Vince Cable asked two good questions on unemployment and interest rates, neither of which provoked a coherent answer from Ms Harman. I score it...
Harriet Harman 4
William Hague 7
Vince Cable 7
William Hague 7
Vince Cable 7
political commentator * author * publisher * bookseller * radio presenter * blogger * Conservative candidate * former lobbyist * Jack Russell owner * West Ham United fanatic * Email iain AT iaindale DOT com
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Harriet Harman At Sea at PMQs
Harriet Harman proved at today's PMQs that lightning doesn't strike twice. In her first outing against William Hague a few months ago she emerged triumphant. On the second occasion it was a score draw. Today she was flailing about all over the place - incoherent, unconfident and apparently without anything to say about the current economic crisis. Hague played it clever. He didn't go in for the kill at first, but instead built up his questioning to a climax to which she had no response. The silence on the Labour benches was telling.
Vince Cable asked two good questions on unemployment and interest rates, neither of which provoked a coherent answer from Ms Harman. I score it...
Vince Cable asked two good questions on unemployment and interest rates, neither of which provoked a coherent answer from Ms Harman. I score it...
Harman used the well-worn phrase, "we will do whatever is necessary" four times in the opening skirmish.
ReplyDeleteShe didn't answer the question on banks lending at 2007 levels, but dodged it.
You're right Ian, she's been pretty awful.
Ohhh not according to those loyal McLabour lapdogs the EUBC!, surprise surprise they have got a completely 'different view' on it!
ReplyDeleteThat was rubbish - no-one got more than 5.
ReplyDeleteDidn't Theresa May look fabulous?! You go, girl.
ReplyDeleteHague started slowly but got better, ended much better and had Harman floundering.
ReplyDeleteYour political bias gets in the way of any objectivity. They were all equally poor. The turmoil of the last week appears to have taken alot out of each party and the country.
ReplyDeleteanonymous@12.38
ReplyDeleteHarman was awful, she floundered through most of her answers. Both Hague and cable were far better.
And Theresa did look good, yes.
Awful performance from Harman. She sounded like a sixth-former attmepting to debate. No gravitas, no ability and - worse -no sense.
ReplyDeleteWould we really be happy to have this woman as Prime Minister?
You are just scoring them relative to each other. The real performance score out of 10 should be
ReplyDeleteHarman1 cable 2 Hague 2
Real scores would be more like:
ReplyDeleteHarman 2, Cable 4, Hague 6.
Mainly because Cable and Hague knew what they were talking about, Harman didn't.
Why she didn't just stick her fingers in her ears and hum while she was being questioned is beyond me, because she may as well have done.
ReplyDeleteGood point from Hague regarding the £18 support per unemployed person. That's going to go a looooooong way.
In PMQ understandably, Hague did not for the kill. But his questions were incisive and made to draw specific response from Mrs Dromey. What Labour particularly Brown is good at is to wear the party apparatchik hood and accuse the opposition, like all hoodies do. I was also watching after that the Andrew Neale's team and as usual the Anita woman pulled out 2 e-mail messages accusing the Tories against 1 that accused Labour. Dreadful woman. Andrew corrected Harman's words about Tories borrowing 43% against Labour's 37% which I agree was incorrect as Labour's borrowing went up during lasts year to 43%, before the current crunch, not all of them Capital-related but on things like pay of GPs,aid overseas,unemployment benefits for those Labour hid them under incapacity benefit etc.. etc.. McNulty, Neal's Labour guest was dreadful, interrupting Willets Tory guest.
ReplyDeleteI know from what I do that youth unemployment has been steadily rising since last two years. Gordo despite 'wriggling with aplomb' as the leftie Steve Richards puts it, has a case to answer for soon.
Like all labour ministers Harman just repeated the mantra's.
ReplyDelete"we will do whatever is necessary" got 4 mentions.
"Don't write our economy off" got 2.
Along with, "our economy is made of sterner stuff", it was all pretty meaningless.
Isn't it common knowledge that Harman is a bit lacking in the brain department?
ReplyDeleteRosa Prince over at the Telegraph blog thinks that "Harman answered the questions with clarity and reasonable knowledge".
ReplyDeleteHas the whole world been got at? Can we not believe our own eyes any more? The only clear answer was to a question on troop withdrawals from Iraq which hadn't been asked.
