Highlights of David Cameron's response to Queen's speech

Not verbatim:

Despite the best efforts of the Government Damian Green MP is here in the Commons today.

We have a right to know that the Home Office is riddled with illegal immigrants and that the Home Office - not the Government Whip's Office - is studying the voting behaviour of Labour MPs.

If the approach taken against Damian Green was pursued when the Prime Minister was in opposition he'd have spent a lot of time in prison.  He received leak after leak.  What the people want to know is if the Prime Minister has the courage to defend the integrity of the Commons and the right to question Government.  It's time for him to come off the fence.

Ten minutes after getting up to speak Mr Cameron turns to the issues raised in the Queen's Speech.

Mr Cameron says any increase in UK troops in Afghanistan must be accompanied by a much greater commitment from other NATO nations.

We welcome the NHS Constitution, the independent exam regulator, more security for ports and airports and greater police accountability - all Conservative ideas.  The PM says we have no substance.  Without Tory substance there'd be nothing worth having in this Queen's Speech.

More maintenance grants for students, EcoTowns and more powers for parliament to question the executive - again and again the Prime Minister promises things but doesn't deliver them.

There is no social reform or public service reform in this Queen's Speech.

And let's look at Labour's economic record. No prudence - we have the largest deficit in the developed world. No stability - with unemployment rising. No end to boom and bust - but the biggest bust because we had a debt-fuelled boom.

The real division between the parties is not, as the Prime Minister likes to pretend, between action and inaction but between the right action and the wrong action.  The right action includes the kind of insurance for bank lending that Conservatives announced last week.  We need a long-term plan to bring the public finances under control and reduce the long-term demands on government.

The Prime Minister constantly assumes that the British people are stupid; that they won't realise that large tax rises are going to be necessary to fill the black hole in the public finances or that every economic problem in Britain is all America's fault.  As long as he treats them as fools they'll never accept him as their Prime Minister.

Comments

[Gil Hedley]

Cameron has certainly got the qualities to be a Prime Minister. He has not answered a single point of order put to him and just keeps repeating the same sound bite. No different from Brown then ......

[Gil Hedley]

Cameron is certainly showing he has the qualities to be Prime Minister. He has not answered a single intervention question, but just keeps repeating the prepared sound bite. Just like Brown in fact ........

[Mark Fulford]

This mocking of the government is brilliant. I'm enjoying it.

[Western Star]

"And let's look at Labour's economic record. No prudence - we have the largest deficit in the developed world."

Absolutely right! Interestingly our leader in Europe, Tim Kirkhope, has made exactly the same point about our economy in a speech he's been making this afternoon in Brussels. Because of the debt we now have, caused by Labour's policies, the recession will be stronger and deeper.

[Mark Fulford]

That was a brilliant mockery of the government. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Mr Angry]

Yes Western Star but the difference is that Kirkhopless's quisling solution is ever greater union and British adoption of the Euro.

[Norm Brainer]

He has not answered a single point of order put to him and just keeps repeating the same sound bite.

I'm guessing your Gezmond007 under a new name?
Amazed that he was answering points of order and so came on here to complain he is doing the opposite.

[Norm Brainer]

He has not answered a single point of order put to him and just keeps repeating the same sound bite.

I'm guessing your Gezmond007 under a new name?
Amazed that he was answering points of order and so came on here to complain he is doing the opposite.

--

I wish Brown would stop doing his claw thing on the box.. can't hear his weasel words over the banging. - it's a sign of insecurity or something, isn't it?

[Tom FD]

Cameron was on the ball and superb. Brown is pathetically reading from a script he didn't write and it shows.

[Saltmaker]

"Opposition have no interest in listening" -- Gordon Brown.

No, Gordon. It's just that listening to you is genuinely a painful, pointless process.

[Tony Makara]

"No stability - with unemployment rising"

Gordon Brown already has a plan to eal with that, and the true reason behind the dash for welfare reform. The government will draft huge numbers of the jobless onto training schemes so that they disappear from the official count, as they have been doing through the New Deal for many years now.

