Live PMQs blog from noon

Editorial verdict: "A clear victory for William Hague.  He asked serious questions about depositor protection and Ms Harman replied with political knockabout."

Highlights, not verbatim:

12.15pm: William Hague gets up for his second set of questions and highlights waste of food in Government departments.  Isn't there something ridiculous about being lectured on food waste by a Prime Minister who has passed his sell-by date?  Harriet Harman responds with a jibe about William Hague's "18 pints" (although it was only 14!).  Quick as a flash William assures the House that none of his pints were wasted!  William Hague ends by saying he wishes her well in her campaign to replace the PM.  She replies by saying that there are not enough airports in the country to accommodate the men who would want to leave the country if she became PM.

12.08pm: Uneventful exchange between Vince Cable - in which he says housing market faces worst crisis in "our lifetimes" - and Ms Harman on the economy.   This is the real issue, says Cable, and criticises Brown and Cameron for competing to be the "weightwatcher-in-chief".

12.05pm: Mr Hague offers help from the Conservatives in passing deposit protection laws speedily before the summer recess.  Ms Harman responds by knocking the Conservatives' record on the economy before 1997.  Hague: If she wants to be PM, she ought to start acting like one.  Harriet Harman wonders (again) why Theresa May isn't standing in for David Cameron as she is her opposite number as Shadow Leader of the House.  Ms Harman advises Theresa May to cross Lambeth bridge and apply to be a woman bishop.  Bizarre!

12.03pm: William Hague rises and asks when the Government intends to legislate for increased depositor protection during this time of financial turbulence.  Flanked by Alistair Darling Harriet Harman makes general remarks about the economy but doesn't answer the specific point.

It's Harriet Vs Hague again today with Gordon Brown at the G8 summit.  HH did quite well last time and another good showing might boost her unofficial leadership campaign.

Comments

[sbjme19]

Harman really pathetic in her off-the-point,rehearsed,partisan answers. Hague asked serious questions about the economy and her answers were quite disgraceful.

[Alexander King]

What is it with the women in the Commons? Their cleavage gets more revealing with every passing week. Someone should tell Theresa May to cover herself up. And Hazel Blears looks like she's off to the beach.

[London Tory]

Harman bombed, shrill, partisan, and over rehearsed, Hague's off the cuff response on 18 pints completely trumped her.

[Alexander King]

Car crash stuff from Harman.

[David (One of many)]

This just shows how her relatively decent performance last time - which I still thought was overrated - was a fluke. And why hasn't somebody pointed out to her how wrong she is to think Theresa May should be facing her? The Opposition can put up whoever it likes against the deputy PM.

[Londoner]

Alexander King: the women MPs are just responding to current fashion. Either you should get out more or, if you already do, enjoy the experience more. You might also then notice the fashion this summer for see-through skirts - although the legs required for them are a bit more demanding for the average 35+ female MP. I think the view from above in the House of Commons also rather exaggerates cleavage.

Personally I find Hague's shaved head more offensive but, as he is male, he doesn't tend to get picked up on these fashion points.

So do as I say not as I do: don't be sexist, Alexander.

[Trinny and Susannah]

Harman does look quite attractive today, though. Ruth Kelly needs to get her hair sorted out - it's awful. Osborne is looking very trim and natty.

[Alexander King]

It's nothing to do with sexism, Londoner. It's about putting across the right image to the country and the wider world. We don't want our female representatives dressing like trollops, do we? They should take account of the downward view of the cameras when they pick their outfits. I have no desire whatever to be confronted with Theresa May's ageing cleavage of an afternoon, just like I have no desire to see Andrew Neil's hairy, fleshy chest when he comes over all trendy on The Week.

[Dale]

I think her performance today should make us think twice about going easy on brown.

If bown would lead labour to defeat, Harman would lead it to extinction.

[Dale]

"Personally I find Hague's shaved head more offensive but, as he is male, he doesn't tend to get picked up on these fashion points."

Hague does what any bald/balding man with ny sense does. There are enough comb-overs in the HoC.

[Jack of Kent]

"The Opposition can put up whoever it likes against the deputy PM."

She is not deputy PM; she is deputy party leader and Leader of the House. Hague is deputy leader of the Conservatives but not shadow Leader of the House.

When this taunt comes up, Hague really should point out that whilst Brown has failed to appoint her deputy PM, at least he treats her as such...

[Nigel Rathbone]

The Opposition can put up whoever it likes against the deputy PM.

David (One of Many) - Harriet Harman is emphatically NOT the Deputy PM.

She is answering questions as Leader of the House, not as deputy Labour leader. It is traditional for the Leader of the House to answer for the PM in the PM's absence and when there is no DPM (as there hasn't been since Prescott retired).

[London Tory]

@ Dale

I agree, maybe Labour has not bottomed out yet, beacuse judged on that performance, Harman is even worse than Brown.

Where do Labour grow these people ?

Unworldly, cold, patronising and shrill. And what does she sound so angry about ? she does not even dare live in her own crime ridden constituency.

[Happy Harriet Harman]

WHATEVER!

I was brilliant.

Oh come on, admit it, Tories. I am your worst nightmare come true.

[Alan Douglas]

Since HH's ONLY claim to being PM is that she does not have a penis, her remark that all men would leave the country if she is elected has the ring of truth about it.

