More Labour glum faces today, and much for them to be glum about.
Cameron opened on a good theme: Brown’s plans to confiscate budget surpluses accrued by prudent schools. Cameron used this as an allegory for Brown’s statism, versus Tory localism. “Why does he think he knows how to use the money better than the teachers?” Brown replied (rather lamely) that “he’s not listening to what I’m saying” and proceeded to say nothing.
Okay, that’s not quite true. He said the Tories have a £6bn black hole in their plans, and would cut education budgets by this amount. This is a lie, rather than an exaggeration. If Brown repeated it in a court of law,he wouldn’t get away with it.
The Tories would outspend the current government as they’re committed to matching Labour’s planned spending increases. Yes, Tory plans to raise £3.5bn from non doms are optimistic. But from a £580bn budget, it’s a rounding error. Brown seems wedded to his “Tory cuts” attack method used in the ‘01 and ‘05 elections even though the facts no longer support it.
“British jobs from British workers”, that National Front slogan, was trotted out again. Given such a policy is illegal under EU law, you’d think the phrase would be dropped.
Vince Cable scored another hit, on the climbdown from our renewable targets. After Wickes conceded on Newsnight last night, Brown’s prevarication looked pathetic. He’s had enough time to get a good line together.
Thought Brown handled the Scottish election question reasonably, dragging Cameron down into the detail. But his idiotic use of the unparliamentary word “mislead” reminded the entire house how unused he is to its customs. Remember, for all his professed love of parliament, Brown is never in it and had the worst voting record of any peacetime chancellor. Hence his schoolboy error.
It is clear that Ian Austin intends to be raucous during Question Time (as if to compensate for the inanimate Labour MPs). Good for him. But given he was told off for it last week, why sit next to the speaker again this week? Inviting trouble, and again showing a certain naivity about parliamentary protocol.
Brown at least had a point on Scottish funding: do the Tories dispute the current arrangements? Until they do, Tory MPs don’t have the right to complain about it.
But what a Tory cheer when Cameron said Brown’s promise of a “new kind of politics” feels like “100 years ago”. Another eardrum-burster. They could see Brown, relying on his notes, unable to think on his feet.
Tory faces are animated, laughing, jeering. Labour MPs still look like they’d prefer to be somewhere else. Brown’s not abysmal (which is progress), he’s just dire. I wonder if his PMQs performances have already plateaued.
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