The Staggers

The New Statesman’s rolling politics blog

PMQs review: a win for Cameron as he ridicules "predistribution"

The Labour leader's big idea is dangerously vulnerable to mockery.

By George Eaton Published 12 September 2012 13:02

Prime Minister David Cameron leaves 10 Downing Street. Photograph: Getty Images.

Prime Minister David Cameron leaves 10 Downing Street in central London, on September 5, 2012. Photograph: Getty Images.

David Cameron, a man not known for his attention to detail, armed himself with several powerful statistics at today's PMQs. Private sector employment, he boasted, had risen by a million since the election, while the deficit had fallen by a quarter. In response, Ed Miliband pointed out that borrowing is already 25 per cent (£9.3bn) higher than at this point last year, with George Osborne set to abandon his golden debt rule.

Cameron, naturally, replied that, if Miliband was so worried about borrowing, why did he want to increase it? Miliband should have replied that while Labour would borrow for growth, the Tories are borrowing due to recession. But, perhaps fearing that PMQs wouldn't allow for an explanation of Keynes's paradox of thrift, he simply declared that borrowing was "rising on his [Cameron's] watch". It was at this point that Cameron turned his attention to "predistribution", the zeitgeisty concept Miliband discussed in his speech last week. It meant he said, borrowing a quip from Danny Alexander, that "you spend the money before you actually get it, and I think you'll find that's why we're in the mess we're in right now." Seated next to Miliband, Ed Balls, who yesterday described "predistribution" as "a good idea looking for a good label", looked visibly unnerved.

As a result, Miliband's next question - "Is he going to be a beneficiary of the 50p tax cut?" - couldn't help sounding rather desperate. Cameron failed to answer it, just as he failed to say whether the government would rip up its debt target, but his replies were sufficiently strong for this to be of little consequence.

The man who invented predistribution, Joseph Hacker, had, Cameron observed, written a book called The Road To Nowhere. But Miliband "didn't need to read it, he's there already." Rather optimistically, the Labour leader again asked the PM whether he would benefit from the abolition of the 50p rate ("a question he will have to answer between now and April"). But, today at least, buoyed by the cheers of Tory MPs, Cameron could happily ignore him.

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Tags: PMQs review David Cameron Ed Miliband

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4 comments

Fri, 2012-09-14 18:34 — SammyW (not verified)

All Cameron won today was the perception of people that he is a crass bully. Once again he never answered a single question and once again in the intelligence stakes, Miliband completely outclassed him.

Private sector employment has risen by a million, but the rise is almost entirely down to people working part-time positions. Also the government is sacking upwards of 750,000 public sector workers. You do the maths Mr Eaton.

As for "predistribution" and Cameron scoffing at it, please tell us who has consistently stolen Ed Miliband's ideas after doing that previously? What about Ed's conference speech last year, care to mention Cameron's reaction to that and the fact that Cameron himself nicked the idea a few weeks later?

Wed, 2012-09-12 23:34 — Mrs.Josephine Hyde-Hartley (not verified)

Well there is a well known truism that common sense prevails. But I'm not sure whether one's prevailing common sense could or should be amenable to some kind of predistribution ..

We've already got people apparenty making money out of the preposterous and pretentious notion described as " tailored risks".

If " predistribution" depends , as most things seem to do these days, on provider taxpayer/ workers treating all members of the public as if our lives really are some worst case risk scenario that just happens in order to to create and recreate more of the same silly nonsense that's already ruined the global financial system - those concerned want their heads looking at, I'd say.

Wed, 2012-09-12 17:23 — kenelmist (not verified)

Who's going to be the next Tory leader?

Wed, 2012-09-12 14:43 — M .Wenzl (not verified)

Clearly Miliband's performance wasn't great today, but how Cameron's behaviour during PMQs is consistently ridiculous. His tactics are nothing but catty insults and bluster in order to avoid having to answer a question. Miliband should point this out regularly -- how can the public take the PM seriously when can't even give a straight answer to a simple question about policy?