Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Miliband takes the battle honours

Wow. That was a hell of a session. It shouldn’t have been but it was. A few days ago Mr Miliband seemed to be in the dog-house again. Fresh from his Ed Nauseam interview to a TV reporter – when he repeated the same soundbite on public sector strikes about 36 times in a row – he’d been stung by Lord Goldsmith’s complaint that he was failing to connect with the public. But salvation arrived in the shape of News International. The worse things smell at Wapping the rosier it all is for the opposition leader.

PMQs today was easy. All he had to do was to appear suitably revolted by the hackers, to demand an inquiry in his sternest whine, and to resume his seat with a self-righteous quiver fading along his lips. But he did far more. He astonished everyone. He managed to turn the News International affair into a question of the prime minister’s moral judgement.

Cameron was the first to succumb. Asked by Miliband to refer the upcoming BSkyB deal to the Competition Commission, the prime minister resorted to political abuse. “He’s done a U-turn to look good in the commons.” Miliband responded with one of his favourite lines about his Etonian enemy. “He’s out of touch with millions of people. With this scandal engulfing News International, the public will not accept that the government is making a decision to let it take control of one of biggest media organisations in the country.”

Cameron tried to remove the emotional heat by referring to legal principles. “When you’re dealing with the law there’s a process called due process,” he said without much elegance. And with even less political sense. Ed Miliband: “This is not the time for technicalities.

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