An explosive session

dorothy wilson

"....who then got even more cross when Cameron thought a question about government cuts to English-language training for immigrants was about student visas."

There was a programme on this on Radio 4 late on Monday evening about this. I have to confess I was only half listening but did I understand correctly that the government [ie the taxpayer] has been funding English language training for immigrants? If so why?

That question is even more relevant because the Radio 4 programme interviewed 3 immigrants who were complaining. One was from Brazil, the second from Columbia and the third from India. The one from Columbia was working as a cleaner. The guy from India complained he did not have the money to pay for his own language training because he was a monk who spent most of his time in a monastery.

Surely, the obvious question is why on earth on these people allowed to come into this country as immigrants. Haven't we got enough unemployed people of our own capable of working as cleaners?

toni

Didn't Balls point to the Govt front bench whilst mouthing...'better to be annoying than incompetent!'
If he didn't, he should have.

Louisa

Strange - I watched PMQs just now and didn't think Cameron lost his temper once. In fact he seemed to be laughing at Balls, which is always the most devastating response.

AF

The Labour M.P who even you failed to remember was "I always get things done" Chris Williamson member for Derby North a shoo in for the resigning Bob Laxton.Williamson who has just given up his job as councillor asked a queston of Cameron whereupon he completely got his facts wrong and had the temerity to demand an appology from the P.M.who cut him to the quick by saying that he couldn't owe an appology has I have no idea who you are.Whatch this man and your eyes will fall out of your head looking.
The P.M.was on his mettle.

davidk

"Cameron then produced a brilliant comeback, saying that Balls was ‘the most annoying person in British politics’ and ‘I suspect that the leader of the opposition will come to agree with me. ’"

A 'brilliant comeback'? Lol!!

Flashman mastered by a man who intimidates him, more like.

Nick

"But the whole incident was not a good one for him. Prime Ministers shouldn’t lose their temper in the chamber."

Really ? Why is it bad to lose your temper ?

There's one thing to lose your temper because you have been shown up by some incisive questioning, quite another when you lose your temper when provoked by rudeness or bad manners from the opposition benches.

Deputy Prime Ministers shouldn't generally go round punching people but if punched first by someone their physical equal then it is actually a good thing to punch back.

TrevorsDen

Balls is a toss pot and the more he is spat upon the better.
Indeed it should be in the Olympics.

I for one have no problem in Balls being insulted, the notion that he can heckle with impunity is typical labour self serving guff.

raymond jones

I remember before the house was televised there were those whou predicted much acting
for the t.v. audiance to use visual effects
to descredit.this is one of those

Chris lancashire

Cameron gets better every week. As for losing his temper, did he? I thought he put Balls nicely back in his box.

John Court

I think that the most tolerant Tory would struggle to hold his tongue were a loud, hypocritical ignoramus like Balls interrupting him. The occasional snap helps us to see that the PM is human - let's not take that as justification for launching office equipment around though.

Nick

The fact that Cameron often makes a remark about Ed Balls in PMQs is actually quite clever politically. It emphasises that he thinks Balls is a more powerful and significant figure in the Labour Party than Ed Milliband, and thus undermines Milliband's (already low) authority.

Macduff777

Once you lose your temper, you lose the argument. Lady Thatcher never did this, and she will always be a great leader. Poor, poor,poor.

Tom Pride

Put Balls nicely back in his box? It was Casino Royale. . . .

Maggie

He didn't lose his temper. Balls is a twerp and Cameron slapped him down. You must be a very sensitive little flower if you think that's an example of someone losing their temper.

les

"lost his temper" come off it!

Cameron was excellent - Waugh said Balls must be doing something right if Cameron finds him annoying which is a stupid thing to say, Balls acts like a spoilt brat at PMQs and needs to be slapped down.

Your piece seems to be all about upsetting labour!

Pettros

Flashman rides again!

statechaos

If I choose to go and live in a non-English speaking country will the hard-working people of that country pay for me to learn their language, when they are struggling to pay for the petrol to get them to work?

Marc Oliver

I have watched Cameron closely at PMQs since he became PM, and it is clear to me that he is trying to teach the Labour MPs manners. Watch him work the Labour side of the chamber: if they question him politely, he responds politely; if not, not. He may sort Libya and even shrink the deficit, but curing the calculated rank rowdiness of Ed Balls and his unsavoury ilk will, I fear, prove beyond him. But keep at it, Dave - it beats anything else on the telly.

david

What rubbish, Cameron so did'nt loose his temper not sure what you were watching.

It's 100% true about balls.

