A better PMQs for Brown
Fraser Nelson 12:57pm
In a not-very-hotly contested category, this was perhaps Gordon Brown’s best PMQs performance. His content wasn’t any more accurate, but sounding confident is half the battle. And he did. He didn’t stutter or garble his words and looked much more relaxed. As ever, there’s a bit of Dr Johnson’s dog about this - but Cameron chose the wrong issue and if he expected Brown to crumble he was mistaken.
A day ahead of the local elections, Cameron could and should have picked a doorstep issue. Instead he went on the case for 42 day detention without trial. Brown seemed quite optimistic about it. When he was defending it, I fancied I caught a glimpse of the Blair strategy – when under fire, run into the fire. Given that everyone thinks this vote is already lost, it is – dare I say – rather brave to go on about it so much. Either that or he’s deluded.
Cameron repeatedly tried to ask Brown if 42 days would be a confidence issue (word is that Brown has decided just to lose the vote, like Blair did over 90 days). Brown understandably dodged the issue. Cameron had plenty of good points, made with ease. But for whatever reason (he was moaning only yesterday that he’d failed to get away from punch-and-judy politics) he let it descend into a rather lifeless exchange.
Brown tried a few insults – they work because they are so heartfelt, Cameron is a “shallow salesman” who “never addresses the substance of the issues” (you can almost hear him say the same about the electorate). When Nick Clegg did his usual unconvincing Angry Man impression – going on poverty and post offices – Brown responded by borrowing Chris Huhne’s Calamity Clegg jibe. I’m sure I heard the word “Cleggover” shouted somewhere, but could be wrong.
Oh – and yet another evolution in that monstrous whopper about Child Poverty. As I noted earlier, only 600,000 have been “lifted out of poverty” even by Labour’s weird definition and yet Brown claims a million have been. But today he said he is “on the road” to taking a million children out of poverty. In the same way, I suppose, that the Soviets were on the road to full communism and Venice is on the road to sinking. It’s so much better to travel hopefully. Or perhaps he means “we’re busy furiously fiddling the figures, which is why the DWP child poverty figures are delayed by so many weeks.”
Anyway, Brown will have a good lunch today, for perhaps the first time since PMQs started. Cameron could have had a few pre-election headlines out of this, or TV news footage of Brown looking dodgy. Instead, we have perhaps the first ever PMQs footage that will not be instantly deleted from the Browns’ Sky+.
PS Iain Dale (and about a dozen CoffeeHousers) suggests I’m being too kind on our Dear Leader. Iain gives Cameron 8, Brown 6 and Clegg 4. I’d disagree only in that I don’t think anyone did that well – I’d give Cameron 6.5, Brown 5 and Clegg 4. Any normal person can see any PMQs nowadays and think Cameron came out on top – unlike the Blair days where it was an even match. Cameron will always win: he can talk, he can ad lib, he can make jokes. Brown is happier behind a book. The problem reviewing this battle is that you have to judge each by their own standards – hence my point about Dr Johnson’s dog. Normally one watches Brown at PMQs and cringes: it’s so painful it hurts. All I’m saying is that today, in my view, was not one of those days.
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Comments
Diana
April 30th, 2008 1:11pmI thought Cameron hammered Brown. I thought Brown lost himself in the first couple of answers in particular and was fumbling about. (Even Harriet got out her paperwork, rather than nod supportively.)
OK there is more mileage in the 10p tax rate on the election stump, but it all comes down to the same thing - Brown makes up policies to make himself look good, without thinking it through.
Patrick
April 30th, 2008 1:18pmFraser
You must have watched a different PMQ's to me. Brown stuttered, got 42 mixed with 48, and I detected the clenched fist clunking away like a good un'. Cameron neatly reminded the PM of the U turn over the 10p tax and that he will do exactly the same over the 42 day question showing that Brown is a loser not a leader. There was absolutely no need to raise the car tax or 10p issues. Switch on your TV, it is being given top billing. The audience base for MSM news is watched by millions, PMQ's alas is not. The Government is being shown again to have been slight of hand regarding car tax but instead of coming from DC's mouth Sky et al are doing a fabulous job.