She was woeful. The silence behind her rattled her a bit, I think. Nobody seemed to buy the line that all our economic woes have nothing to do with the government, and the response to the effect that attacks on the government's management is "talking down the economy" was a trial balloon that failed to take off.
Though not a recognised spelling 'incoherant' is in this case still the right word.
ReplyDeleteYet this complete mediocrity is:
1) Deputy Leader and Party Chair of the Labour Party
2) Leader of the House of Commons 3) Lord Privy Seal*
4) Minister for Women and Equality
5) Head of the Equalities Office
A shit-for-brains is given 5 top jobs. Why?
Right at the start, she was memorably smoked out as a lightweight by John 'The John Humphrys Problem' Humphrys.
*admittedly sounds more like a title rather than a job, though I haven't clue what it entails.
You were obviously listening to a different PMQ to me.
ReplyDeleteFirstly Camera On himself quipped at PMQ's a few months ago "That no one listens to PMQ's anyway".. What an arrogant twonk.
Secondly, I see Vague is now resorting to the "I have a serious face an voice routine"... Quite hilarious. I very much hope you use Vague more and more, he is seen universally as a joke Politician that no one takes seriously. Harman was quite soft of vague, no mention of Barclays.
Finally, 42 Days, Sats, and Iceland / Councils...Nothing at all from Vague
Very lacklustre poor performance, Harman is currently laughing into her post PMQ's T.
More like Harman 3 Hague 5 Cable 5
ReplyDeleteBut most important point is indeed how delicious Teresa wa looking.
Norman 1.04pm
ReplyDeleteAgree about McNulty butting in continually over David Willetts and they even allowed Piers Morgan ostensibly on the show to talk about, wait for it, Reducing Your Carbon Footprint !!!This from the man who jets to and fro between the UK & LA regularly and also incidentally a close friend of Gordon & Sarah Brown(a fact he never stops telling us "ad nauseum" in his smug and self-centred articles that he writes for "the Sundays") to have the last 5 mins at the end to say that Brown is the man for the job to get the country out of the recession and that it's all the fault of the arrogant Tory Bankers that we're in this mess. To hammer home the message that "It's all the Tories fault and times were MUCH MUCH worse when they were in government they even had the "Guess the Year Competition" featuring 1992 with shots of Lamont outside The Treasury with voiced aside by McNulty that there was David Cameron in the centre. I used to respect Andrew Neill's seeming independence but it appears that even he has had to fall in with the BBC directive of winning the election for Labour
Anonymous said...(October 15, 2008 12:38 PM)
ReplyDelete"Your political bias gets in the way of any objectivity". No, your political bias gets in the way of any objectivity.
Why was there no comment of Brown's absence. In Brussels for the sort of routine business he usually can't be bothered with.
ReplyDeleteTotal contempt for his accountability to the HoC and the British public in a week when he has taken decsions that will drive the UK economy for the next ten years, and nobdy chose to challenge it.
Cameron would have been better just to say that his offer of support was dependent upon proper government behaviour and that he had no questions for the monkey and would wait for the organ grinder to return folloed by leading his MP's out of the chamber in protest.
MacCavity Rules NOT OK
I reaaly shouldnt be doing this, as I am offering you advise. Vague did it again today
ReplyDelete....Stop using the word hubris.
Sorry chaps but no one knows what the feck you are talking about !!!!!.
Iain - In your post on the day of Harman's good performance against Hague, you reported that she 'just shaded it'. Now your view is that she 'emerged triumphant'.
ReplyDeleteOn that basis Iwonder if today's "incoherant" performance will look like an honourable score draw with the benefit of a few weeks' hindsight.
""Don't write our economy off""
ReplyDeletePretty good punch that landed on Vague's Billard ball head.
Harriet, Harriet, Harriet! When will you ever learn. Don't play with the big boys...
ReplyDelete""Don't write our economy off""
ReplyDeleteHello Dolly!
totally off topic. know you guys are busy examining the soft contours of harriet's expression. but tell me, is it my imagination...?
