Well, that was a car crash
Gordon Brown went into Prime Minister's Questions expecting the economy and getting Baby P. The result was not pretty.
David Cameron at one point theatrically swept his notes aside and demanded that the Prime Minister retract his suggestion that the Leader of the Opposition was playing party politics.
Charles Kennedy, commenting on the BBC Daily Politics show, said:
I hate to say this, but had this been Tony Blair today this would have been handled in a perfect way.
And Kennedy was no fan of TB. Instead of doing bipartisan sombre, the Prime Minister was all about when the executive summary had arrived on Ed Balls's desk (this morning, although the case has been going on for months).
If it was Andy Coulson, Cameron's press secretary, who advised him to ask about the case, score another point to him.
You ******* idiot.
'score another point to him' is that all you can say. You're as bad as those 2 ****wits at PMQs
Posted by: Simon Leonard | Wednesday, 12 November 2008 at 01:39 PM
This was not about political point scoring.
The Baby P case is above politics and Cameron was right to raise it.
Equally Brown could have "shared" Cameron's concerns and expressed the shock and outrage of the nation.
Instead Brown delivered a response which showed an inhuman side.
http://theorangepartyblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/pmqs-show-brown-isnt-human.html
Posted by: the orange party | Wednesday, 12 November 2008 at 04:17 PM
Entirely agree with Simon Leonard: 'score another point to him' has to be the most disgusting thing I've read in a long time.
For creepy apparatchiks a hideous crime is just like a hit square in battleships.
Even for rentafool this is scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Posted by: gregor | Wednesday, 12 November 2008 at 06:25 PM
Brown should have just answered the questions and moved on, but he couldn't be sensible he had to be snide and tried to publicly tarnish Cameron as playing points with a dead child. It was a disaster and he came across as far removed from being human as possible. Cameron was clearly in a rage at how Brown acted, it was palpable, I was waiting for a brawl to break out.
Posted by: YMT | Wednesday, 12 November 2008 at 06:59 PM
T.Dalrymple's comments in yesterdays Times is grim reading.
Brown cannot admit that there are many members of the of the civil service are not up to the job. Labour have been in power for 11 years and with Haringey they have run the council for decades. Much of Labour's money comes from civil service unions. Can he afford to criticise his paymasters ?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article5133966.ece
Posted by: Charlie | Thursday, 13 November 2008 at 10:45 AM
"score another point to him" - my goodness, it's the tragic death of a tiny kid and you're talking about who chalked up a PR point?
Posted by: Mark | Thursday, 13 November 2008 at 12:11 PM
I watched PMQs and witnessed the reprehensible behaviour of Brown and the oafs on the government benches, twisting, turning and wriggling any which way he could to avoid answering a question that all of us wanted answering. The only reply he condescended to give was one of arrogant empty platitude and tired political cliché.
Cameron, of whom I am no fan, was not playing party politics on this issue and his rage at being accused of doing so was almost tangible. Brown obviously realised what he had done, the sight of his face collapsing in on itself gave it away in spades, but, as usual, he chose to put self interest ahead of all else when a modest show of humility could have erased his error from historical memory.
Those that did not see this know nothing of the mechanics of PMQs, whilst those that simply deride Cameron in clumsy defence of the Glorious Leader are hopelessly lost in NuLiebour's political dogma.
Posted by: Keith Lonsdale | Thursday, 13 November 2008 at 02:46 PM
At least Ed Balls' actions seem to have vindicated Cameron's stance at PMQs. Question is, how long do we wait to see results in Haringey?
Posted by: Curly | Thursday, 13 November 2008 at 08:42 PM
Ed Balls' investigation is simply time-delay tactics in the hope that we'll all have forgotten about this tragic episode by the time his report is published.
It has emerged that a warning about the failings of Haringey social services was sent to Patricia Hewitt, the most arrogant and condescending woman in the history of British politics, six months ago and that, typically, she simply ignored it.
Those responsible for the protection of this child are the same incompetents whose inaction led to the death of Victoria Climbie, some years ago.
There was a full and extensive enquiry into Victoria's death at that time, which exposed significant failings at Haringey. Clearly nothing was done to address the most serious of these.
Posted by: Keith Lonsdale | Friday, 14 November 2008 at 09:08 AM