[Western Star]

"Yes Western Star but the difference is that Kirkhopless's quisling solution is ever greater union and British adoption of the Euro."

That, with the greatest of respect, is nonsense! Would you like to quote me exactly where Mr Kirkhope has argued in favour of Britain's joining the Euro! In any event - this thread is not the place to do it as we are discussing Westminster matters. My only reference to this was to illustrate that Labour's economic incompetence was being raised on the floor in Brussels as well as at Westminster.

[Patriot]

Cameron was excellent.

Brown's an embarrassment.

[Sally Roberts]

Good to see our troops pressing Brown over and over and over again....but of course he refuses, stubbornly, to answer the question about the lack of an Arrest Warrant! He vacillates, he mumbles and he evades - next Monday's debate should be very interesting indeed!

[Ian Evans]

Good to see our troops pressing Brown over and over and over again....but of course he refuses, stubbornly, to answer the question about the lack of an Arrest Warrant! He vacillates, he mumbles and he evades - next Monday's debate should be very interesting indeed!

Yes, but what is the betting that McCavity (aka hole-in-the-head) will not be there!?

[Paul]

One of the best performances in the Commons I have seen in a long time, Cameron was excellent. Brown was getting very flustered when members kept wanting to intervene as well as raising points of order.

[Simon Denis]

Clearly a massive victory for David Cameron. Mandelson's shameful, misleading, venomous hypocrisies can offer no serious resistance to this sort of thing: powerful, high principled oratory. As for that obviously evasive charlatan, the Prime Minister - we can forget about him. Blair's old chum is running the show whilst "psychologically flawed" Gordon is shoved back into his old job at the Treasury. Darling is just a puppet's puppet.

Anyway, VERY well done, Mr Cameron. We are now well and truly on your side.

[Omar Kader]

The SNP’s Westminster leader has branded the Queen’s Speech as light on the economy and hard on Scotland.

Angus Robertson MP hit out at the address, which lays out the Westminster legislative agenda for 2009, criticising the UK Government’s three-fold failure to protect Scotland. The agenda failed to give priority to protecting Scotland’s economy, failed to rule out planned cuts to the Scottish Government’s budget, and failed to release £1bn of Scottish resources being withheld by the Treasury.

Mr Robertson said, "Despite the eleventh-hour re-writes there were no surprises in the Queen’s Speech – just another anti-climax and a missed opportunity for Scotland.

"Labour’s leaks and trailers said the speech would focus on the economy – but what it did not mention is Gordon Brown’s plan to slash the Scottish budget by £1 billion, or why the Treasury is still withholding another £1bn of Scottish resources.

"It would be madness to cut the Scottish budget at a time when we hope to be emerging from recession and while the Scottish Government is making every effort to keep the economy moving forward.

"There is no priority in Labour’s plans for protecting Scotland’s economy – and we should be in a position during these difficult times to use Scotland's resources much more fully. There is no priority for helping the most vulnerable and low paid in these challenging economic times.

"With a record £13.2 billion North Sea revenues this year – and oil due to generate £55 billion of income in the coming six years, compared to £41 billion during the previous six – Scotland will be in absolute budget surplus, while the UK as a whole plunges deeper into deficit.

"In these circumstances, Labour’s planned cuts in the Scottish budget intensify the need for Scotland’s Parliament to be responsible for all tax and spending decisions. They are powerful arguments for independence. After the irresponsibility of Gordon Brown's economic mismanagement what Scotland needs is an age of responsibility.

"If Gordon Brown really wants to make efficiency savings, he should start by scrapping Trident and ditching plans for unwanted ID cards.

"At this time of economic downturn and substantial pressure on government spending, it is utterly irresponsible to waste billions on a new generation of unnecessary weapons of mass destruction, and unwanted and unneeded ID cards.

"The Prime Minister should also bring forward a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. Apart from appalling human cost of the UK Government’s worst foreign policy decision in recent times, the economic consequences have also been hugely wasteful."

Note:

The Pre-Budget Report revealed plans to cut the Scottish Government’s Budget by some £1 billion over the period 2010/11 to 2011/12.

