PMQs sketch: Confident Corbyn tries to cook up a Christmas crisis

Corbyn’s improvement continues. He thumped away at a single issue today – social care – in a determined attempt to corner Teresa May and stick the word ‘crisis’ on her jacket, like a brooch. A crisis for the elderly, he said. A crisis for families. A crisis for the NHS. ‘A crisis made in Downing Street.’ His delivery still havers and wavers a lot but the drum-machine technique, banging out identical noises in a hypnotic rhythm, was effective.

She met his assault with verbal trinkets composed by back-room smart Alecs in Westminster: the future Osbornes and Camerons. Rejecting the word ‘crisis’ she called it ‘short-term pressure’. She also mentioned ‘sustainability’, ‘integration’ and ‘reassurance’. For a final flourish she linked ‘short-term pressure’ with its verbal cousins, ‘medium-term need’ and ‘long-term solutions’. Formulaic sophistries like this don’t come cheap.