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PMQs Verdict: This was the prawn cocktail PMQs – but the unpleasant main course is still to come

December 5, 2012 12:35 pm

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The PMQs before a major statement is always a little bit pointless.

Today’s was better than most, but still bland. If this were the starter before the main course of the Autumn Statement, it would be a prawn cocktail. A bit dull, not very filling and reminiscent of the 1980s.

Miliband went on the cut to NHS spending and the 50p tax rate – predictably but perfectly sensibly. He was playing the old tunes and playing to the gallery. And by gallery I of course mean the evening news, which explains why his final question wasn’t even a question at all – it was something like “The Tories are awful and can’t be trusted with the NHS”.

I paraphrase slightly, but only a wee bit.

Cameron by contrast was on bullish form. How he must wish that he could deliver the Autumn Statement himself, instead of his sickly sidekick. His voice may rise in volume and the redness of his face brings mirth to the Labour benches. But it never cracks and wheezes like Osborne’s. He never sounds like he’s about to just give up and stop. And he never sounds (quite as) smug.

But with the starter out of the way – which is all this was, no pretence (and why I make no apologies for the brevity of this verdict) – it’s time for the main course. PMQs will only serve to provide clips for the Autumn Statement coverage. That’s the meal today, not this paltry offering.

And what’s George Osborne serving? We don’t fully know yet.

But I wouldn’t want to eat it…and yet the country will have to swallow it.

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  3. PMQs Verdict: The day satire died
  4. Labour needs a prawn cocktail offensive for all businesses, not just small firms
  5. PMQs verdict: Desperate Dave and the Mystery Medic
  • Dave Postles

    He proposes to claw back £3.7bn from benefits, but £1bn from the most affluent. Is that fair? He obviously also doesn’t recognize that the price of food will increase inordinately, especially bread.

  • Dave Postles

    Britain open for business with 21% corporation tax? Really? Will that make such headway with Google, Amazon and so on?

  • ovaljason

    Plenty of us warned that Ed Balls would be a disastrous Shadow Chancellor.

    Only the most tribal will claim this is an acceptable response.

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