A cakewalk for Cameron

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

No-one could argue that we have had a summer without political incident. Riots brought unparallelled lawlessness to many of England’s biggest cities, our armed forces were engaged in Libya and Afghanistan, the phone hacking scandal rumbles onwards, the economy has slumped into outright stagnation and this week the government will seek to finalise the dismantling of the NHS.

No shortage of ammunition for Miliband then. So why on earth did he lead on elected police commissioners?

You could see there was a germ of a good idea there. Money is being wasted on a police re-organisation whilst frontline police cuts are rammed through. After the recent riots, that seems thoughtless to say the least. It’s a strategy that could have worked – had Miliband actually made a clear and unambiguous link to the riots. Instead, Miliband’s opposition to elected police chiefs risks making us look shifty and anti-democratic. Even from an economic standpoint his argument fell flat. The public now measures government finance in billions – complaints about £25 million are likely to fall on deaf ears.

Police commissioners – their relative merits and demerits – is not a topic that you’re liekly to hear discussed outside of the Westminster bubble, either by political or non-political people. That might mean it’s a waste of money. It might also suggest it’s an issue that the public couldn’t give a toss about.

By the time Ed switched to his second line of questioning on the NHS, this PMQs was already a lost cause for the Labour leader. Cameron had swatted away all of Miliband’s questions with absolute ease, so this more tricky line of questioning had come too late. Cameron blustered and obfuscated like he always does when complex figures are being discussed. The question was evaded, and there was nothing Ed could do about it.

As Miliband sat down after his final question, it was obvious to everyone watching what was missing. The economy is flatlining, the government have hiked VAT, and yet the chancellor is said to be considering a tax cut for the wealthiest families. Surely that was an obvious line of attack. That IS the kind of issue that is discussed on the doorstep, in the pub and outside the Westminster bubble. But Ed skipped it. It looked like he’s avoided it. It looked like the Darling book had put him off. Cameron has no qualms in telling him so. And he was probably right.

In the end the darling who stole the day was a darling of the Tory Right. Cameron’s right wing are revolting, and no-one revolts quite like Nadine Dorries. Her “why doesn’t the PM tell Clegg who’s in charge?” barb will sting the Prime Minister. In this week of all weeks, when Dories will gain attention for quite different reasons, that her attack was the most potent will be a bitter pill for the Labour benches to swallow.

With that single exception though, today was a cakewalk for Cameron. It didn’t have to be this way. The ammunition for a first win of the new parliamentary term was there, so why on earth didn’t Ed use it? Setting up the PM for a fall on police commissioners might be a smart long term strategy, but Miliband still needs some short term victories.

He didn’t get one today.