Alex Massie Alex Massie

They don’t like it up ’em, you know

The House of Commons returned today with the first Prime Minister’s Questions since the party conference season. And, as expected, it was a corker. Sometimes the Punch and Judy show remains great entertainment – and provides a telling snapshot of the respective health of the major combatants. This was one of those occasions.

The first Tory to ask a question drew attention to his local council’s excellent recycling record and asked the Prime Minister if he fancied visiting “some of our bottle banks”. Ha! Then it was David Cameron’s turn: could he capitalise on the Prime Minister’s embarrassment over the election-that-never-was and his pilfering of Tory proposals on inheritance tax?  It turns out he could. Cameron pummelled Gordon Brown mercilessly. Brown didn’t like it one bit and his protestation that he would take “no lectures” from the opposition leader looked petulant and weak.

Among Camerons’ jabs:

“You are the first prime minister in history to flunk an election because you thought you could win it.”

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