This time, Ed dodges the questions

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Normally at PMQs it’s the Prime Minister who dodges the questions, but today it was Miliband, who was desperate not to ask about the big issue of the day – strikes.

Last night Ed had his say on this week’s public sector strikes. He tried to spread the blame around. It was a defensive posture. It was designed so that the can say “I have already been vocal in my opposition to these strikes.” Today was the exact opposite. Ed ran away from the issue. And considering how damaging the issue of strikes could be for Ed if handled poorly under the harsh glare of the commons, it was – tactically at least – the right thin to do.

Yet avoiding such a major issue, and returning once again to the NHS – not fertile ground for Ed at PMQs so far – looked fraught with danger. And yet despite Cameron’s increasingly obvious and desperate attempts to shoehorn in any mention of Greece or strikes, Miliband did well (considering the circumstances). He pinpointed two likely government cock-ups on the NHS that could resonate with the public – the creation of hundreds of new NHS quangos and the ridiculous state of affairs that could see thousands of staff sacked and re-hired to do the same job – at significant cost. A Labour leader going on the attack over excess bureaucracy and waste? The Taxpayers’ Alliance must be delighted. I await their showering of praise upon Miliband.

Cameron, by way of response – if response is the right word – chose to answer questions that weren’t being asked. The temperature of the room was reaching boiling point. These MPs were in the chamber until 2am this morning, and tempers were frayed. And yet even taking that into account it felt like the speaker had lost the room, lacking the authority to calm the passions of the exhausted legislators.

So onwards Cameron flapped, and frowned and fumed. His temper rose in line with the house, with each question from Miliband driving him more deeply into a furrow of fury. If he had dispatched the Labour leader with ease and comfort – something which is clearly within his powers to achieve – he would have won today outright. And yet he didn’t. He stood and shouted and ranted and turned the deepest shade of red – Red Dave, if you will – and brought back angry Cameron, who we assumed had been dispatched to a sensory deprivation chamber by Cameroon-guru Steve Hilton. And as he fulminated and flamed at the Labour leader, he gave away his discomfort, his lack of the grasp of detail and his quick temper.

And he handed Ed Miliband an unlikely, and barely deserved, victory.