David Martin

Thanks for explaining what Balls was shouting at Cameron (on TV it wasn't audible). Cameron didn't come across so much as bad-tempered as irritated, maybe as Balls's heckle - that Cameron was under-briefed - wasn't unreasonable. Cameron does tend to wing it. He's certainly mastered Blair's technique of ignoring the point of awkward questions. With backbenchers he can get away with this, but Miliband could make more of the advantage that he can ask six questions. He could try too asking about the sort of detail Cameron tends not to have at his fingertips, as well as picking up on Coalition differences. But at the moment Cameron is too self-assured and mentally quick on his feet for Miliband to land many punches.

Cameo Parkway Kid

'Gets better every week'?? 'Brilliant comeback'?? I'll have some of what you're smoking please.

Milliband skewered him today, made him look like a clown (all The Rave needed was a red-nose), and reduced him to a shouting, arrogant knob. Shameron was pretty clueless on his education policy vanishing up its own rear-end funding wise. Likewise Milliband stuffed him on police numbers.

Sorry but a good 5 minutes at Balls expense at the end doesn't change the price of fish - when you're 3-0 down, a late consolation is pretty pointless really.

An easy win for Milliband I'm afraid.

Forlornehope

Just watched the clip of this. He didn't seem to lose his wrag; on the contrary he rather looked as if he was enjoying himself.

Simon Stephenson.

It's a pity it's not possible to show Balls in the pose shown in your picture, but wearing the Nazi uniform he favoured when Keble College had the misfortune to have him as an undergraduate.

Il Duce seeking favours from the Fuhrer, perhaps?

Simon Stephenson.

Cameo Parkway Kid

Sorry, but whatever Cameron did or said would be an away win as far as you're concerned, so your opinions, like Fatbloke's, are totally worthless.

I shouldn't apply for a position on the Pools Panel, if I were you.

Tron

David Cameron is just very good at being Prime Minister and Labour hate it.
He may not have all the perfect policies for my, and many other, tastes but he slipped into the role of PM seamlessly.
We all saw Gordon Brown try to do the job and he was pathetic. Miliband, Harman, Balls etc. all look and sound like student Lefties who would be happier smashing up Top Shop than running an economy.
Cameron has the intelligence, the manners and the quick wit to put the two Ed's in their Red Box every week,and he does. The Spectator pretends he doesn't beat Ed "I have a dream" Miliband every week just to keep things interesting.
Labour can't win the argument because he is clearing up their mess and they know it so they shout "Flashman , bully" etc.
Yes "Bully " from the Party of Brown and Balls. Ha!
Oh, James Forsyth, if you think Cameron lost his temper I suggest you watch a re-run of a Gordon Brown PMQ.

Simon Stephenson.

Nick : 2.13pm

"The fact that Cameron often makes a remark about Ed Balls in PMQs is actually quite clever politically. It emphasises that he thinks Balls is a more powerful and significant figure in the Labour Party than Ed Milliband, and thus undermines Milliband's (already low) authority."

Very astute, Nick.

I think, though, that even ignoring RedEd, there's a lot of party-political mileage in hammering out the message that Balls is Labour, and Labour is Balls. Because, like his forefathers, Bevan, Heffer E, Foot, Pillock, or that gormless one from Kirkcaldy, he is only a hero to people who are going to vote Labour anyway, and the greater his exposure, the more Labour's present-day poisonousness will be noticed and understood by people beyond this section of society.

Ash Borges

To the two people complaining about the government paying for immigrants to learn English.
1) This only applies to non-EU citizens and is absolutely standard practice across the EU as it has been proven in countless studies that people that do not speak the local language struggle to integrate on almost every measurement scale.
2) Why should the government pay for it? Because if the immigrant is able to learn English, integrate well into society and get a reasonable job then they will pay back in taxes more than quadruple the amount invested in them within a year.
3) to the person who asked if this would happen in other countries? If he/she is a non-EU citizen and moves to an EU country then yes probably, if not then probably not. But that doesn't make it right as it is clearly to the benefit of the 'host' society to have any immigrants speaking the local language. This is true in Spain, India, and even the UK.

Yosemite Sam

I agree with Marc Oliver @ 2.37. If asked questions sensibly, from those trying to elicit new or extra information, Cameron responds equally sensibly. This is true of his responses to Milliband. On the other hand, when questions are asked purely as political point scoring, Cameron succeeds in scoring points in return. But in many years of watching PMQ's - from Thatcher onwards - I have never seen anything like the gross disrepect and ill-manners shown by Balls. What has come over Labour? The old Labour giants fought tough politics - but they were not coarse, loud mouthed, louts.

Tom Pride

Pettros
March 30th, 2011 2:29pm

“Flashman rides again!”

