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PMQs review

Published 11 November 2009

Brown's best performance in months

From Westminster

Gordon Brown got the better of David Cameron today in his most confident performance at Prime Minister's Question Time in months.

Perhaps boosted by the wave of sympathy for him over the Sun's attack on his letters to soldiers' parents, Brown said the Tory leader "doesn't have a clue" when it comes to "policy". He ridiculed Cameron's "cast-iron" promises on Europe and the NHS, in response to attacks on unemployment from Cameron.

The Tory leader surprised the House by breaking the sombre mood of Armistice Day to go on the offensive over fresh youth unemployment figures. A red-faced and at times rattled-looking Cameron got increasingly angry in the exchanges, claiming the Prime Minister was "living in a parallel universe".

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, noted the "genuine sincerity" of Brown's tributes to the latest fallen soldiers in Afghanistan. Clegg asked about reforms to local housing allowance rules for the country's poorest. Brown said Labour has done more to help poverty than previous governments.

Score: Brown 7
Cameron: 4
Clegg: 6

PMQs was at 1500hrs today following the Armistice Day service.

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14 comments from readers

Simon
11 November 2009 at 15:41

We were clearly watching different broadcasts

Not once did Brown answer a question. He spouted his usual lines - over and over again. Plus the fake emotion that could soon become his trademark. Just because the Tories have different policies doesn't mean that they have no policies. But Brown is his way or no way. Not what I call leadership.

Kristoff
11 November 2009 at 15:49

You can't be serious about your claim sir? Brown got thrashed as usual by Mr. Cameron. Cameron was right policy-wise (they've already outset more policies than is expected from an opposition party), right about the youth unemployment figures and right again about the malfunctioning of Mr. Brown's terrible schemes. I'm afraid, like Mr. Brown, you'd have to live in a parallel universe to draw that conclusion.

obangobang
11 November 2009 at 16:04

Talking of living in a parallel universe....

Klaus Westwood
11 November 2009 at 16:07

I presume this post is tongue in cheek. I was surprised at how inept Brown was - completely unable to come up with a coherent response to Cameron's offensive...and he should be pulled up for criticising Cameron for not answering questions; this is PMQs, not LotOQs (work it out).

Why does Brown let the Tory leader get him so rattled? He starts ranting and raving and comes accross terribly.

Theo
11 November 2009 at 16:07

I was going to offer you some straws

But I see you are clutching at some already

Simon
11 November 2009 at 16:10

Your always good for a laugh. I'll give you that.

Mark Goodall
11 November 2009 at 16:14

What an extraordinary claim to make about Brown's performance.

When asked if he had failed to abolish youth unemployment he simply ignored the question and muttered about the measures he made, which clearly had not worked.

He also ignored the question about whether he was cutting youth training programme, in direct contradiction to his recent claims to "invest rather than cut like the tories", which itself was utterly deceitful.

Cameron was armed with incontrovertible evidence of GB's duplicity and incompetence and all Brown could do in answer was to claim his policies were better in his favoured cliches. Well perhaps he should have reused his cliches about abolishing boom and bust and that Britain was better placed to weather the recession than other countries.

I am shocked that even a biased journalist could misrepresent what happened to the extent he has. Really shocking. Do the facts not count for anything?

James
11 November 2009 at 16:50

Do you people do this to all blogs? After all, just after I posted I saw Adam Boulton, the respected Sky News political editor, say that this was a clear win for Brown.

Mark Goodall
11 November 2009 at 17:25

You are extraordinary if you really think that your evaluation of the relative performances bears inspection. You are doing just what Brown does, ignore the points made and try and diver the discussion onto other irrelevant areas.

I suppose if you measure performance by the volume and force with which shallow and unsupported cliches are delivered then you could claim Brown had won, but on matters of substance, quality of delivery and merit of argument Cameron strides into the lead.

Brown barely answered a single point in response to Cameron's substantive questions.

For instance he totally ignored the charge of failure to meet his intention to abolish youth unemployment, and the charge of cutting youth training.

How can anyone take Brown seriously when he stood at the dispatch box for weeks and weeks arguing that voters faced Labour investment vs tory cuts yet his own budget red book showed departmental spending had to be cut, and it got to the ridiculous point where Brown was citing figures of capital investment as going up in the red book which everyone could see were going down and he had to subsequently retract the claim. Even Alistair Darling doesn't accept the PM's position.

Brown's mantra, which was used again today about the Tories being wrong on all counts on the recession was not only irrelevant to the question being asked, as usual, but utterly contentious, when the Tories agreed with the bank bailout, except for Northern Rock, and may well be right about the fiscal stimulus which may have been wasted on a VAT cut.

Margaret Young
11 November 2009 at 19:17

Well said James, I can see hacks at Con HQ are busy trying to say otherwise but Brown clearly won PMQs. With the Tory lead at a measly 10% and the economy recovering next year Bullingdon Dave may be crying into his champagne glass soon!

Mark McArdle
11 November 2009 at 20:59

Brown clearly had the edge on Cameron today. Some of the above posters are certainly living in their own parallel universe if they believe otherwise. After all that has happened in the last few days Brown was on top form - well done sir

James
12 November 2009 at 11:28

Thank you Margaret, and Mark, for a bit of sanity on this thread. Can I add to that by posting the view of the excellent Andrew Grice, the political editor of the Independent?

David Cameron went on the attack over youth unemployment at Prime Minister's Questions this afternoon. (The Commons went back to the future, holding the session at its old time of 3pm instead of midday because of this morning's Armistice Day service at Westminster Abbey). Unusually, the Tory leader didn't hit the target. His script may have been written before today's jobless figures, which were not as bad as predicted and still left the number of 18-24 year-olds out of work below one million. Ministers can't crow about that but are privately delighted the rise in unemployment is slowing so quickly.

The two leaders traded predictable insults. Cameron accused Gordon Brown of living in a "parallel universe" and quoted from a leaked government document suggesting the skills budget would be cut. Brown said of Cameron: "Every time he mentions policy, he loses it." The most interesting thing was that Brown's lines were sharper than usual. He spoke more slowly than he usually does in PMQs and avoided a shouting match, perhaps learning a lesson from his successful press conference yesterday. Labour MPs cheered him on -- genuinely, not just going through the motions. One even told me afterwards that yesterday and today we had witnessed a "new Gordon Brown." Interesting. We shall see.

Tont Wingfield
12 November 2009 at 11:31

I was unfortunately not able to watch this debate as I live in France thereby relying on news media for staying in touch.

It would appear from your article that very few of the following comments agree to the extent that I wonder if you were all referring to the same event.

swatantra nandanwar
12 November 2009 at 18:27

Brown won on points. Cameron is beginning to get a bit too repetitious and a bit too predictable. Brown is always pedestrian and predictable. The Tories know exactly what Brown will say; I caught a few Friontbenchers repeating Browns answers seconds before he actually delivered them. QT would be much improved if only backbenchers asked the questions, not Cameron, not Clegg.