If applied equally across UK Departmental Expenditure Limit budgets, the £5 billion cuts proposed by the UK Government in each of these two years would cut Scotland’s budget by £380 million a year. In addition, the reduction of the health department’s capital budget in England of £1.4 billion in 2010/11 would cause a recurring cut in the Scottish Government’s capital budget of some £125 million

INDEPENDENCE NOW FOR SCOTLAND!!!

[Ali T]

Spot on Norm Brainer. Funny that Labour supporters have to blog under assumed names just to have a go at DC.

Just in case Gil decides to look again at the coverage perhaps she will see that DC took loads of interventions and answered them, especially like the 5 economic policies answer.

DC kicked butt today and the only thing Brown could do in response was to remind us how detached he is from the real world.

[meli]

Impressive. When 5 things about the economy were asked Cameron answered quickly. Yes, answered. So I am confused to Gil's comment but whatever.
One thing struck me, I know this is the Conservativehome not the Lib Dem's but I can't help but think if the Lib Dem's spent less time attacking all the other parties and say, do something novel like work with the Conservative party we would be in less of a mess then we are currently in. Might even raise thier position in the polls. If any party seems to be the do nothing party that Brown is so fond of repeating, it is definately the Lib Dem's. They just seem to moan about everyone all the time. Though I consider myself to be quite a liberal person, this puts me off.
Brown's "yes we can" mantra gave me a bit of a laugh as he has none of the qualities that drew people to Obama and reminded me of someone's grandad trying to be cool.

[Omar Kader]

"Brown's "yes we can" mantra gave me a bit of a laugh as he has none of the qualities that drew people to Obama and reminded me of someones grandad trying to be cool."

What do you make of David Cameron's mantra on MP green being arrested, he knew about it before green was arrested.

BTW Scotland would like her oil back and we dont like subsidising you lot in the south east one bit.

[Tony Makara]

It seems Brown is hellbent on making sure that we have absolutely no room for manoeuvre after the next election. Still, by then all Brown's flapping will have produced nothing to turn the country around and people will be more open to the politics of commonsense coming from Mr Cameron.

[Jack Stone]

meli. The difference between the Conservatives and the Liberals as far as I can see is that the Liberals do have economic policy whereas the Conservatives do not!!

[Norm Brainer]

The liberals and especially clegg's uselessness is typified by what he said a bit earlier saying that electricity units get cheaper when you use more (this was implemented when the standing charges were removed so the higher price for the 1st few units is for that) ... he claims it's a scandal and that the pensionner will pay more for electricity than a millionnaire.
Stupid analogy and incorrect unless he says "per unit"

[Alex]

Gil Hedley (AKA Gezmond007) ... you can't hide under a new name when you have the same IP Address

Good speech Mr. Cameron.

[David Belchamber]

I thought David Cameron was very good today. His opening remarks were light and very witty and when he got onto the Queen's speech, he was very impressive, particularly in responding promptly to the Labour backbencher who asked him for five things the conservatives would do to fight recession.

Brown sounded as if he wanted to be somewhere else and even when he started up the usual mantras, he just sounded wooden - and running on empty.

DC again blamed Brown for the recession but I think he is wrong to suggest that it is entirely Brown's fault. He should acknowledge the part that globalisation has played but analyse a bit more the causes of "Brown's Bubble Boom and Bust".

[Patriot]

Norm, I don't usually spring to Clegg's defence but in this case I thought he made a good speech and some good points. The point about fuel bills is valid - someone trying deperately to use the minimum amount of electricity will be paying in the region of 25p or more per kWH, whereas anyone over the minimum charge will be into @8p - and he was right that in this country the power suppliers seem to be free to charge whatever they like, whereas in the rest of Europe government's are much more active in keeping a degree of sanity in energy bills.

Clegg also struck a chord when he reminded us there should be an independent enquiry into the Iraq invasion - Given what we now know about the absence of WMD in Iraq it's clear that the war was unjustified and illegal - we would do well to start making it clear that had we known then what we know now we would NOT have supported the invasion.