Pettros, my dear, there are many who, like you, are prone to shriek “Flashman”. Flashman might be to you the character who roasted some spotty little sanctimonious sprog, but, to me and many others he is the glorious anti-hero of the “Flashman Papers” (edited by George Macdonald Fraser). From Flashman to Flashman on the March (but no “Flashman rides again” – you must be mixing it up with your Biggles) his adventures give pleasure, chuckle and further pleasure. Flashman has no pejorative connotations for me.

As for Cameron possessing all the talents of the great Victorian hero (V.C.) – I wish.

Pettros

Tom Pride....
The name suits him perfectly. I dont like him but if I was called Flashman I would take it as a complement.

Verity

Congratulations to AF for using "shoo in" correctly.

AAE

I think Balls actually blushed!! And losing one's temper should be just one item in one's armoury, and the more those on the Right (and no, I'm not including Dave in this category) crash through the parameters of political debate, all decided on by the Left, the better it is for bringing empirical argument to the fore. Reality should return as the watchword for the Right. For instance, who can name even one Quango which is vital to their day to day life? Exactly! So why are we spending 167 billion quid on them? Do people know how many thousands of people die in NHS hospitals because of MRSA etc.? More than 6000! So, let's puncture this sanctimonious sentimentality around the NHS. How many people die in BUPA clinics or Nuffield hospitals because of wanton neglect? I'm assuming that the answer is none, otherwise it'd plastered all over the Guardian.
Cameron from the beginning made a huge tactical mistake in playing by the Left's rules, but now we know he's actually an SDP Prime Minister, maybe it's part of his success!

dorothy wilson

Ash Borges: But you still do not deal with the basic question. Why on earth should anyone who does not speak enough English to get a reasonable job be allowed to come into this country as an immigrant? This is particularly so when we already have so many people unemployed.

Ash Borges

It is important that Britain continues to recruit highly skilled workers as well as low-skilled ones that British-born workers refuse to take.
Also, in a lot of cases, family reunification legislation removes the option from the government so even if they wanted to stop someone coming into the country then they couldn't stop them.
And finally, I think it might be important to ask "Why shouldn't the government pay to help people speak English better?" I have encountered enough British-born citizens who could do with a few 'refresher' lessons, just look at the comments section on most tabloid newspaper articles.

George Laird

Dear All

On Cameron spitting the dummy!

Seems to me that everyone is entitled to a blow up!

As to the charge of Balls was ‘the most annoying person in British politics’.

He should qualify such a statement, in the hinterland of provincial politics up in Scotland; there are some people worse than Ed Balls.

Balls despite his shortcomings does possess some intelligence, up here, some people struggle to be just mediocre.

I won’t name names but their defeat at the ballot box will be warmly welcomed by me.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

TimJB

I think this episode shows that the Prime Minister is decisive. I'll be honest if you stood me infront of a line up of the Labour front bench I'd find it impossible to name a single one of them as THE most annoying person in politics. How can you possibly choose between that line up?

Paul

Must admit when watching it, I thought Cameron was being a bit personal, but if Balls was shouting that at him, then fair play to Cameron for slapping him down.

Balls'll probably relish his thuggish reputation as "Tory Bogeyman" being reinforced - God knows his economic views have no credence

Cynic

@toni "Didn't Balls point to the Govt front bench whilst mouthing...'better to be annoying than incompetent!'" Why should he do that? After all, it was his lot who proved their incompetence over 13 years. He wouldn't want to draw attention to Labour's record, surely?

briam kelly

I agree with your comment, Marc Oliver. I also noticed, as I often do these days, the Labour mp from the Potteries nodding thorough approval for Cameron's answer. I think Cameron is a breath of fresh air and hope he continues to be so. He is confident without being arrogant or boastful and is not afraid of giving straight and blunt answers.

alcazar

Dorothy Wilson wrote:

"One was from Brazil, the second from Columbia..."

If you were teaching them English, I would sack you.

Ade

It was like the local tearaways trying to wind up the posh kids from the private school. Cameron was very calm and Balls showed his anything to win mentality. The tag 'most annoying man in politics' will live with him for a long time

Paddy

Cameron didn't lose his temper. I agree with the earlier poster....that he is trying to teach old Labour some manners.

Balls was so embarrassed he "coloured-up".

Someone ought to teach that wife of his some manners too.

Heckling Teresa May from a sedentary position on Monday.....suffice to say May won that one too.

The pair of them and a few others need a slapping down.

Go Cameron!

Verity

Paddy - "Balls was so embarrassed he "coloured-up"."

Did he sing "Mammy"?

Apemantus

He was last seen way down upon the Swanee River looking for his economic credibility.

Phil

Lying in order to make your article sound plausible is journalism at its worst unless of course you did not in fact watch p.m.q.'s.
Cameron did not lose his temper - watch it again and detect the minutest scintilla of temper in Cameron's demeanour.