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11:48 – Half the government’s business team headed off to Switzerland today, but the prime minister, and chancellor Alistair Darling remain behind. If there’s any chance of the questions meandering away from the economy it probably lies in the Information Tribunal’s decision to force the release of minutes of Cabinet meetings leading up to the Iraq war. It might be David Cameron but it’s more likely to be a backbench MP, or Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, whose party proudly opposed the war from the start. The polls are going the Tory leader’s way, and so did last week’s session. We’ll see if that trend continues in a few minutes.
12:01 – Gordon Brown is in. The first question is on tackling poverty, and Brown backs up his record and his fiscal stimulus plan, in much the same way you’ve heard him do it many, many times before.
12:03 – Cameron stands. He starts, surprise surprise, on the economy. How deeply will it contract before Brown admits there’s an economic bust? Hard to believe Cameron’s focussing on the ‘bust’ word again, which is entirely semantic. Brown responds with the usual tired statements about Tories doing nothing. Cameron says he appears to be denying the existence of a recession. Apparently a select committee once asked Brown what a bust is, and he said it was a 1.5 per cent drop in GDP. That’s now happened, so will he admit it?
12:05 – You can see where Cameron is going with this now. Brown again reiterates the ‘do nothing’ argument, which, incidentally, has no relevance at all to the question. Cameron says his statements are “self-evidently nonsense” because he’s taken Tory policies. “That’s why his poll ratings are going down to Michael Foot levels,” he adds. Will Brown admit it’s his fault? Brown says it’s hitting every country in the world, and that Britain was the first to act to save the banks, and the first to implement a fiscal stimulus and to extend lending. “We can play his game of student politics as long as he wants to play it, but what the country is interested in is will we take the action to help it out of difficulties,” he says.
12:08 – “Only one of us was in student politics and he still hasn’t grown out of it,” Cameron replies. He then reads out Brown’s definition of boom-and-bust from that old select committee. The quote is about allowing the economy to grow too fast and then it sinks faster than other economies when there’s a downturn. So, Cameron, argues, on his own definition we’re in boom and bust. There are calls for Cameron to stop going on about it but he bats them away with demands for Brown to admit he hasn’t ended the cycle. Brown counters with more on the global nature of the crisis. “If he does not recognise that then he can’t begin to discuss the answers. And I suspect it’s because he doesn’t understand that that the Tory policy is to do nothing,” Brown replies.
12:10 – “If he won’t retract something he said in the past let me ask him about something crass and insensitive that he said this week,” Cameron says. Apparently, Brown described the current suffering as the birth pangs of the new global order. It’s not a quote that quite adds up to what Cameron is suggesting. Brown answers, but again he doesn’t address the question. He hasn’t actually addressed the question once yet. It’s like watching two men have entirely separate conversations.
12:12 – Cameron describes the PM’s arguments as the death throes of a dying government. There’s huge support from the Tory backbenches, with Brown screaming “He’s not winning the argument.” It sounds desperate and shrill. The Speaker steps in. More from Brown on how the Tories would do nothing and the match ends.
12:14 – Behind Brown, the Labour benches look downcast and rigid. Last week, Cabinet members were visibly sending emails on the Blackberries. Clegg gets up. “Does the PM think it’s right some members of the upper house can use non-domicile status to get out of paying their taxes in this country?” “Of course it’s not right,” Brown says simply. Laughter. “Will the PM support the Lib Dem backbench bill to make sure peers pay their full tax in this country?” asks Clegg. Brown isn’t answering, but instead describes how they have cut taxes for the less well-off. “Yes, we should take action against tax havens,” he says, but they must also reduce taxes for people in this country.
12:16 – A friendly question from the benches behind him allows Brown to describe what a good government he runs. It’s the first question he’s actually answered. Another backbencher asks why Britain is suffering worse than most in the crisis. Brown says the Institute of Fiscal Studies says we’ll avoid a worse recession because of the VAT cut.
12:18 – Is the PM angry that the BBC refused to air the DEC appeal? This should be interesting. It’s not for us to interfere with the independence of the BBC, Brown says. He should have told that to Alistair Campbell in the run up to Iraq. He promises to spread the message of the appeal as far as possible. There’s a criticism there, but it’s heavily cloaked. A backbench MP starts implying the PM tried to cover up ministerial pay but he’s interrupted by the Speaker ordering him to immediately take back the question. Quite right. He rephrases it to make it about the peers, and Brown says he will root out any mistakes that have been made.
12:21 – Alan Johnson, health secretary, may be asleep. It’s increasingly hard to tell. Geoff Hoon, transport secretary and new hate figure of the Green lobby, is behaving as if something irritating is hiding in his trousers. Brown is asked how he feels about the Troubles report which gives equal compensation to victims and terrorists. Brown says: “There can be no justification for terrorist violence.” He understands the controversy. The government will consider the report in great details and issue its view. Most the proposals will almost certainly be taken up. Brown says he won’t forget the innocent victims, but there’s no real answer on the proposal itself.
12:23 – Harriet Harman is wearing the most expressionless face I’ve ever seen. It’s absolutely impossible to figure out what she’s really thinking. Right this very second she is demonstrating one of the greatest gifts a politician can have if they are to survive.
12:25 – A question on whether we should say Britain is the best place to invest. Anyone that answered that question in the negative is highly unlikely to keep power. Is this democracy? No. It’s not. Brown issues a warning to those that “speak the economy down”. A questioner recites a Brown quote from before he attained power, on how much he would “relish” reforming the Lords. Why hasn’t it happened? He says everything is being worked on. Indeed it is, but it has been some time now.
12:27 – I’ve seen Ed Miliband and Hazel Bears sit together before, but it’s always fascinating to watch their body language. They look as if the moment there’s no more politics to discuss they will run out of things to say forever.
12:29 – How is PFI affected by the crisis? Brown says the Treasury is looking at it. Another question: If all problems come from America, as Brown says, why is the pound falling so quickly next to the dollar? We are not targeting the pound, we’re targeting inflation, Brown says. “I would caution him and his party against any policies that would target sterling,” he finishes. That was Brown at his best – addressing the question and doing it authoritatively. It makes mincemeat out of the questioner. He used to do well, when he always answered like this.
12:32 – Brown defends diversifying his portfolio when attacked on why he sold off our gold reserves. Another good answer from Brown, who mentions that buying euros went well, given it’s performing strongly. It’s almost melancholy to watch him answer questions so well when he put in such an appalling performance against Cameron and Clegg. Try not to get too upset. See you next week.
