PMQs Live Blog
David Blackburn 12:00pm
So Parliament is back, and so, too, is PMQs. Stay tuned for live coverage from 1200.
12:02: And we're off. Brown pays his respects to those who have lost their lives in Afghanistan and lists their names. Very sombre and he has pitched it right. There are a lot of names; it takes five minutes to read them. It's extremely moving.
12:06: Ann Winterton on the Lisbon Treaty. Brown replies by praising the troops in Afghanistan - over doing it as ever. Swipes the sovereignty aside.
12:07: Tony Wright: "Is it more dangerous when politicians become generals, or generals become politicians".
12:08: Now Cameron's on his feet. A question about the 'military covenant' - General Dannatt's chief bugbear. Brown waffles, taking two minutes to dispense platitudes about the forthcoming White Paper. Nothing about the injury payment though.
12:11: Cameron what's been done for wounded former servicemen as they get older, especially to avoid suicides among former servicemen in the future? Brown praises the improvements made, notably at Headley Court and Sellyoak. Fair enough on that point - but the court case and the defence review still hold against the government on this. The atmosphere is akin to a morgue.
12:14: Cameron twists the knife slowly about the government's cuts for the TA. Cameron is slowly winning this debate. Brown's claims that all troops being sent to Afghanistan will receive adequate training are demolished by the fact that various TA soldiers being deployed without adequate support. Brown flaps, defending the indefensible. Cameron sits down.
12:17: Brown much more effective in replying to a Labour plant, praising 100 years of the Girl Guides. Dear God.
12:18: Clegg opens up by condeming the corrupt Karzai government. Clegg wants answers and after a calamitous conference he needs to pack a punch.
Brown hopes that Clegg will wait for the UN-Afghan report into corruption. Brown says it's remarkable that the Afghans could hold their own elections amid insurgency - it isn't because they didn't.
12:21: Clegg re-states the question; Brown repeats his answer. Missed opportunity for Clegg.
12:24: Lib Dem Steve Webb on the 2.4% pension rise. The elderly will be worse off. Brown says he's detrimined to do his best and gives some tractor stats. Same old Gordon.
12:26 Peter Bottomley desires action over the Trafigura injunction. Brown says that Straw is looking into the issue. Murmurs of discontent around the chamber - nothing like Parliamentary Privilege being subverted to rile them. Neither Brown, nor Bottomley have mentioned libel laws - early days on this issue though.
12:29: Interesting riposte to Ken Clarke's conference small business plans. SDLP's Alistair MacDonald says that lending has got worse and that banks aren't lending. Brown's answer is to throw money, not to release small businesses from regulation. "It depends on our willingness to spend to protect recovery". Expect more of that.
12:32: Brown is asked about former servicemen in prison. Brown doesn't know the figure. I can tell him that it stands at 20,000, according to The Times - nearly twice what it was in 1997. Brown and New Labour on the dock for that.
12:33: A Labour plant about poverty. Brown lays into the Conservatives' claim to the progressive argument on the grounds that you can't do that with cuts. Blah, blah, blah, blah: "let's do the time warp again!"
12:35: Michael Spicer asks if the PM will soldier on to the bitter end. He says he will...
Brown makes a statement on Afghanistan and Pakistan to follow...
Verdict: Back to business without a bang. The old dividing lines are in place and that is an argument that the Conservatives will win. Brown bored all tears, and Clegg was as pointed as a broken pencil. By contrast, Cameron gave a well executed attack on Defence - an area that the government cannot win on.
Previous
Christopher Bowring
October 14th, 2009 12:22pm Report this commentCould the Prime Minister be persuaded not to bang the table in front of him. It doesn't sound too good when amplified.
Sunlit Uplands
October 14th, 2009 12:32pm Report this commentPre-season kick about. Barely a tackle being made. Tory strategy to make sure Brown is further embedded before the election? Or, more likely, the calm before the autumn storm.
Maggie
October 14th, 2009 1:34pm Report this commentI don't know how Gordon Brown has the barefaced cheek to read out the names of dead soldiers as though its all nothing to do with him. Judging by their sun tans and their self-obsessed demands to hang onto their ill-gotten gains I don't think they've given a moment's thought to the troops during their 3 month holidays.
Tiberius
October 14th, 2009 1:49pm Report this commentI guess, Christopher B, it's either the table or his head.
TrevorsDen
October 14th, 2009 2:16pm Report this commentI think it disgraceful to use the bear-pit of PMQs to read out lists of war dead. In deed I do not see the point in reading out the dead in Parliament - it did not happen in WW1 or WW1 or Korea or Malaysia or Aden or Kenya or Northern Ireland.
If Brown thinks it so important why cannot a cabinet member meet the dead as they are brought off the plane?
Alun Reynolds
October 14th, 2009 2:33pm Report this commentTrevorsDen: Well said. Or even the local MP for the Wooton Bassett area (which, I think is Ann Snelgrove) the one civilian place in this country where these men are given the respect they are due.
Alun Reynolds
October 14th, 2009 2:35pm Report this commentI stand corrected. The MP for Wootton Basset is James Gray. And he does attend at least some of the repatriation cermonies. And has visited the troops in Afghanistan.
JohnOfEnfield
October 14th, 2009 3:34pm Report this commentI cannot understand why Brown has taken to honouring our dead at PMQs. It is out of place and offensive.
The Bellman
October 14th, 2009 3:51pm Report this commentWe owe the roll-call of deaths to that sanctimonious tear-jerk Tony Blair. While masquerading as a sobering reminder of the cost of political decisions, in practice all it does is constrain opposition. Worse, it politicises the dead. Gesture politics at its most loathesome.
Fox in a box
October 14th, 2009 4:15pm Report this commentJohnOfEnfield
I cynically suspect that he finds it useful to set a sombre tone at the outset, and therefore keep a lid on the "bear-pit" that PMQ's should be.
Sadly I find nothing to convince me that Brown cares anything for the "little people" with soldiers being close to the bottom of the pile.
That I can believe the the PM would trivialise the deaths of these men and women for a bit of posturing and a perceived advantage across the despatch box, is a sad reflection on the depths to which "government" has sunk under New Labour.
And to think I twice voted for them. I am disgusted with myself, but the scales have long since fallen from my eyes - and many others too, I believe.
Nicholas
October 14th, 2009 5:09pm Report this commentI agree with all the posts expressing the view that these names should not be read.
As far as I know Brown has never met the dead at Wooton Basset. The man is a disgrace. A vainglorious, self-serving travesty.
Amadeus Plonquer
October 15th, 2009 1:25am Report this commentFoxInABox said 'And to think I twice voted for them.'
Good on yer mate. You seem to be the only person in the UK who will admit to having voted for Labour. Twice. How Labour could have formed 3 governments with only one single voter is beyond me.
The British people have gotten EXACTLY what they deserve. What on Earth did they expect from a Labour government. They are always corrupt, they always hurt the poor and they always bankrupt the country.
Back to top