A Prime Minister's Questions of two halves. David Cameron did the statesmanlike thing by raising the crisis in Zimbabwe, showing he can so serious as well as political knockabout. Perhaps he guessed what was coming later (see below). Broad agreement with Gordon Brown on Zimbabwe, as to be expected.
No such consensus on act two of Cameron's performance (he has six questions in total and can split them into two bites). Raw politics resumed as the Tory leader demanded to know whether Brown would tear up laws on industrial disputes to cave in to demands by the trade unions, as a payback for contributing more than 90 per cent of the funding to the cash-starved Labour Party.
Brown said he had "no plans" to do so - short of a total denial, even
though he probably didn't intend it. Cameron linked the unions' policy
demands to the threatened wave of strikes this summer. It seemed
fertile territory. But, for the second week running, Brown managed to
shave it. Perhaps he has a new script writer.
For Cameron, he said,
"politics is just showbusiness, devoid of substance." He told the Tory
leader: "You can get by without substance some of the time. You can't
get by without substance all of the time." It might not have won over
too many voters, but Labour MPs loved it.
This weekly joust does affect their morale and, after a bad run, Brown has done better in the past three weeks. Does it matter? Yes, because it has helped to lower the decibel level of speculation among Labour MPs that he might be forced out before the next election.
"This weekly joust does affect their morale and, after a bad run, Brown has done better in the past three weeks. Does it matter? Yes, because it has helped to lower the decibel level of speculation among Labour MPs that he might be forced out before the next election."
Perhaps this is Cameron's intention?
A new leader *might* salvage Labour. Brown, however, follows the maxim "When you're in a hole, keep digging", and will ensure Cameron a crushing victory at the next election
Posted by: Cynosarges | Thursday, 26 June 2008 at 09:20 AM
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Posted by: Executivetool | Sunday, 06 December 2009 at 11:57 PM