ReplyDeleteor has guido's grammar tutor gone on sick leave?
can't make head or tail of this post. syntax right up the spout. feel like a mouse going to lunch on an bull elephant, with chopsticks
still, i suppose...while the cat's away...
the sub-squeakers will inevitably gnaws things up a bit
dog's dindins
Anon October 15, 2008 1:38 PM.
ReplyDeleteIt gets worse he didnt use that word he said "hubristic"
I suppose he was perflexiated at such nicofiediation
Anons 1.27 and 1.40 Lord Sleaze and Draper's 11 rebuttal squad.
ReplyDeleteDreadful Mrs Dromey, the pontification woman
(she sent her sons to selective grammar schools preaching comprehensive schools goodness in Lewisham)was mumbling, the country is going t suffere at the hands of Gordo. Whatever he touches ends in disaster.
Best Harman quote in response to Cable
ReplyDelete"I know nothing about interest rates...."
Never was there a more honest comment from the Labour front bench!!
Spark Up October 15, 2008 1:52 PM.
ReplyDeleteI have also noticed a change in Guido, and have been making that point for sometime.
A year ago he was, to a certain extent, a bloger who was amusing, witty, insisive etc etc etc
Now he is a belligerent fool with chips on both shoulders, and his blog is a rambling tirade of dross
Cable probably had the best outing, Hague and Harman were both pretty bad!
ReplyDeleteStill I think most people have more important things too worry about!
Harperson was right to have a go at Hague for talking down the UK economy. After all, that's Chancellor Darling's job...
ReplyDeleteThe Guardian, 1 September 2008:
"The pound hit a record low against the euro this morning and stocks also fell in London after a stark warning from Alistair Darling, the chancellor, that the economic downturn would be worse and longer than expected....
In an interview with the Guardian, the chancellor said Britain is facing "arguably the worst" economic downturn in 60 years and predicted it would be "more profound and long-lasting" than people had expected."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/01/marketturmoil.alistair.darling
October 15, 2008 1:52 PM ( Spark Up )
ReplyDeletePaul Staines AKA Guido is probably off licking his finanacial wounds, hence the change in his tone, looks like he may be looking to Brown to save him...HOW IRONIC
Staines's personal assets are offshore, and he is himself based in Ireland.
Ohhh not according to those loyal McLabour lapdogs the EUBC!, surprise surprise they have got a completely 'different view' on it!
ReplyDeleteEdinburgh University Boat Club! I always assumed they whould be fairly Tory,
1:59 PM
ReplyDeletecan't say i've ever noticed much of a change myself
but all the same
shame
ashes to ashes, dirt to dirt...
1:52 PM
ReplyDelete'an bull elephant'?
Are you sure you're paying your spellchecker enough, Mr Spark Up?
Wouldn't want to see you falling into the same trap as guido, old chap!
1:54 PM
ReplyDeleteplease george. try to avoid using such long words. it's a very dangerous habit. you could well choke on one.
What utter rubbish Iain. Neither Hague nor Cable got the better of her. Will be interesting to see other scores. A few mis-speaks on odd words. But overall not a bad effort by today's standards.
ReplyDeleteI'll score it 7-6-5. But I wouldn't argue with 5-4-4. None were that good. That's Harman-Hague-Cable. I can't see where Cable is supposed to have shone in any way today.
Osborne's face was a picture throughout.
"Sorry chaps but no one knows what the feck you are talking about !!!!!."
ReplyDeleteYou mean illiterate retards like yourself.
2:21 PM
ReplyDeleteUnlikely, anony, due to an overwhelming compulsion to dig for victuals in the sadly undernourished soil of Brown's bleached-out Britain, shares in shite are currently quite high, i hear.
Also Spark Up, Guidos company
ReplyDeleteEmerald Offshore Services Teoranta Ltd
http://www.emeraldoffshore.ie/
...seems to have gone off line....oh dear
October 15, 2008 3:00 PM
ReplyDeleteHow very very Conservative, ignore the content, just concentrate on the spelling...ohhhhhh... I suppose I am also a Dolly...ohhhhh
Nothing to say !!!!!
I see there are very few coming to Vagues aid. Who in the right minds could back this twonk
Should not the Chairman of Lloyds (formerly considered a sound bank) be resigning? He allowed himself to be bullied in to buying HBOS and now is saddled with govt directors and not allowed to pay bonuses or dividends.
