PMQs footage

Courtesy of the essential Politics Home, here's footage of the leader exchanges from today's PMQs:

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PMQs live blog

Welcome to this week's Coffee House PMQs live blog.  As always, things will kick off at 1200.  It's expected that the party leader exchanges will centre on the economy - particularly in light of the CBI's prediction that unemployment will hit 2.9 million, and the Tories' announcement on public spending yesterday.  Don't bet against hearing the "Tory/Lib Dem cuts" mantra from Brown.

1200.  Here's Brown now.  First question from Philip Dunne; "Can the PM explain why the pound has lost a quarter of it's value against the dollar in just 4 months."  Brown just rehashes his line of the weekend:...

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The Tories should manoeuvre Brown away from a snap election

The Tories would far rather fight an election in 2010 than early next year. By 2010, reality will have caught up with Gordon Brown. But the best way for the Tories to avoid a poll next year is to talk about it endlessly.

Brown Central is aware that they cannot go through another bout of election speculation like the one in the summer of 2007; it would look hideously self-serving at this time of economic crisis. So, if Brown does decide to go early, he’ll aim for a snap announcement too.

The Tory counter should be to start talking about...

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How Cameron should respond to the 'Tory cuts' jibe

The clunking fist will be swinging for David Cameron today at PMQs. Gordon Brown will see yesterday’s Tory decision not to pledge to match Labour’s spending plans for 2010-11 as his chance to paint them as both clueless and heartless.

David Cameron should reply to Brown’s inevitable tirade about ‘Tory cuts’ with something along these lines:

"We’ll match his party on education, funding for the police, the military and the frontline of the health service. But we won’t match them on waste, inefficiency and pointless bureaucratic schemes."

However tempting it might be to get...

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Will Brown call an election in '1943'?

Weighing up the prospects of a snap election, Jonathan Freedland makes a pertinent point in today's Guardian:

"But what happens when the immediate mood of crisis passes, and voters ask whether Brown's frenetic activity actually made any difference? If the answer is not much, he'll be finished. Yet success might not help, either. Voters could decide that Brown had served his purpose and was no longer needed. Think 1945: it was because Winston Churchill had won the war that Britons felt free to boot him out.

So Brown needs it to

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