[Norm Brainer]

They should be free to charge whatever they like - that's what competition is about.

There's a fixed charge in supplying people with electricity and so if they are only allowed to charge the same per unit to everyone then they will have to re-introduce standing charges which will mean that some low users will end up paying more than they do now.

Either that or they have to put prices up for everyone else meaning they'll be less competitive.

Yes, Clegg was far, far better than brown, but still comes across as if he doesn't know what he's on about.

[Deborah]

Clegg spoke well about how the Government has undermined and damaged our democracy.

Cameron was excellent.

Brown was not comfortable at all.

[Patriot]

Norm, you could use the same argument to say that there should be a higher rate of income tax for the lower paid than for higher earners.

You say "that's what competition is all about" - that might be true if there were a choice for energy consumers, but there isn't - all the suppliers have similar pricing structures for the energy they supply to consumers in the UK.

People on limited incomes, and there are many of us, must choose between this pricing structure or freezing. (And often between freezing or starving, particularly for pensioners)

[Norm Brainer]

Norm, you could use the same argument to say that there should be a higher rate of income tax for the lower paid than for higher earners

You could indeed, but that depends on if you see tax as a charge or punishment.

In an ideal situation you wouldn't need to be taxed until you can afford to pay, but neither would you be punished for earning more.
Unfortunately the demands of the state are so great that this can't happen.

As for energy companies, there are alternatives for all sorts of incomes but I think it's wrong to force energy companies to do things like make pre-pay cheaper than normal pay, and also charge a flat rate.
There are some small energy companies that make this their USP, and if the big ones are forced to copy them then the small company won't survive and we'll end up with less competition and higher bills.

[Matt Wright]

Good work by Cameron. Keep it up.

[Patsy Sergeant]

David Belchamber @ 18.01 - 'DC again blamed Brown for the recession but I think he is wrong to suggest tht it is entirely Brown's fault. He should acknowledge the part that globulisation has played but analyse a bit more the causes of 'Brown's BubbleBoom and Bust.'

They get very little time really, to either respond to Brown, or ask questions, so I expect they have to be careful to emphasise the aspects that they think are most important. The time given to questions was cut down under this government!

[pp]

Really excellent work by Cameron and Crew.

However, Browns 'mortgage relief' is the headline.

I couldn't help but notice that while he announced it Harman and Darling were looking away from as hard as they possible could...

Prince Phillip had it right when he indicated that he thought the queens speech was not highly valued by brown/labour - the news just comments on it being the smallest that labour have ever had...

What this does highlight though is browns timing - every budget he has dropped in something major at the very last minute, leaving no time for proper analysis/rebuttal (which usually shows it to be smoke and mirrors).

Meanwhile everything apart from 'the surprise' is leaked very early, refined, developed (and maybe even abandoned) at length before it is set in stone (in some refined form) when it is officially announced.

The PM announces policy before it is even finalised - the tories are quite right not to attempt to announce policy and set it in stone too early. However when it is announced, it should be ensured that (like browns stuff) it is the evening news and next mornings headlines.

[Dick the Prick]

Jeez, you've gotta get a little bit worried about open goals. How far is the rot?

I hope no-one is thinking about sending Dave Winninck a Chrimbo card that they weren't gonna send anyway.

Does the Speaker get a booze allowance like the Laureate or the key to the cellar?

There's a difference between hubris, indignation and command - unlike most elections young Dave has now the responsibility of sorting out Blighty. This is a job which few will comprehend except historians.

Good luck David - not that it's relevant - this is gonna be 10 years hard work for sod all glory.

[liz kemp]

All of this mess highlights lack of leadership. During the debate it was even more marked by the difference between Brown and Cameron. Only one showed command and control of events. Well done Cameron.
Liz Kemp

[Ian Bennett]

Yesterday afternoon WE LOST the next election!
Whilst Cameron and Osborne were behaving like the kids they are spinning an already over spun story that the mass of the electorate have no interest at all in (I'm sorry but you have to accept Joe Public out there has NO interest whatsoever in the Constitution and Damien Green) Brown connected with the electorate exactly where it matters.He in one fell swoop safeguarded their homes.OK he has yet to flesh out the detail-but have no doubt he will and the Mandy spin machine will paint us as playing politics whilst Brown helps people!.
Whoever had the idea to film and show the shadow cabinet laughing and joking reading out a letter from the Home Secretary-however funny it may have been- should be hung drawn and quartered!