ReplyDeleteServe him right for being a friend (stooge) of Brown, but pity the shareholders.
Only saw the initial exchanges between Hague and Harriet.
ReplyDeleteHarriet was really really dreadful; can't get more than 3/10. Hague was good but he really really should have challenged the government borrowing lie.
2:58 PM
ReplyDelete"7-6-5"
Are you sure you have Harriet's stats right. If anything, I'd swear she'd put on a few kilos.
3:05 PM
ReplyDeletethree capitals letters in that paragraph, spark up. you're slipping. very disappointing
3:27 PM
ReplyDeletecampaign for the assassination of superfluous english grammar
as your good friend I am most sorry to observe how you have been cut off mid-title
visavis your comment on spark up's shoddy style
2 write!
1:14 PM
ReplyDeleteno longer,
you're obviously a very generous person
Lot of ignorant NooLabor trolls out today. Must be half term already.
ReplyDeletewell said the boys from the brown stuff.
ReplyDelete"BBC Business Editor Robert Peston says in his blog that there may have been a bit of a misunderstanding between the banks and the Treasury ...
ReplyDeleteWhat? Another one?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/3202980/Lloyds-TSB-shares-jump-on-dividend-ban-misunderstanding.html
"Mr Peston reports that, according to well-placed sources, a sensible interpretation ..."
So the Treasury is incapable of writing common sense and in the meantime bank shares march South !!
Peston adds ... "I expect ministers to confirm all this before too long."
before too long ... well thats comforting.
Meantime (having leaked to Peston to first send the shares down) we have to rely on further leaks to maintain market stability
Dear God! While the Braggart's deputy is stumbling her way through PMQ's, what's he doing?
ReplyDeleteBragging again, of course! As if his "Fiscal Rules" were not enough, he's now pontificating at the EU Conference about his latest idea, "Five Principles" for the banking industry. I wouldn't care so much if his "Fiscal Rules" amounted to anything, but they were trashed without a word never to be repeated again!
Chris Paul - eh ?
ReplyDeleteHave you been drinking a little too much today? Did you take all your medicine?
Harperson was awful - she was embarrassing, a few crap soundbites as usual and no answers. She even sound-bit the wrong thing for Richard Benyon's question.
7/10? Or was it 7% you meant to give her.
3:09 PM
ReplyDelete'How very very Conservative, ignore the content, just concentrate on the spelling'
Oh I see, so just because we can spell-we must be Conservatives.
Only sensible thing you've said on here.
PMQs is so DULL these days. Bring back the shouting. Who really finds any issues out through it?
ReplyDeleteMaybe Hague is the right replacement for Osborne, after all.
ReplyDeleteChris Paul,
ReplyDeletePlease contact my surgery as a matter of ugency. There is a mix up of prescriptions. Do not, I repeat, do not take the pills you were dispensed by the Chemist! It may make you see things which are unreal and hear words which no one utters. I am waiting for your call.
Dave H is blog comment winner today: "A shit-for-brains [Harman] is given 5 top jobs. Why?"
ReplyDeleteThis woman has been a has-been for God knows how long and is now somehow touted for PM? How low has British political competence fallen for it to get to this?
As for the Beeb's Pro-Labour tendencies, it's getting rather silly now. I've always defended the licence fee but they are making a darn good argument for it being scrapped, they are just pure propaganda recently.
Monday, 6 o'clock news: "In a momentous day, Gordon Brown led the World ... "
Good Grief!
Oh yeah. Theresa May was undoubtedly in good-looking form (though Julie Kirkbride has always had the edge for me)
ReplyDeleteJulie Kirkbride..Are you havin a laugh
ReplyDeleteThe tossle haird jolly hockey stick bint...oh please..
I see Gideon and Dave are NOW silent AGAIN abot RBS share bastards stamping their feet
Appently the CITY dont like the deal..TOUGH
Cable was merely scoring cheap shots and playing to the gallery. If he'd been serious, note serious (to take a leaf out of Harridan's limited vocabulary) he would have asked more telling questions about why the Bradford & Bingley was described as a going concern in the rights issue of a few days previous to government bailing it out - and who signed off on that. But of course, Cable would have been out of his depth - he isn't a market economist.
ReplyDelete