Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Cameron Pulverised Brown at PMQs

I have just caught up with PMQs. Quite how anyone could say that David Cameron didn't win this exchange is quite beyond me. Brown was floundering right from the first question. George Osborne wanted the Tory leadership to show more fore in their bellies. Well he certainly got his wish today. Cameron was on fire and pulverised Brown, who was almost reduced to a wimpering wreck. Jack Straw's face said it all. "Why didn't we get rid of him when we had the chance?" was what he was clearly thinking.

I have seen many people praise Nick Clegg's performance. Apart from the Ashcroft/Whelan line all he seemed to be saying was: "It's not fair". To be fair to him, he was completely drowned out by MPs of both the other parties, but he should have sat down and waited for the Speaker to calm things down.

Cameron 8
Brown 4
Clegg 6

UPDATE: Cameron's pleas for unionised workers to break the strike appear to be paying dividends. BA has just announced that it is flying more planes than expected on Saturday after more staff have volunteered to work.

28 comments:

Hackney Central Labour said...

And michael white from the guardian scores it completely differently as a draw for Brown and Cameron. Don't undermine your credibility by being so ridiculously partisan now!

Iain Dale said...

A reasonable point if I never scored Brown higher than Cameron (which I often have). I can never, ever recall Michael White scoring Cameron the winner, so for him to call it a draw, means that Cameron won. Capice?!

waymore said...

Cameron is enjoying PMQs, he has Brown quivering with unease, the PMs only response seems to be a Pavlovian ejaculation: "Lord Ashcroft...."
The time is perfect to keep up the pressure as Labour backbenchers are rendered dumbfound when their leader is being palpably (and regularly)humiliated. Attack!

Snotrocket said...

As much as I agree with you Iain, and I do enjoy seeing Brown get his come-uppance, it is rather pointless of DC to waste one of his questions repeating 'Will the PM encourage workers to cross picket lines?'. As if Brown, or any Socialist PM, is likely - EVER - to agree with that premise.

Much better if he had persued the Chilcott line about Brown being economical with the truth over Defence funding. Now that was a good question, which Brown tried to push aside with the usual tractor stats: it needed following up. Then perhaps he could have linked to the BA strike and the fact that, in the absence of adequate Tactical Air Transport Support, we rely on civilian airlines to transport our troops.

Whatever, let's hope that DC gets more coaching from WH. Only three more PMQs to go before it will be DC's turn to answer questions - but from whom? That is the question.

kenny murphy said...

Particularly at the start Brown was all over the place but eventually got some good points across. Cameron looked like the complete opportunist that he is. For pure partisan political reasons he revealed his glee at any damaging strike proceeding. He's no potential PM and yet again revealed more proof.

Further proof of the political opportunism of Cameron is exposed on the Coffee House Blog of Cameron in action at PMQ's November 2006 when to quote the Coffee House blog "After watching that, I chanced upon an exchange between Blair and Cameron, dated November 2006. Their subject? NHS budget cuts. The first two minutes of the clip reinforce just how complicit the Conservatives were in Brown and Blair’s free for all. Cameron was aghast that "budgets were being raided to solve financial deficits".

You Tube link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpVycRpa2L8&feature=player_embedded

Anonymous said...

David Cameron came across as petulant and opportunistic.

Win for Gordon Brown in my opinion.

Salmondnet said...

Michael White as some sort of yardstick of objectivity. Now there's an off the wall idea.

Jim Arnott said...

I support neither the Conservatives, Nu-Labour nor the Liberal Democrats so I can give an unbiased opinion. Cameron won by a landslide.

Even Brown's statement that he got defense spending wrong in real terms was like drawing blood from a stone.

There is only one thing worse than the bedlam of PMQ's and that is the crass, biased performances of Speaker Bercow. His biased performance yesterday was appalling. The sooner the better... You know what I mean

Bob said...

White scored it 4 to 3 to DC last week.....

Anonymous said...

Not sure about your spelling of "capice", Iain. Per WikiAnswers...

"Capite is Italian for "to understand/understood"

In North America it has morphed into capishe or capiche. It means the same thing."

Evensong said...

I was listening to PMQs while driving to a meeting. Brown was slapped round, and rightly so, and his continual evasion of answering questions along with his rank hypocrisy - making accusations of partisan politics before retreatng to using a few of his own - shows his own huge shortcomings in leading this country.

