Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 21 January 2009

Welcome to Coffee House’s live blog of PMQs today.  As always, things will kick off at 1200, so stay tuned from then.

1204: Here’s the Dear Leader.  After condolences, he gives a welcome to President Obama: “The stress that President Obama places on action…” First question from Douglas Carswell, and it’s an important one: “Why is the PM whipping his MPs when it comes to revealing details of MPs’ expenses.”  Brown claims that the Government wants to introduce more transparency – or trans-pair-ancy, as he puts it.

1207: Brown: Holocaust Memorial Day will be commemorated by a debate in the House next Thursday.

1208: Cameron’s up now.  Echoes Brown’s good wishes for Obama.  Then leads on today’s grim economic stats.  “Does the PM recognise that the public and the markets have no confidence in his measures…”  Surprise, surprise; Brown mentions Obama in his response, saying that he’s following the British fiscal stimulus plan.  Brown: “Obama didn’t say: ‘My fellow Americans, let’s do nothing.'”  

1210: Good retort from Cameron.  Says Obama won’t be putting up national insurance contributions. 

1211: Cameron asks whether the Govenrment knows how many toxic debts it will have to insure.

1212: Knockabout stuff.  Brown refers to Ken Clarke as Cameron’s “shadow shadow Chancellor”.  Cameron says “the recession’s getting worse”.

1213: Cameron on the difference between Clarke and Brown: “[Clarke] left a golden legacy, [Brown] wrecked it”  Brown responds by bringing up Clarke’s views on Europe.  This is all very Mandelsonian.

1216: Cameron asks Brown to confirm how much has been lost on RBS.  Typically, Brown doesn’t answer the question. Wades into a diatribe about how every country in the world “disagrees” with Cameron…

1217: Cameron: “The Prime Minister talks about being isolated, but the fact is that only the Prime Minister thinks he’s doing a good job.”  Repeats the same question about RBS – it’s “simple maths” as Cameron says. 

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