Brown on Cameron: "The more he talks, the less he says"
12.50pm: As Iain Dale has pointed out, Brown needs to apologise for wrongly stating that Spain is in the G20. Britain is the only G20 nation STILL in recession.
VERDICT: "A clear win on points for a confident Gordon Brown, with witty lines on Eton and on Cameron; 'The more he talks, the less he says'. David Cameron looks tired, I thought. Greg Barker raised the issue that Cameron should have raised near the end of PMQs; the threat posed by Single Market Commissioner Michel Barnier (of France) to the UK's financial services sector. Over at CentreRight, Mark Wallace has addressed the worrying implications of this French victory for the City of London."
Highlights, not verbatim:
12.26pm: An angry Greg Barker MP asks the PM to comment about Nicolas Sarkozy's boast that the English are the real losers from the French getting the EU finance post. Brown replies with some general remarks about the need for Britain to remain at the heart of Europe.
12.25pm: Tom Harris MP asks question about Zac Goldsmith's non-dom status.
12.16pm: Nick Clegg calls for an Afghan strategy that doesn't rely too much on President Karzai nut also works through the country's regional leaders. Brown jokes that President Obama will be grateful for Nick Clegg's views. Boom! Boom! He insists that Karzai does not have a blank cheque.
12.12pm: After Speaker Bercow rebukes noisy Labour backbenchers, David Cameron pokes fun at a noisy Ed Balls on the frontbench, 'why isn't he in his ultra marginal seat?'. Perhaps, Cameron jokes, because the more people see him, the more his seat becomes marginal. The Tory leader asks again about Labour's record on boom and bust. 'The more he talks, the less he says' retorts Brown. He then attacks Tory policy on inheritance tax and non-doms, citing the Zac Goldsmith revelation, and concluding by asking if Tory tax policy was devised on the playing fields of Eton?
12.09pm: David Cameron switches to the economy and asks if Britain is now the only G20 country still in recession? Brown replies - rather unconvincingly - that Spain has now joined the G20 and is also in recession. He then makes a long list of government economy measures that the Tories have opposed. The Leader of the Opposition, Brown says, is a modern PR man with economic views from the 1930s.
12.07pm: Stressing that false messages should not be sent to UK troops, will UK troops start withdrawing in 2010 or 2011, Cameron asks? The Prime Minister does not answer the question directly but talks about the Afghanistan-isation of the security effort.
12.04pm: Describing President Obama's statement on Afghanistan as "very welcome", David Cameron asks if the US troops surge will mean British troops can be more concentrated in key geographical areas. Brown replies that it will, emphasising that Afghan troops will also be taking control of provinces where British troops currently operate.
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