After paying tribute to the late Piara Khabra Cameron hit Blair with six questions in a row on the prisons "scandal", repeatedly asking him when he was told that the total number of prisoners would exceed 80000. In what became a slightly angry exchange Blair didn't answer but said that year-on-year projections had been exceeded and that there had been a 25% increase in sentencing.
Being Blair's penultimate PMQs, Brown came up a lot. Cameron blamed him for the fact that more prisoners had been released this year than the entire prison population of Australia, saying "The person sat next to him [Blair] is the one responsible" for reduced funding for prisons. Brown later cheered enthusiastically when Blair said that the only reason money can be invested in public services in Scotland was because of his management of the economy.
Leaning forward onto his Despatch Box he forcefully finished with: "Shouldn't he apologise just this once for what can only be described as an abject failure to deliver".
Menzies Campbell struggled to be heard in asking if it's right that "private equity executives pay tax at a lower rate than those who clean their offices" and saying it would be fair to offer tax cuts for those on low incomes.
Deputy Editor
Related links: Brooks Newmark MP defends private equity and David Davies MP advocates a doubling of prison places
Ming Campbell asks if it's right that "private equity executives pay tax at a lower rate than those who clean their offices"
Private equity executives probably earn a teensy bit more than their office cleaners though. 10% of a million is more than 33%+ at £5.35 per hour.
And that's £5.35 per hour more than they'd get if a high tax regime pushed significant chunks of London's finance industry abroad.
I take it neither maths nor economics are Ming's strong points.
Posted by: Neil Reddin | June 20, 2007 at 13:17
'I take it neither maths nor economics are Ming's strong points.'
Nor is leading a political party it would seem!!
Posted by: Andrew Woodman | June 20, 2007 at 13:46
Well done Dave.
Posted by: HF | June 20, 2007 at 13:53
It's all good stuff.
What is it about this hell-bent desire to penalise those who are successful for the work they have done. Again on the 'Ming on Maths' question (Neil Reddin), don't they understand that 20% of £100,000.00 is already a tad more than 20% 0f £10,000.00?
Just another way of saying goodbye to motivation, individuality, prospects, ambition, someone who can do a better job than them etc...
Posted by: Adam Tugwell | June 20, 2007 at 16:03
Really good stuff from Cameron at PMQs today.
Blair was well on the rack.
Posted by: Geoffrey G Brooking | June 20, 2007 at 16:15
"Really good stuff from Cameron at PMQs today.
Blair was well on the rack".
Well, maybe Geoffrey Brooking @ 16.15. However, the fact is that after using up his questions DC had still failed to elicit a meaningful response from Blair, who still managed to sing his own praises at the end of his replies.
PMQs are largely a waste of taxpayers' money.
What might be more useful would be a factual weekly report from the Minister for Europe (or whatever the post is called) to Parliament of the latest laws/regulations to be imposed on this country, so they can't be slipped in without anyone noticing.
Posted by: David Belchamber | June 20, 2007 at 17:38
Why havent we called for more time to be set aside for PMQs? Blair cut it back to avoid having to face up to awkward issues springing up on him. This sideshow is pointless. Cameron cant beat Blair even on his penultimate attempt. Cameron failed to his a decisive blow.
Posted by: James Maskell | June 21, 2007 at 09:16
Usually i moan about DC at PMQ's but this week, he wasn't half bad! Good questions regarding prisons. Bliar was unconvincing- Dc came out ahead- just. Having been a politics student ,who has looked at OLD copies of Hansard, Thatcher( God Bless) never really struck a 'killer blow' on Wilson- or Callaghan- until disaster struck. Blair struck a couple of good killer blows on poor old JM, but those were mainly of his own making.
Posted by: simon | June 21, 2007 at 11:23
Finally got round to reading the posts on the latest PMQ and like almost all those who have blogged I concur with their views. DC was on top form and gave Blair a really hard time - Six great questions on a subject that should worry us all.
How on earth when the government received a clear warning about this problem 5 years ago could they have dithered and delayed so much that now the only answer is to release 25,000 prisoners early? The only answer is utter the incompetence of the Blair/Brown administration, but then given Labour’s record on the Home Office issue, no one should be the least bit surprised.
I was slightly concerned about the comments from James Maskell and David Belchamber that were so at odds with every post on this website and the comments from those supposed ‘feral beasts’ that I have concluded and not unreasonably that they must have been watching an old edition of PMQs off the web.
The only other explanation is that they read about this most recent PMQs in some lefty rag or on the Labour Party’s own website.
This was a great performance by DC, strong, assured, and confident and he was clearly in charge of his brief and enjoying himself, unlike yesterday’s men who looked quite angry at times.
Bring on the Brown!
Posted by: Ali T | June 22, 2007 at 15:33