[Malcolm Dunn]

Why then was it on all the news bulletins, debated on Newsnight etcetc if no one is interested in it. Even the BBC gave prominence to Winnick's very wounding remarks.
As for your line 'yesterday afternoon we LOST the next election'. Give me strength!

[Norm Brainer]

Yesterday afternoon WE LOST the next election!

Talking as a labour party member?

What was I just saying on the other thread about lefties/labourites/scum (whatever you want to call them) seeing their own faults and then trying to pin them on others.

[Peter Buss]

Whilst I wouldn't go as far as Ian Bennett and write off the next election, I do think he has a very fair point. Damian Green is my MP and a very fine one he is too. I have evry sympathy with him and do believe that what has happened to him is outrageous. I am also sure that the public at large do have a sense of unease over what has happened. But I am even more sure that they ae far more worried about mortages.heating bills,jobs etc etc. Now if the Tories insist in making the Green affair their number One story then the public will very very quickly conclude that their priorities are not ours and our support will rapidly diminish. I have no doubt that Cameron has the wit and wisdom to devise a sane and sensible strategy whereby,the economy is shown to be clearly his number One concern but without the Damian Green affair being shuffled off stage.I am less convinced that some of the wilder elements in the Party have the smae commonsense.

[Ian Bennett]

Of course Newsnight dealt with it - Newsnight is a minority programme watched by a few hundred thousand!
Go out - get out of the goldfish bowl that is politics - go out in to the real world - the electorate - those who are NOT party members but who have the same vote as you and I are NOT INTERESTED in Damian Green.
They are interested in their homes,their families,their parents,their kids-whilst we are playing at constitutional politics the Labour Party and the Lib Dems are doing what the electorate want US to do - COME UP WITH POLICIES TO SORT OUT THIS MESS WE ARE IN!....

[Ian Bennett]

NB - I have never been a member of any party other than the Conservative Party - whose membership I lapsed last year in desperation at the schoolboys leading us!

[David Belchamber]

Patsy at 23.21:

"They get very little time really, to either respond to Brown, or ask questions, so I expect they have to be careful to emphasise the aspects that they think are most important".

Whilst I agree with you on the specifics of your reply, I am totally frustrated that our shadow treasury team has failed over the last two years to clarify this point whenever presented with the opportunity to put forward a reasoned analysis.

Brown has not single-handedly caused all the economic chaos that we are now in; the sub prime problem in America has also done great harm.

That is why I want to attach some label to Brown to show the public what his part has been. Hence: "Brown's Boom and Bust" or "Brown's Recession".

I agree you can't at such times as yesterday's replies to the Queen's speech go into the complete failure of the FSA to see what the banks were getting up to over the last five years or to blame Brown for setting up the tripartite regulatory body or for using an unrealistic index of the cost of living for the MPC to use in controlling inflation or to argue that the real cost of government borrowing as a percentage of GDP is over twice the government's figure.

I am just angry that so few people are still actually aware of the several real causes of this recession. It is going to hurt us all and could result in one of the main culprits being returned to power!

[Simon Denis]

Yes the public are interested and they are outraged. It would scandalous were this not so. All the government and its hacks can do to justify this sinister demarche is to quote each other's insinuations and parrot the line about "ongoing investigations". Ongoing investigations of that kind are the province of the police state.

[Norm Brainer]

those who are NOT party members but who have the same vote as you and I are NOT INTERESTED in Damian Green.

Well, they are really.

A home, job and money comes and goes but liberty is for life
People don't believe that a government can (and should?) make a blind bit of difference to their financial situations, save making it worse.

What they can see is the government meddling with our daily lives and now attacking our democracy at the core. That is what REAL people are thinking, and so the Green affair is worrying to them.