But I also saw it as an opportunity missed by Cameron. He chose to try and push a point that everyone knows was never going to be even remotely addressed. Perhaps he was taken by surprise by the answer but the defence spending question was an open goal that he missed, while the budget comments by Liam Byrne were another subject he really should have gone after.

It's a step up and for once we're seeing an opposition actually making something of an effort, but with such a weak and ineffecive Government PMQ's are hardly a triumphant session for Cameron and he could do a lot better.

Anonymous said...

"...the PMs only response seems to be a Pavlovian ejaculation..."

Please! The imagery is ... well... never mind

Janner said...

And today's labour troll word of the day is 'opportunistic'

If GB continues to 'win' PMQs like this just what does he jave to do to 'lose'?

Dave has pinned the Unite monkey on GB's back

Red Rag said...

Is there ever a time when you don't say Cameron pulverises Brown. Cameron only has to fart and you think he has made a fantastic speech.

Seadog said...

Kenny murphy: can you, or anyone else please explain what is wrong with opportunism? If a footballer ever said after a match that he didn't kick the ball into the net because he would have been opportunist, he would be regarded as nuts. Opportunism is taking an opportunity, what on eart is wrong with that?

Seadog said...

Kenny murphy: can you, or anyone else please explain what is wrong with opportunism? If a footballer ever said after a match that he didn't kick the ball into the net because he would have been opportunist, he would be regarded as nuts. Opportunism is taking an opportunity, what on eart is wrong with that?

Anonymous said...

There is no doubt that Cameron scored and scored again and won outright. By repetition of just one question, he held the focus on Labour being in thrall to Unite.

Next I want to see an attack on the scandal of the taxpayer financing Unite through the Union Modernisation Fund.

Red Rag said...

Half the Story - Iains selective memory doesn't go back seven days.

Jimmy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Iain Dale said...

Red Rag, clearly you selectively read this blog. I can recall two weeks in February when I gave Brown higher marks and several occasions in the latter part of last year.

But clearly you only read what you want to read and which suits your own prejudices.

Jimmy said...

Putting partisanship aside I thought the thoughtful and courteous manner in which Tony Baldry rightly called the PM to account, and indeed the equally courteous and forthright reply was a textbook illustration of how these exchanges should be conducted. Sir Anthony Steen's intelligent contribution also reflected well on his party. It's just a shame Lightweight had to open his gob, as it all rather went downhill at that point.

Moriarty said...

I don't trust Iain's scoring.

On several occasions last month he gave it to Brown.

DeeDee99 said...

The only thing Cameron got wrong was not to challenge Gordon on the fact that the taxpayer is handing over millions to the unions by way of a 'modernisation fund' and Unite promptly gives back £11million to Labour.

In other words, Labour is being funded by the taxpayer. In any other walk of life this would be considered fraudulent.

When spending cuts are being drawn up, the first to go should be the modernisation fund. If unions need to modernise, let them pay for it.

Twig said...

It would be nice if the Speaker would insist on the PM answering all the questions, rather than just the planted questions from his own backbenchers.

What does Bercow expect to gain by sucking up to Labour?

Cameron did well today. He reduced the PM to a st..st..st..stammering wreck.

Anonymous said...

@Jimmy
Today's PMQs shows the so called heavy weight is a deadweight and clunking fist can direct its hit to the body to which it belongs!

Moriarty said...

"Putting partisanship aside I thought the thoughtful and courteous manner in which Tony Baldry rightly called the PM to account, and indeed the equally courteous and forthright reply was a textbook illustration of how these exchanges should be conducted. Sir Anthony Steen's intelligent contribution also reflected well on his party. It's just a shame Lightweight had to open his gob, as it all rather went downhill at that point."

Putting partisanship aside I admire the thoughtful and courteous manner of the first part of this post. It's a textbook case of how to inflate an already burgeouning ego. It's just a shame he said "Lightweight" towards the end and showed himself up for the true red in claw hypocrite he is.

Anonymous said...

"Hackney Central Labour said...
Don't undermine your credibility by being so ridiculously partisan now!"

This from someone with the handle "Hackney Central Labour" - how beautifully ironic.

Jim Arnott said...

Red Rag said:

Is there ever a time when you don't say Cameron pulverises Brown. Cameron only has to fart and you think he has made a fantastic speech.

I have to say that even Cameron farting would always be better than the shit Brown serves up