There was a time when leaders aspired to leading the whole country, not approx half of it.

Alan Douglas

[Justin Hinchcliffe]

I think she again got the better of Hague. Looks, though, I am again in a minority here...

[Jamal McAkhbar]

The clock is ticking, we are getting taxed to death, social engineering is creating a knife-hell for poor and vulnerable citizens.
We need to get nastier with these clowns.
Just how many people can we get onto HH's roof? How many houses does she own and where are they?

[Nigel Rathbone]

Unworldly, cold, patronising and shrill.

I think you'll find that's pretty much word for word what Labour said about one M. Thatcher in the late 1970s.

A good example of why you shouldn't underestimate your opponents...

[Paul D]

Nice self-depricating quip from Harperson about folk scarpering if she became PM

[Londoner]

Perhaps these separated fathers are only repeatedly climbing on Harriet's roof to get a better view of her cleavage...has anyone checked out her sky lights?

If it's not that, why is she such a target rather than says, Balls, who is SoS for "Children"? Perhaps his roof is too large and high for them to climb on, or do they fancy a view of Balls rather less? However, as the Balls's London home is financed by us (unlike Harriet's, I think, as she is an Inner London MP), it might be more apt to "re-possess" it. And being a second home there could be no question of frightening their children if done in term time as, of course, children do not go to schools near second homes, do they?

[Patsy Sergeant]

Not only men, Ms, Harman, not only men!!!!

[London Tory]

Londoner

Always remember that Harman is also unofficial leader of the "A Kid Does Not Need To Have A Father" Party.

Hence the protest.

[David Belchamber]

Today's PMQs were pretty low key and largely pointless.

Cannot David Cameron appeal to the Speaker to require the PM or his stand-in to reply to the question?

HH was a poor carbon copy of Brown and the regular repetition of "fake facts" and references to pre-1997 is nothing other than a turn-off and waste of taxpayers' money.

[Dave]

"I have no desire whatever to be confronted with Theresa May's ageing cleavage of an afternoon"

Oh, I don't know. I think she's quite the milf.

[Dave]

"I think she again got the better of Hague. Looks, though, I am again in a minority here... "

Nah, Hague played a blinder. That quip about none of it being wasted was the highlight of the show.

[RichardJ]

"She replies by saying that there are not enough airports in the country to accommodate the men who would want to leave the country if she became PM."

There are not enough guns in the country for the whole male population to arm itself with either.

[Conand]

The really serious point is that Harriet Harman is constantly damaging the prospects of women who want to enter public life.
Female Labour MPs always appear to be borderline psychotic. This doesn't make them any worse than male Labour MPs just horribly bad in a different way.
There are not enough airports in the country to accommodate the women who would want to leave the country if she became PM.

[Alexander King]

"Female Labour MPs always appear to be borderline psychotic".

There is something unusually awful about the female Labour cabinet members. Ruth Kelly, Yvette Cooper and Harman are just ghastly creatures. The whole frontbench married couple thing is also very strange and discomfiting.

The Tory and Liberal female MPs seem more of a normal mix. They range from the puke-inducing - e.g. Julia Goldsworthy and Sarah Teather - to the really rather normal/foxy - e.g. Lynne Featherstone, Nadine Dorries, Cheryl Gillan.

Paxman wrote a book on the political animal a few years ago which was mostly devoted to men and discovered some interesting things such as the fact that a disproportionate number of male MPs lost their fathers at an early age. Someone should write a similar book about female MPs - it would be interesting to know if any similar trends were in play.

[Angelo Basu]

"If it's not that, why is she such a target rather than says, Balls, who is SoS for "Children"? Perhaps his roof is too large and high for them to climb on, or do they fancy a view of Balls rather less?"

Or maybe the risk of seeing Mrs Balls by mistake?

[Ulster Tory (currently in USA)]

Being rather sad, despite being on 'vacation', I found an internet cafe to watch the highlights of PMQT from...

"there are not enough airports in the country to accommodate the men who would want to leave the country if she became PM."

Too true. If she became PM... *shudders* ...I don't think I'd come back from holiday! The 'positive' discrimination feminist agenda currently being enforced by the gov would get worse... and worse...

I salute F4J!!

[Norm Brainer]

I was thinking her "not enough airports" line was her promotion for the heathrow 3rd runway!

I don't think she did well...
I expect any labour person not to answer the question, but her "insults" were not even remotely relevant to the question and it was too obvious she was just reading them out.

The Labour women on the front bench do have a certain evil reptilian feel to them.

[Ben Elford]

Last time, she made a reasonable fist of doing this; that is, it was much better than might have been expected.

This time, all we got was the clunking. Dim, pedestrian, inarticulate: if she had any self-awareness, she would be fleeing the country herself on the next plane.

[Bob Macdonald]

I am massive fan of Lynne Featherstone: the MILF of MILF. She rates as a straight-up hottie in other professions than politics. I would love to see her as PM.

[Bob Macdonald]

I am massive fan of Lynne Featherstone: the MILF of MILF. She rates as a straight-up hottie in other professions than politics. I would love to see her as PM.

[Bob Macdonald]

I am massive fan of Lynne Featherstone: the MILF of MILF. She rates as a straight-up hottie in other professions than politics. I would love to see her as PM.