Europe dominates PMQs
Fraser Nelson 12:54pm
Fabian Hamilton kicked off with today’s planted question. Poverty pay in this country has been abolished by the National Minimum Wage, he says, and will Brown increase it and retain his commitment to high employment? Poverty pay is, of course, alive and well – in those who operate in the booming black market. At least a quarter of a million are paid less than the minimum wage.
Anyway, Brown announces it will be £5.73 this October – a 60% rise from the original minimum wage (Brownie alert - that’s a bogus rather than real terms rise using the £3.60 rate of 1999 as a base). We have created 3m jobs, says Brown (no, the economy has created them and 81% of those jobs are accounted for by immigrants). And just 3% of these jobs are minimum wage jobs.
Cameron led on Europe – a separate issue that we’ll blog on later. Suffice to say that Brown can’t pronounce “Maastricht “(the way he says it rhymes with “ostrich”) and is itching to get the referendum vote rejected so he can ask his favourite question: what will the Tories do next? Will they renegotiate? As he knows, the Tories have no answer to this rather than the enigmatic formula that they won’t let matters lie. Cameron is getting to the end of the easy part of this debate. Brown laid into Cameron after the final question, to cries of delight from Labour benches. It’s been a while since I’ve heard that sound at PMQs.
Cameron used his Obama phrase: that the political system in Britain is so badly “broken”. But he’s exactly right on this point. What a joke the system of manifesto promises really is.
Nick Clegg simply disgraced himself, accusing Brown of colluding with the Tories to block an in-or-out referendum “that the British people really want”. What rank dishonesty. “There is not much principle, Mr Speaker, in recommending abstention” said Brown. Exactly the right response. Cameron covered his face and shook his head while Clegg spoke. Exactly the right response. Brown says he agrees with Clegg that the Tories are being driven by Eurosceptics – if only.
David Marshall (Glasgow East) asked Brown to consider a windfall levy on gas profits and put the cash into winter fuel allowance – there have been rumours that Brown will do just this in the Budget. But Brown seemed to say “wait for the Ofgem investigation”. British Gas is making a loss on its retail gas right now: if I were the industry I’d correct the impression of profiteering as quickly as it can. It could cost them plenty.
Brown repeated his untrue claim about Boris cutting police spending. His team at No10 is much improved (as I examine in my political column tomorrow) and it seems he is confident enough to roll out a few dodgy stats again. CoffeeHouse will start to offer its humble corrective this afternoon.
Previous
Kate
March 5th, 2008 1:05pm Report this commentI wonder what the trade-off between minimum wage rises and inflation is?
David
March 5th, 2008 1:11pm Report this comment"the Tories have no answer to this " Can't see why not. A) A rejection now would be the reponsibility of the current government to renegotiate, as the Treaty has yet to be ratified across the EU. B) if the governmetn ratifies the Treaty now, then in two years time going back to the treaty will be pointless, as the debate will undoubtedly have moved on, and the Tories will anyway have a basic stance of aiming to change the overall relationship with the EU. Only the Tory Taliban of Conservative Home will call for the Treaty to be re-neogtiated in two years time, mainly because they've little clue as to reality.
Tim P
March 5th, 2008 1:15pm Report this commenthe said he wants to offer the opportunity of education up to 18, which the tories want to cut. complete rubbish. he wants to criminalise anyone who doesn't stay on till 18. everyone currently has the opportunity of education until 18 - school/apparenticeships are free until this age. as far as i know the tories haven't said they will spend less on education than labour and certianly haven't made a pledge to restrict education to 16-18 year olds (make them pay for the sixth form???)
Tom
March 5th, 2008 1:15pm Report this commentDoes anyone know how many of the much vaunted 3m new jobs are in the public sector?
Tim Worstall
March 5th, 2008 2:05pm Report this commentErm, note the caveat on those less than minimum wage figures: "Although the low pay estimates attempt to measure the number of jobs that are paid below the national minimum wage, it should be noted that the estimates cannot be used as a measure of non-compliance with the legislation. This is because it is not possible to determine from the survey data whether an individual is eligible for the minimum wage. For example, it is not possible to identify people such as apprentices and those undergoing training, who are exempt from the minimum wage rate or are entitled to lower rates. If employees receive free accommodation, employers are entitled to offset hourly rates."
Nicholas
March 5th, 2008 2:18pm Report this commentI thought the Tory questions (all of them) were weak and that Brown exhibited more confidence and comfort than usual. Brown appears lulled into a defensive comfort zone that Tory questions will attack rather than probe and expose and that he can deflect them with his standard "Tories are Nasty" response questions and/or statistical lies. The planted Labour questions are irksome, undermine the parliamentary process and should be exposed and ridiculed. Cameron's questions are too stage managed and do not pin down Brown's bobbing and weaving. The most that can be said is that they expose Brown's evasiveness, a subtlety which I fear may be lost on the GBP.
Fraser Nelson
March 5th, 2008 3:13pm Report this commentTom, about 700,000 are in public sector. It's like employing the entire population of San Francisco....
Cicero
March 5th, 2008 4:53pm Report this commentI've just had the pleasure of hearing Iain Duncan Smith's speech in the EU Treaty Referendum debate - really first class, so catch it if you can.
mike
March 5th, 2008 5:03pm Report this commentMr Cameron said Mr Brown had lost his "courage" while the Lib Dem leader said the prime minister had "bottled it". So this is how opposition parties go about the job of seeing our country is well governed. They tell jokes, and a joke is only a joke the first time it's told, if repeated on a daily basis it shows you lack the ability to be original or constructive. They are silly little people who do not inspire confidence, looks like we'll have to stick with Gordon, have you noticed the guy does not stoop to name calling ? Also he's getting better at PMQs', now I quite enjoy watching him.
Tom
March 5th, 2008 5:42pm Report this commentThanks Fraser, what I'm trying to get at though is how many non-taxpayer funded jobs have been created for British people rather than immigrants. Does anyone know that figure? It's hardly a boast to say that you created public sector jobs is it now.
HJ
March 6th, 2008 12:22pm Report this commentTom,
If you take out immigrants and those employed directly by the public sector, the number of private sector jobs for British citizens has reduced, albeit modestly.
If you take out those jobs not directly taxpayer-funded but nevertheless entirely dependent on public sector spending (e.g. GPs, consultancies, quangos, etc.) the picture is even worse.
Tom
March 6th, 2008 4:20pm Report this commentThanks HJ - what a fantastic counter-argument. Can I ask where you found those statistics?
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