Tories push benefit cap in PMQs, Miliband ignores it
James Forsyth 1:43pm
As expected, the Tories did everything they could to make the benefit cap the subject of PMQs. One Tory MP managed to slip in a question on it just before Miliband got up, allowing Cameron to press the Labour leader on the issue even before he had started speaking.
Tory MPs kept coming back to the benefit cap — there were five questions on it in all — allowing Cameron to repeatedly mock the Labour front bench for not saying what its position is. ‘Just nod — are you with us or against us?’ was one of the lines Cameron tried to goad them with.
But in the main clashes between the two leaders, which were on top pay and the NHS, Miliband actually did pretty well. He caused Cameron some discomfort on the question of why the government weren’t using their power to make the banks declare how many people earn more than a million pounds. When it came to the NHS reforms, the Treasury bench seemed to slouch — knowing what was coming. Cameron read out a long quote from Tony Blair to justify the reforms but it didn’t quite work in the chamber.
In keeping with what seems to happen almost every week, there’s a bit of a flap on about one of Cameron’s jokes. There’s chuntering that Cameron’s ‘Baldemort’ reference to Liam Byrne was a bit below the belt. But everyone should calm down. If Cameron is an electorally successful Prime Minister, the Labour benches will have plenty of time to throw bald jokes at Cameron and find out whether he can take them as well as dish ‘em out.
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Frank P
February 1st, 2012 1:53pm Report this commentThe lack of comments on this and the lst post reflects the ennui of the punters towards PMQ; juvenile pricks. Debate my arse!
toco
February 1st, 2012 1:54pm Report this commentRed Ed has totally lost the plot by ignoring the electorate's wish to see the Welfare Bill succeed and voting against it has just cost Labour the next Election and probably Red Ed his trades union sponsored position.
Ralph
February 1st, 2012 2:15pm Report this commentPossibly it is a sign of the shallowness of politics but I suspect that Miliband's attacks would have come across much better if someone else had done them. He is really a politician suited to print.
Chris lancashire
February 1st, 2012 2:29pm Report this commentFrank P: Spot on. The weekly shouting match is boring and predictable. It used to be (just) watchable when Hague was being quite funny but definitely not now.
Wily Trout
February 1st, 2012 2:41pm Report this commentFiddling while Rome burns.
David Dee
February 1st, 2012 2:59pm Report this commentI think that with Ed's quip earlier in the week about vetos being for christmas not for life was not going to be outdone at PQM. It was too good for that.
It mocked our useless,powerless and pantomime PM,whilst at the same time belittling the wasted use of a veto and also riled the Tory backbenchers into realising that they had been doubledcrossed !!!
Well done Ed !!!
Halcyondaze
February 1st, 2012 2:59pm Report this commentIt's not just boring and predictable - it's actually intensely irritating.
We're PAYING these people to roll up their sleeves and get stuck into tackling the problems which are bringing this country to its knees under dire circumstances where the clock is ticking like a bomb. We don't give a monkeys about verbal one-upmanship, wine-soaked gaffawing or jolly japes.
And James Forsyth should be using this column space to reflect the views of his readership and put the boot in hard on these ineffectual lightweights twittering away in the House of Commons after a jolly nice lunch. Not bigging the whole thing up like a starry-eyed graduate that can't quite believe he's gotten this close to the levers of power.
Writeangle
February 1st, 2012 3:05pm Report this commentSurely only political insiders give two hoots about PMQs. To the public they are as boring as watching paint dry.
Sir Everard Digby
February 1st, 2012 3:07pm Report this commentAh yes Milliband; he whow nats to:
a) get rid of bankers's bonus payments and
b) tax them to fund hair brained schemes.
AJK
February 1st, 2012 3:33pm Report this commentCameron could end up with the best 'comb over' since Boby Charlton
Hexhamgeezer
February 1st, 2012 4:00pm Report this commentThe benefits cap should be a brand of compulsory contraception for professional claimants.
Magnolia
February 1st, 2012 4:29pm Report this commentEd Miliband, wearing his lovely blue tie says...
"I'll tell him what hypocrisy is. It's saying he's going to stop a million pound bonus to SH and then nodding it through......He says that the class war against the bankers is going to be led by him and his cabinet of millionaires."
Class war? How lovely!
He really is Prime Minister material isn't he?
When the PM was trying to get the front bench to just nod if they supported the benefit cap, I heard someone shout out (in an Austin Mitchell voice), "You're pathetic clowns"
Whoever it was, I could not help but agree with him.
Expect far more bullying of Mr Byrne because he's a real Labour threat. The delightful Mr Byrne comes across on TV as personable, sane and with it and as I keep saying, he must be one of the brighter ones because he did leave that note.
Andy Carpark
February 1st, 2012 5:12pm Report this commentHalcyondaze, I suggested a while back that reporting PMQs for the Spectator ranks several notches below plucking the lobsters out of Jayne Mansfield's bottom in answer to the question, 'What's the worst job you've ever had?'.
Frank P
February 1st, 2012 5:58pm Report this commentHexhamgeezer (4pm)
Contraception? Castration - shurely?
Frank P
February 1st, 2012 6:01pm Report this commentSir Everard (3.5pm)
Who whow nats to (sic).
Long Lunch, Sir? Steady, they'll be after your K for bringing dishonour to the chivalry. Nobody is safe.
Hexhamgeezer
February 1st, 2012 11:30pm Report this commentRE: Frank P @ 5:58pm
Aye - in a chemical style. I wouldn't want to risk 'owt getting into the food chain.
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