Simon
April 30th, 2008 1:22pmTomorrows in the bag Fraser. Better to get Brown to repeat his commitment to 42 days before the inevitable climbdown. Brown looked bitter and even got the number of days wrong. Of course, you have long supported the Govt plan to turn us into a police state! It ranks along with your sensible advice for Dave to privatise the health service and abolish income tax.
Brown Watcher
April 30th, 2008 1:36pmI think you have read it worng Fraser.
The “shallow salesman” jibe is rather uncharacteristic of Brown (as was the personal attack on Clegg) - So I conclude that Brown was seriously, seriously rattled by Cameron and by the past week and anticipation of May 1st.
It was the right choice of Cameron's to pin Brown into a corner over the 42 days. That's what he did so hats off to "the toff"!
Tiberius
April 30th, 2008 1:48pmSeems it will be you, Fraser, who has the most difficulty digesting lunch today. Bon appetit!
Chuck Unsworth
April 30th, 2008 2:09pmI think Cameron was right to choose the forty-two days issue, simply because by so doing he's made it clear that Opposition will still go relentlessly on after tomorrow - no matter what the outcome of the elections may be. He's also understood that Brown has lost the 10p battle and Brown's now going to have to face his own people again on the Detention without Trial shambles.
I think it's better for Cameron at this stage to keep an eye on the horizon. All parties will claim electoral successes - some more credible than others - but the public will make up its own mind as to the interpretation of the outcome.
David
April 30th, 2008 2:13pmProbably not very relevant to PMQ but very pertinent to future voting intentions:-
My salary this month, with the lower rate of tax, plus the increase in personal " allowances " less the 10% abolition less most pertinently the NI hike ?
An increase of £1.26.
I predict a comfortable win for BJ .
Ethan Hurlington
April 30th, 2008 2:24pmBrown doesn't mess up as bad as usual, and it's seen as something that is noteworthy. This guy is meant to be the voice of the British people, and yet the fact that he was able to speak clearly (tripped over the 42 (or is it 48 days) issue...) is seen as some congratulatory issue. I wonder how much tax payer funded training he has received. My how the office of PM has dropped to new levels of incompetency!
al b
April 30th, 2008 3:49pm"Given that everyone thinks this vote is already lost, it is – dare I say – rather brave to go on about it so much. Either that or he’s deluded."
The latter, Fraser.
Victor, NW Kent
April 30th, 2008 4:06pmFraser - it is not 42 days without trial; that is quite normal. It is 42 days without charge. There is world of difference.
Oscar Miller
April 30th, 2008 8:21pmCameron was streets ahead of Brown (as usual) - Brown had a desperate stab at Punch and Judy and could only muster up a stale repetition of very very tired attacks (hug a hoodie, the chauffeur driven car and Calamity Clegg - oh dear). Fraser - I think you might have been influenced by the biased BBC on this one. But I was struck by Brown's tightlipped response to the question about Lord Levy and whether he knew about the dodgy donations. That looks like one to watch.
Turk's Head
April 30th, 2008 10:13pmTo be sure, Sir, I learn nothing new when listening to this man. His unimpressive and base sentiments fill my mind with much melancholy. He is most certain to invite the hiss of the world against him. Such an untenable fellow who picks falsehood from the truth as easily as one picks the strawberries from among the leaves.
TrevorH
April 30th, 2008 10:52pmBrowns has a dig at Clegg and Liberals by saying that their policies are "proposing to spend huge sums of extra money without having any recognisable means of paying for them" ... ho ho, this is from a man who has left his government with massive deficits. Has he not looked at the countries borrowing requirement lately?
Every word Brown utters, like taking 1 million out of poverty, is a lie. Just because he shouts them from the dispatch box does not make for a good performance.
We are not fooled - juts whats your excuse?
Ian C
May 1st, 2008 12:07pmThe PMQ's I watched (did not stay for Clegg - what's the point?) would be scored a draw, but Cameron did not need more on this chosen subject as it is Brown's to lose. The over- riding impression was that Brown could not wipe the floor with him, so Brown is long term if not immediate loser. Clever of Cameron. He is showing he is an opposition leader.