches against Brown" Well - LOL. Blair wouldn’t even bovver to advise Cameron the time of day – are you inhabiting Tory dream world or what? I’ve heard of desperation, but really….
And Another Thing
January 30th, 2008 8:53pm Report this commentSo what this is blog not the Daily Telegraph my point still stands a man who was convinced he could win would have resigned his seat & burnt his bridges to show the people of London he was serious & not have a cosy job in commons to go back if it all goes wrong. Boris is just playing, doing a favour for his Bullingham Club Mate Dave You can hear it now "don't worry Boris mate nice little place in the shadow cabinet when it all goes wrong" he has no policies just a bunch of ill thought out stuff about bendy buses, re phasing the traffic lights & getting rid of the Londoner. Ken has nowhere to go that's why he will win he wants it.
Nicholas Millman
January 30th, 2008 10:04pm Report this comment"are you inhabiting Tory dream world or what?" Yes, Caroline, we are all inhabiting Tory dream world. We have to - just to escape the sad, mad, bad world of New Labour reality.
jeff
January 30th, 2008 11:15pm Report this commentBoris is a clown. He doesn't take this election seriously. Why should anyone take him seriously?
jeff
January 30th, 2008 11:15pm Report this commentBoris is a clown. He doesn't take this election seriously. Why should anyone take him seriously?
Dave Burns
January 31st, 2008 3:37pm Report this commentI don't remember Ken resigning as an MP before he stood for Mayor. In fact I believe he was both Mayor and MP for some time. I think he resigned his position as Evening Standard Concentration Camp Food Reviewer
Fraser Nelson
January 31st, 2008 5:52pm Report this commentCaroline, thanks for that - and for all your comments which certainly liven things up in Coffee House. But where in that quote does it say Boris wld cut police spending? Nope - its a False Leap, a standard tool in the art of the political lie. Surely you can see it's a misinterpretation?
Praguetory
January 31st, 2008 8:43pm Report this commentExcellent post full of pearls of wisdom. I can't understand why the Tories won't make the commitment to honour the backdated element of the police pay rise. Blindingly simple and effective politics at little cost.
Caroline
January 31st, 2008 9:26pm Report this commentHello there Fraser. No, I'm sorry I don't agree with you. Read that comment of Boris's and think about the false leap that would have been made here if Ken had said it? Nevertheless, good luck with the Bojo revolution which is an interesting idea, but it's also a game that all parties will play if push comes to nasty shove? And btw Fraser, talking about misinterpretation, false leaps, implications, and other verbal mishaps. Nick Herbert talking today about crimes committed by prisoners on early release? Listening to him speaking so stridently, members of the public might be forgiven for thinking that criminals are being released many months ahead of their release date (insufficiently punished) rather than the 18 days I now understand it to be according to a later news programme. Though Nick Herbert as far as I heard, didn't actually specify that. Can you confirm the 18 days, or is it months as was the implication?
Fraser Nelson
February 1st, 2008 12:08pm Report this commentSurely you agree that Boris is committed to increasing Met budget, tho? I mean, he says he is. Can we really gainsay him? I hope all parties do play this game. No one should put up with lies. Obv more tend to come from a party in gvt, but the whole thing debases politics. To be honest I'm not across Nick Herbert stuff. But we do intend in CoffeeHouse to pillory Tories who use false statistics, like Brown is doing. Sword of truth, and all that. So if you spot any Tory porkies, please alert us!
angela king.
February 2nd, 2008 7:07pm Report this commentBoris Johnson is going to win and become London Mayor and he will make us all proud. It is ludicrous to describe someone of his intellect as a clownm simply because he has a great sense of humour. Since when was it a crime to make good jokes? At least he is not boring as hell like a lot of M.Ps and he doesn't take himself too seriously, but that doesn't stop him from being nearly at genius level.
Caroline
February 3rd, 2008 6:12pm Report this comment(I apologise if this is posted twice, and with a minor alteration) Fraser - let's out the porkies from whatever sources, and in that regard - Alert - there is some dispute about Michael Howard and that dangerous guy that he let into the country several times that Cameron 'forgot' about, or wasn't briefed about before putting his foot in it at PMQ's. It's explained on Ben Brogan and 3 Line Whip. Is that first blood to me then? Where's my prize? But, seriously I think you're on a hiding to nothing when facts and figures are so endlessly forgettable and disputable, and I'm sure that it's not unknown to for a genuine mistake to be made. PS. Fraser - the term 'sword of truth' is perhaps best forgotten!!
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