Jonathan Isaby's verdict:
No killer blows from David Cameron today, but he certainly scored more highly than Brown. The Prime Minister's twin mantras about how the Tories would "do nothing" and it being a "world recession" are getting a little tedious week after week.
12.30 Sir Peter Tapsell asks about the value of gold today compared with when Brown started selling it as Chancellor. Brown says iut was right to "diversify our portfolio" and points out that he bought euros which are now worth more.
12.29 Andrew Selous (Con): Why has the pound fallen so sharply against the dollar and the euro? Brown cautions against the idea of targeting sterling.
12.21 Nigel Dodds of the DUP raises the "obnoxious" proposal of a £12,000 payment to relatives of victims on all sides in the Ulster conflict. Brown says the Government will consider the relevant report and decide what action to take in due course.
12.19 Graham Stuart (Con) is forced to withdraw a remark suggesting that the Prime tried to cover up MPs' expenses claims last week. He then asks if Brown believes that Labour is whiter than whiter over the "peers for hire" allegations. Brown cites Baroness Royall's article this morning calling for changes to the rules in the Lords.
12.18 Brown refuses to take a view about the BBC decision not to broadcast the appeal for aid in Gaza.
12.17 Brown again cites the IFS to back his belief that the fiscal stimulus is the right thing to be doing in response to a question from Tory, Andrew Murrison.
12.15
Nick Clegg asks about non-doms in the House of Lords and asks whether
rules can be changed to make all peers pay taxes in Britain. Brown
replies by talking about how the government is helping "ordinary
taxpayers".
12.12 Cameron: Aren't we in the death throes of a failed premiership? Brown again repeats the mantra of it being a world recession and that the Conservatives' "do-nothing" approach would make things worse. The PM also claims Ken Clarke's support for some of what the Government is doing.
12.10 Cameron says that America is not to blame for the recession, despite Brown's attempts to say so. He mocks the PM for talking about the "birth pangs of a new global order"
12.07
Cameron responds to Brown's accusations of student politics from
Cameron: "Only one of us was a student politician and he never grew out
of it". He again quotes what Brown has said before about recessions and
wants him again to admit to his blame.
12.05 Cameron: Brown damages himself when attacking the Opposition, because he keeps imitating Tory ideas. He wants Brown to admit he is the cause of the recessiona and that he didn't abolish boom and bust. Brown says he is taking the right action and the Tories woukd "do nothing".
12.04 Brown claims the recession would be deeper under the
Conservatives. Cameron accuses him of being complacent and refers to
what Brown once defined as a bust when giving evidence to the treasury
select committee.
12.03 David Cameron reels off the latest economic bad news and asks how deeply the economy will have to retract before Brown admits this is a bust.
Jonathan Isaby
Economy, economy, economy. That's what's given us our poll boost and that's what everybody's thinking about.
Posted by: libertarian2 | January 28, 2009 at 11:43
It would be vey intersting to watch....
Cameron 4 PM !
Posted by: Fredrik Ingemarsson | January 28, 2009 at 12:01
There goes Brown again - "investment" when he actually means expenditure.
Posted by: john broughton | January 28, 2009 at 12:09
He's got him!
Posted by: Ben | January 28, 2009 at 12:09
DC "Brown gave us the biggest budget deficit in the world"
And Brown denies it!
Posted by: john broughton | January 28, 2009 at 12:11
I thought we were supposed to be trying to get rid of punch & judy? I'm not sure the public are going to like the tone of DC'S first two questions. PMQ's is theatre and not many people watch it, but can't in these dreadful times we take a more serious approach to it than trying to get Brown to admit the country is bust?
Posted by: Malcolm Dunn | January 28, 2009 at 12:17
Brown appears to be going mental, Cameron is winding him up a treat.
Posted by: RichardJ | January 28, 2009 at 12:20
I am surprised that Cameron kept banging away on boom and bust for the first three questions when he had the devastating points to make on Brown's 'New Order' gaff!
Posted by: Iain | January 28, 2009 at 12:22
Silly Graham he should know better about parliamentary protocol...
Still answers needed in the legislation for loot scandal
Posted by: bexie | January 28, 2009 at 12:26
No thanks to Ken "loose lips" Clarke.
