Bluntness was the order of the day

PMQs today must have been a political version of that optical illusion where one person sees a young woman and the other an old woman. Fraser saw a pretty unimpressive David Cameron, whereas I thought it one of his very best performances.  And, if CoffeeHousers will indulge me, here’s why…

My verdict sprang from what I saw as the main Tory goal today: to stop Brown’s “Borrowing is good” narrative taking root in the public consciousness. This is beyond crucial. After all, if Brown can successfully make that case then he’ll have largely won the economic argument for the next two years – during which borrowing will rise out of both necessity, during a recession, and our PM’s wider addiction to debt.  I’d say, then, that Cameron did the right thing by mostly laying into the government’s plan to make the fiscal rules more “flexible”, to allow for more borrowing.