It was a subdued David Cameron we saw in PMQs today, which is understandable after last week. He’ll need all the arrows he can get in George Osborne’s quiver next Monday. The aim is to make the economy a real issue, hence he went on case studies of businesses denied credit – details later released to journalists. So the aim wasn’t really to get on the lunchtime or evening news but to tee up a narrative for the press. We can expect build-up ahead of the PBR. Gordon Brown was also lower-key: he lost his cool last week over Baby P and paid dearly for it. So a fairly dull exchange, but interesting for the following points:
1) Morale barometer. Labour benches very animated. From my perch, it was striking: Labour were noisy, animated, shouting for more and jeering at the Tories who were quiet, sombre and not always on cue with their applause.
2) Brown’s false choice. Brown distils everything in life down to a false choice between him and the Tories. You get the feeling he can hardly ask for a bag of chips without saying “Labour: in favour of chips. Tories, in favour of starvation”. So it was today. He evidently intends to jack up borrowing, but he has found a new euphemism for it: “fiscal expansion” together with a fake shorthand “helping people.” Labour is for helping people and the Tories against, natch. So Cameron would “deprive people of real help for businesses and families”. As Brown is very predictable politician, we can expect this line to keep reappearing. So when the Tories say “you’re borrowing/spending too much” Brown replies “We’re helping people, you’ll do nothing”.
3) Too much Jargon. Cameron teased Brown about confusing monetary and fiscal policies, but I’d like to see him mock this daft jargon and keep up his tax cut v tax con narrative that people can understand. I spoke to a Cabinet member afterwards who had a wonderful psychoanalytical theory for it: the weak person adopts the language of the stronger one. I quite liked that theory: Brown had best start spinning it.
4) Brown’s smile. When Cameron makes a point that hits Brown, he starts to smile.
5) New Balls, please. Ed Balls was sitting too far away from Brown last week, which his allies attributed to Brown’s dire performance. They’re right next to each other now.
6) Clegg’s haircut. I was in the Gods but it looked to me like the LibDem leader has had his head sharpened. Quite right too: he needs to put on some age (as the Americans say) and showing a bit more of his slaphead is a good way to do it. Funny when he makes a good economic point, you see his lips moving but hear Vince Cable’s voice.
Anyway, the real match is Osborne v Darling/Brown on Monday. Let’s hope that’s more interesting.
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