Harman vs. Cable

Kevyn Bodman

I wonder.
Harman is not a fool, and she'll be spending hours in preparation. Add to that the friendly or planted questions from the government side. Add to that the fact that Hague and Cable will not be acting as a tag team because they should each be trying to outdo the other and I reckon she'll come out of it OK.

Vince Cable spoke one sentence that contained the names Stalin and Mr. Bean and people think he's a star.(He is a heavyweight but not because of that.) It's reminiscint of the absurd adulation given to Lloyd Bentsen in 1988. 'Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy.'

Hague is very good, and if David Davis can't be leader then Hague should be; but he's already been leader once, did well at the Despatch Box but didn't impress the country.

I reckon Harman will come out of it all with at least a draw, and in boxing that means the champion retains the title. The challenger has to come in and WIN it; I think Harman will do a lot better than your advance gloating expects.

salieri

Oh, give her a job on Women's Hour, for god's sake. And don't forget the "QC".

Faceless Bureaucrat

Oh Joy, Oh Rapture - Oh Rapture, Oh Joy......

Anthony Adams

i would imagine it will be very easy to rile her to being more shrill than usual

Trumpeter Lanfried

Isn't there some law against cruel and unusual punishments?

Diablo

Count the number of Labour planted questions - will there be more than Brown gets? (On second thoughts, his are all planted.)

Be interesting to see if she can actually answer a question without breaking into her usual "Nanny knows best" tone. Bet on plenty of female voter-friendly waffle! (That's me in the spare bedroom for the next week!)

Verity

Trumpeter writes: "Isn't there some law against cruel and unusual punishments?"

Probably, as we tend to copy the United States. But you can't sue Parliament.

TomTom

Harman is related to Neville Chamberlain; and in bRown she has his true successor - long-serving Chancellor who never won an election in his own right. A PM who wanted to focus on his domestic agenda - he had micro-managed government departments as Chancellor under a lazy PM Baldwin - and wanted to back-burner international affairs through personal diplomacy - just as Brown wants to buy off Muslims and cut a deal with Taliban.

Harman who wears her kevlar vest in Cabinet no doubt, has found her man - Neville Brown

steve

My hunch is that she won't get slaughtered. Hague and Cable are not stupid, they will realise that the spectacle of two men ganging up on a woman just doesn't play well regardless of the context. (I now await a kicking from the EHRC)

Chuck Unsworth

I really couldn't care less who stands at the Dispatch Box on the Government side. Whoever it might be we can expect to hear an uninspiring, untruthful and unsurprising series of mantras. PMQs have been turned into a Punch and Judy show of almost no significance except for a few days' gossip. What we get is tone, not substance. On balance I prefer the tone (maybe even some of the content) of the Conservative side, but Cable adds a little spice usually. Clegg is sixth-form Harman is simply profoundly dull - in every sense.

Max Kaye

Will she wear her stab vest? (Though, based on current trends, I wouldn't be surprised if all Brown's Cabinet members already wear them under their shirts and blouses).

David Lindsay

If Harriet Harman is to answer PMQs this week, then the Tories should put up George Osborne. They look strikingly alike (and indeed might very well be related, since Harman is frightfully high-born): if Osborne dragged up, then he would look exactly like Harman; and if Harman dragged down, then she would look like an older version of Osborne.

Of course, their views are very different: Harman is a strong opponent of prostitution, and Peter Hitchens maintains that he and she were the only two people at York in his day who did not take drugs. But they are both in post for similar reasons. Harman is only there because she is a woman, and Osborne is only there because he is a member of the Bullingdon Club.

Lancaster

Keep the questions simple and only lessons will be learnt.But with Gladiators Hague and Cable there may be more than lessons for her.