Posted by: HF | January 28, 2009 at 12:34
Brown shot himself in the foot but how many will notice. He stated that he was’t targeting the pound and then almost in the very next breath gloated about the rise in value of our national euro holdings. Brown did look very flustered and frankly on his last legs (lets hope so). “Crass, and Stupid” well said DC. “Student politics” well it’s a long time since Brown had any student like Ideals.
Posted by: The Bishop swine | January 28, 2009 at 12:41
It's hard to have a debate with someone who makes up his facts, but Cameron did a pretty good job of showing up Brown's failing grip on reality.
I suspect that the country doesn't care that much whether the problems started in America or whether they are global. We are hurting and will want to take it out on the government.
Posted by: Gordo's Carbon Emission | January 28, 2009 at 12:50
Note for Brown:
If I spent $1 on gold on 1/1/2002, it would be worth almost $3 now.
If I spent $1 on Euros on 1/1/2002 it would only be worth $1.46. ($1 gave 1.1 euros, 1.1 euros now worth $1.46).
So Brown made a farking massively wrong decision.
Why don't the Tories prepare these kind of numbers in advance?
Posted by: GB£.com | January 28, 2009 at 12:55
For the next PMQs Cameron should come in wearing a white coat. Seriously, Brown almost lost it today, do we really want this hateful nutter running the country?
Posted by: RichardJ | January 28, 2009 at 13:17
I thought GB was going to burst into tears at any moment. He certainly seemed v un-nerved this week. But then,so he should.
He's lost the plot.
Posted by: Diswiss | January 28, 2009 at 13:49
Browns real problem now is that having said he is the saviour, everyone is renouncing their responsibility to do anything and expecting Brown to do it...
The latest example being that every problem the car industry has from now on will be placed at browns door.
By the end of this he is going to be burried so deep that .
It is a disaster for the country, because instead of having a nation pulling together we have a nation justwaiting to see what Gordon might pull out of the hat... And some of us already know that even the hat is empty.
Posted by: pp | January 28, 2009 at 13:58
PMQ's is a pointless pantomime to me. Brown never answers a question and gets the last word.
It is relevant only to the Westminster Village and political anoraks (it could be argued that I am amongst their number!)
However, the points today were fair enough:
1. If he abolished Boom & Bust, what in the name of all that is holy is this?
2. If the UK economy is robust as per his repeated claims in recent years, why is Sterling so weak against the Euro and the Dollar?
Posted by: John | January 28, 2009 at 14:15
Cameron had his number today, much more so than last week. Gordon Brown gets a look on his face when he is beginning to struggle under the strain. His voice changes. His manner changes. It happened a few months ago before his first 'bounce', and it seemed to be making a reappearance today. Unless he gets another 'gift', it will now get worse each week.
Posted by: Steve Tierney | January 28, 2009 at 14:53
"We are hurting and will want to take it out on the government."
No No No. One Hundred times No, we want this government out, its essential for our National Survival in the mid term, is going to depend on us taking the right moves now. This will start out a retracting economy and will end in the fall of America from world dominance. All those missing American Tax dollars (the real reason we are broke btw) have been farmed out. So we are expected to bail America well OK but we have a high price and its only a result of American debt that we are in this mess, but it is also our possibility of a vast profit my friends. Labour are too stupid to benefit from our powers of administration. Too stayed and tired, we absolutly need new guys in charge.
So no we are not after making this governement look bad we are replacing this government day by day and year by year. We will deconstruct Labour's PC pollution and we will show the public a far better way.
Posted by: The Bishop swine | January 28, 2009 at 15:37
Whoops grammatically scruffy work above^^
Posted by: The Bishop swine | January 28, 2009 at 15:40
More warnings from the IMF that the UK will suffer the deepest recession.
Obviously Brown will completely dismiss the IMF and their warnings of a Gord-Plated Global Recession in the UK until such time as he needs to go grovelling to them with his begging bowl.
Posted by: GB£.com | January 28, 2009 at 15:43
I saw the PM Questions too. Clearly Brown is delusional and have lost touch with reality.
