Gordon Brown wasn’t at PMQs today, so Harriet Harman filled in. Rather than answering questions on his Government’s policies in the House, the Prime Minister was away ‘welcoming’ the President of South Africa to our shores. The point was made on the Daily Politics that he could have quite easily pushed this meeting back, and it is a fair one. Brown has missed twice as many PMQs in his two and a half years as Tony Blair missed in his ten years, and it simply isn’t good enough.
It was an extremely noisy session, with insults flying back and forth – mainly about Lord Ashcroft. Harman worked hard at the insults but often lacked the substance to back them up, frequently looking out of her depth on the economic and defence questions Hague threw at her today. In such a rowdy environment mistakes were frequent: Harman referring to Hague as Foreign Secretary was matched by the Tory backbencher forgetting to ask his question, and the Leader of the House not bothering to listen to one from her own back-benches.
As to Lord Ashcroft, Harman got a dig in on the subject during most of her answers but anything she offered up to Hague on the subject was thrown back in her face with relish, particularly with a reference to Harman’s own husband’s selection as PPC for Ladywood – “she doesn't’ want to recognize marriage in the tax system, but she sure does in the political system”. Vintage.
In all I can’t help feeling that this Ashcroft saga is becoming a bit of a
On another note, I was impressed with the Speaker today. Bercow tried to keep order during the Leaders’ questions with little success, but lost it properly when the noise continued into backbench questions – well done!
