Labels: PMQsPMQs Review: Afghanistan Dominates
Iain Dale 12:33 PM
Brown treated the public as fools. He said that the government had provided 60% more helicopters. But as a Daily Politics viewer pointed out, 60% of ten is six. Does he think we are that stupid? What was just as astonishing was that former Defence Secretary John Hutton didn't know how many helicopters had been provided and had to be told by Andrew Neil.
Perhaps the most noteworthy part of the exchange was when the Speaker interrupted to ask Cameron and Brown to be shorter in their questions and answers. Cameron wasn't having any of it and told the Speaker that the subject deserved proper questions, and then proceeded to ask another lengthy one, which got an equally lengthy answer from Gordon Brown.
Nick Clegg rather misjudged the mood of the House, which had been fairly sombre throughout the previous 15 minutes. He launched into a flailing attack on Brown which didn't really seem to be going anywhere. He would have done far better to have followed Cameron's questioning on Afghanistan, which is a subject where the LibDems have defined a very different position to the two main parties.
Cameron 6
Clegg 4
If you come back at 1pm you will be bale to take part in an experiment. You will be able to rewatch PMQs and use your keyboard as a focus group dial. This will then show what you thought of the leaders' performances and we can then compare your reaction to the readers of Guido Fawkes, LabourHome, Labourlist and PoliticalBetting.com. So, do come back at 1pm and the technology will go live.Unemployment Heads for Three Million
Iain Dale 11:30 AM
And just a reminder that unemployment has been higher at the end of every Labour government in history, than it was when they were elected. Every single one, going back to 1924.
If these figures had been released under Margaret Thatcher they would be leading all the news bulletins. This morning, at 11.36pm, they don't even rate a mention on the BBC politics website.
UPDATE 11.50: The story is now on the BBC news front page with the subheadline: Is the worst over? I doubt it very much.
Thursday 16 July 2009
David Cameron devoted all his six questions to Afghanistan today and the Prime Minister didn't answer a single one of them. Instead, he answered the questions he thought David Cameron ought to have asked.
Brown 4
Unemployment has risen by 281,000 in the last three months to 2.38 million. At this rate the dole queue could reach 3 million by the end of the year - or if not in the first quarter of next year, just as the election campaign is getting underway. Let's just say that again...
THREE MILLION UNEMPLOYED UNDER A LABOUR GOVERNMENT
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