I believe it is much better for Brown to lose the election and then get much needed
rest.
I believe he needs it....
Posted by: Fredrik Ingemarsson | January 28, 2009 at 16:02
Brown in total denial and seems to revel in it. The man's lost 'it' big time. The game ought to be up soon.
Posted by: Ian | January 28, 2009 at 16:11
Brown used to love quoting the IMF,how things change.
Is it me,or does Brown look like the living dead again,the man looks terrible,i would like to say i feel sorry for him,but i don't.
The best DC question was,quoting Brown on people losing their jobs and homes due to NWO,while Labour Peers have their snouts in the trough,the poor are being told by a Labour PM TOUGH!.
look at the faces on the Labour benches,they know they are finished.
LABOUR ISN'T WORKING!
Posted by: Richard | January 28, 2009 at 16:55
"The Prime Minister's twin mantras about how the Tories would "do nothing" and it being a "world recession" are getting a little tedious week after week".
So, too, is Cameron's repeated attempts to get Brown to admit to boom and bust. He just won't admit it; Cameron would be better off trying to get Brown to admit that the housing market had been through boom and bust; it is far easier to show that this arose from a failure in regulation and the easy availablility of credit.
Time to move onto different subjects; DC can continue to accuse Brown of "B & B" as an accepted fact but he should now probe Brown on why the tripartite regulatory system that GB set up failed so dismally and ask whether an inquiry into the FSA's failure is to be set up.
David Cameron could also compare the loan guarantee schemes of GO and Brown to make the point that we are not a "do nothing party", because Brown brings that into most replies.
Posted by: David Belchamber | January 28, 2009 at 17:10
The "do nothing party" line has started to tire. Brown must find a better line. As Cameron rightly said, Labour is acting by putting into action Tory plans. Brown looked very rocked and was relying on his older lines, which seem now to be very faded indeed. Perhaps this is because I follow politics, but it just seemed a dull response. Looked like a Cameron win today.
Posted by: James Maskell | January 28, 2009 at 17:11
I’d like to see Cameron ask him if he still thinks his saved the world!
I’d like to see Cameron making it clear to unelected Brown that, as he can’t keep his hands off of other people’s ideas & the Tories aren’t about to save the Labour party, Cameron is going to keep his ideas on how to fix the economy a secret until an election is called., until then he will tell Brown NOTHING, but, will throw him some tip bits to keep our ship afloat in the meantime!
I’d to see Cameron ask him if he believes the public have confidence in him!
I’d like to see Cameron ask him if he thinks the financial markets believe or have confidence he can rescue Britain!
I’d like to see Cameron ask Brown how popular he thinks he is!
I’d like to see Cameron ask Brown if he thinks he’s doing a good job.
I’d LOVE to see Cameron playing the personality card because Brown really has a bum hand!
I could go on! ;o)
Posted by: T. England | January 28, 2009 at 19:15
T.I would love to see that to,although brown would answer every one of those quesions with,THE TORIES ARE THE DO NOTHING PARTY,the man has lost the plot,its like listening to a stuck record.
Has anybody else noticed the change in the BBC,i think they have finally woke up to the political reality,i also think they know a lot of Tories can't stand the BEEB,freezing salaries,being politically neutral,for a change,a welcome change.
Posted by: Richard | January 28, 2009 at 19:42
"Do nothing" might tire here. Has it tired elsewhere? That is what we need to find out.
Posted by: snegchui | January 28, 2009 at 23:20
As part of their PMQ's show, Rory Bremner on 'the daily politics' was interesting.
His 'big idea' was to allow people to pay tax early in return for a discount...
He didn't know about one of Browns earlier wheezes to milk the wealth generating private sector...
As a small company (or as a sole trader), we are already required to pay our tax a year in advance ! - We have to guess how much we will earn, and pay the tax on that amount (don't know where the cash for that is supposed to come from...), if we under-estimate then the government charge us signficant interest on the shortfall, if we over-estimate we get the excess back with a minimal addition of intrest...
On the face of it, unwinding this payment of tax-in-advance (which I hope a tory government would do) will cost the government a years tax-income... But I hope it will be done none the less...
Posted by: pp | January 29, 2009 at 01:35