Above: ham salad sandwich, mango and passion fruit panna cotta, Still Sea Breeze to drink (followed by a coffee, followed by a glass of water, followed by a shared packet of crisps).
Wednesday lunchtime, and a disappointing Prime Minister’s Questions. This should be an opportunity to ask the most powerful person in the country to explain his policies, account for his decisions, apologise for his mistakes (if any). Instead we had time-wasting, posturing, and planted questions of the “I’m very glad my honourable friend raised that important point” variety.
A stuttering Labour MP began the questions today by asking about Zimbabwe. Black mark to David Cameron for joining in this posturing about a situation we can do nothing about. The news bulletins and newspapers have been filled with repetitive reports about Zimbabwe which tell us nothing except that Robert Mugabe is a monster (and most people knew that already). BBC reporters are not allowed into Zimbabwe and so we see their clandestine correspondent “somewhere” in southern Africa whispering from the shadows about how bad things are (although given the history of finchamesque fakery, it could all have been mocked up in the studio). The opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is optimistically represented as a saviour figure, and yet he will probably behave as badly as Mugabe once he has got into power (I am basing this on the experiences of Uganda after Amin, Kenya after Moi, Zaire-Congo after Mobutu etc). The situation is tragically sad, but do we really want to employ our politicians in pointless hand-wringing instead of getting on with their day-jobs?
Liberal leader Nick Clegg asked (yet again) about the so-called grievances of the Ghurkhas, who want backdated special treatment (more money, pensions, residence rights etc). Did no-one explain to them the compensation package when they first signed-up? I do not want my money spent on open-ended commitments of this kind (or Iraqi interpreters - Mr Blair should compensate those from his vast personal fortune).
Zimbabwe, the Ghurkhas and two Labour questions (ie planted questions about oil speculators and child poverty targets) and we had reached the half-way mark. Fifteen minutes had passed with no effective questioning of the Prime Minister on issues relevant to ordinary people. The Speaker did nothing about this situation.
The second half was not much better. There was a spectacularly theatrical question from the Labour farthest benches about the wisdom and sagacity of the Prime Minister in continuing to ensure the continuation of the NHS in its 60th year. Twenty-three minutes after the start of PMQs and the Speaker at last called a second Tory questioner (not that I am especially keen to hear Tories, but as things stand at the moment that is the only direction questions critical of the government are going to come from).
Then things fizzled out.
Probably the most interesting question of the day was asked by Andrew Neil back in the studio - why do “husband and wife team” Sir Nicholas and Lady Ann Winterton still have the Tory whip after their grossly immoral expenses claims were revealed (and later today were reports that Labour “husband and wife team” Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper were doing something dodgy over second home expenses - these “husband and wife” teams seem to be all over the place, as if the House of Commons was some extended episode of the game-show Mr & Mrs).
Today’s PMQs: http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page306.asp
More on jackpot game-show Mr & Mrs: http://www.ukgameshows.com/page/index.php?title=Mr_and_Mrs
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