Cameron urges Brown to clean-up politics
Fraser Nelson 12:56pm
A rather downbeat PMQs session, where the following quote from Cameron is the highlight.
“If he really thinks these exchanges once a week are a substitute for a proper television debate, then he’s even more out of touch than I thought. We have to be honest with ourselves – not many people watch these exchanges and not all those that do are hugely impressed with them. We’ve seen TV debates in Italy, Australia and Poland. So I have to ask him: what on earth is he frightened of?”
Cameron came to PMQs today on a mission to clean up politics, and sought to enlist Brown’s support. Does he agree that MPs should not vote on their own pay? Erm, yes he does and he voted on it too. Does he agree that the Commons final salary pension scheme should be closed to new entrants? No answer. And will he agree to do a TV debate? You must be joking. Brown’s claim that PMQs is a substitute is risible. The claim that it would be like JFK v Nixon is also wide of the mark. Brown makes Tricky Dicky sound like Cicero.
Cameron didn’t score many points on this, but he’s on the right track. As I argued a few weeks ago, the political class is held in contempt – and the Tories need to stand against the political class, Obama-style. Cameron rather misfired today, but it’s the right target.
Clegg continued with his formula of a good question (on dismal mental health provision) followed by a bad one (on his preposterous position on the Lisbon Treaty). Words fail me when describing the LibDems on Europe, so I’ll move on.
Robert Wilson (Con, Reading East) asked – as CoffeeHouse did last week – why a record 207,000 Brits emigrated last year. Basic trend of global migration, he answered, it will continue. Hmm. Doesn’t explain why no other country (other than New Zealand) has lost so many of its high-skilled people.
The SNP’s Angus Robertson had quite a funny wee question – about a vote in a ward in the Highlands where 60% voted nationalist and just 3% voted Labour. “What government policy does he think motivated those 97 hardy souls to vote Labour?” Brown replied independence per se remains unpopular. That won’t help him when he’s relying on Scots to overrule a Tory-voting England on 6 May 2010.
A CoffeeHouser (David Gillies) recently observed that Brown’s poor debating performance makes one question him more broadly. “If the man can't think on his feet, what reason do we have to believe he can think sitting down?” Conversely when Cameron does think on his feet, as per the above quote, it’s a positive sign.
But I’ll leave you with this figure. At this same stage in the election cycle, end-Feb 1995, a Gallup/Telegraph poll had Tony Blair on 60.5% of the vote, a 40-point lead. Cameron’s averaging a 7-point lead. The Tories have so, so much to do.
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Comments
Nicholas
February 27th, 2008 1:19pmOnce again we saw a PMQs where Brown asked more questions than he answered. At one point he even referred to PMQs as "debate about policies". I've come to think that this posture is deliberate and he is now exploiting it because he has been allowed to get away with it so often. Another characteristic is the clearly orchestrated questions from Labour stooges to cue Brown a platform to attack the Conservatives. This week we saw a concerted response to the "gimmicks" list, including a very misleading and sanctimonious bleat from Kaufman, which demonstrated just how much this had rattled the government. Unfortunately though Brown seems to be getting away with this weekly sham. He has performed the sleight of hand of moving the session away from Government accountability to something else entirely.
David
February 27th, 2008 1:24pm"But I’ll leave you with this figure. At this same stage in the election cycle, end-Feb 1995, a Gallup/Telegraph poll had Tony Blair on 60.5% of the vote, a 40-point lead. Cameron’s averaging a 7-point lead" The polling companies now use vastly different methodologies in order to obtain more accurate results (you'll note that Blair did not received 60% in the election). You can't compare them. Gallup doesn't even poll here anymore.
Oscar Miller
February 27th, 2008 1:29pmNicholas - very good post. Agree entirely.
Kevyn Bodman
February 27th, 2008 3:35pmClegg's first question wasn't good; it was awful. He used information that appeared yesterday about the non-efficacy of anti-depressant medications to question past policy that was formed when that information wasn't available. Even I could have batted that one away whether standing up, sitting down or typing away on my computer.'Decisions must be judged on the basis of the information available at the time the decision was taken.Now, in the light of this recently-published research we will review our policy.' I would hazard a guess that many people are now questioning the wisdom of the decision to back Clegg for leader of the LibDems, he's already proved himself to be as principled as Brown on the Lisbon Treaty referendum. I didn't back Clegg.
Giovanni
February 27th, 2008 4:01pmI think the constant comparisons between Blair circa 1995 and Cameron in 2008 don't really carry much merit. The entire context is different. Tories never recovered from the devastating body blow of Black Wednesday that clearly and physically hurt millions of britons in their pockets. So far at least the Labour governments haven't suffered such a single defining catastrophe (more out of sheer luck then any real merit), so there isn't one single identifiable moment to brand them. Labour will lose in 2010 more from a death of a thousand cuts then a single blow to the heart. So the kind of leads Blair enjoyed in 1995 won't be happening any time soon for any politician.
Oscar Miller
February 27th, 2008 4:01pmAnd following on from David's point, the two are not comparable for other reasons too. As has often been pointed out, the early 1990s were the exception and it is simply setting false expectations to make these false comparisons.
Another David
February 27th, 2008 5:50pmI have now given up watching PMQs - even tho I have the time - I now find there are much better things to do such as read Coffee House and other, on the ball, political blogs. Unfortunately much of the political class represented by MPs is now beneath contempt.