Above: the letters column of the Guardian has carried speculation on whether “Gordon” prefers Tunnock’s Tea Cakes or Tunnock’s wafers. It is the sort of humanising detail that connects remote politicians with ordinary people (as Tunnock’s sell four million wafer bars every week, a subtle endorsement by the Prime Minister would have considerable resonance). This sort of PR can backfire however - I have never been able to enjoy chardonnay since I found out about Tony Blair’s fondness for the drink.
Lunchtime, and Prime Minister’s Questions - the last before the parliamentary summer recess.
A one o’clock meeting had been sprung on me, so I was only able to half-watch the broadcast while at the same time reading through someone else’s incomprehensible contact reports (private abbreviations, unfinished sentences, text-speak etc).
On one side of the Prime Minister sat Leader of the House Harriet Harman (impassive, mostly with arms folded, but beneath her left elbow you could occasionally see her right hand fidgeting with a pen in much the same way a motionless cat will twitch its tail when annoyed). On the other side sat Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, immaculately dressed as usual, with a tie I coveted. Throughout question-time the Prime Minister looked like a tormented bear.
Leader of the Opposition David Cameron asked a series of scathing questions, mercilessly putting his finger on the painful sores of the government’s record over the last week. In particular he asked about the bungled response to knife crime over the weekend, and the Home Secretary’s initiative (later retracted) of marching offenders into hospitals to see the victims they have created. In response the Prime Minister tended to bluster, saying his approach would be tough, but then telling us this toughness would be delivered by Community Support Officers (who are not tough at all, nor are they effective, nor do they seem to be competent).
Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal-Democrats, came to his full stature for the first time, asking about the “boom and bust” economic scenario the government promised us would never happen.
But the rest of the questions were small beer (there was an interesting exchange on flood defences; Gordon Brown got the better of Ken Clarke, which is not often done; but mostly they all seemed to be filling in time before they go off on holiday - until October).
Prime Minister’s Questions came to an end and the cameras went back to the studio. Presenter Andrew Neil took the cameras back again for a brief look at the way MPs were pouring out of the chamber. They streamed out of the Commons in the same way the lawyers spilled out of the Court of Chancery at the conclusion of Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce.
Today’s PMQs: http://www.number10.gov.uk/output/Page306.asp
The lawyers stream out of Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce (click on the full-screen button to read it): http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1OTbzCGIT2YC&pg=PA730&lpg=PA730&dq=our+suspence+was+short+for+a+break+up+soon+took+place&source=web&ots=hGzeplpf6c&sig=uvwIZowDKQILJmDrWu4mypyNeis&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result
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