Prime Minister's Questions, 4th February 2009

Labour MP Karen Buck started the session by asking about energy prices, but I was distracted by the woman in the row behind her who was nodding her head so frantically it looked as if she had convulsive dyskinesia. The Prime Minister's answer was similarly upstaged by an MP in the row behind who was rootling around in her bag, eventually producing a packet of tissues. The camera gave us a long view, and further along the bench we saw Foreign Secretary David Miliband with his legs crossed and his arms folded so that he resembled (with his shock of black hair and look of concentration) Harry Houdini in a straight-jacket.

David Cameron began his six questions by criticising the (apparent) protectionism of President Obama. Gordon Brown broadly agreed with him that protectionism was a threat to the world economy. David Cameron then criticised both the American and Indian governments for their poor attitude to the Doha negotiations - again Gordon Brown broadly agreed, pointing out that without the Doha agreement national states would be free to raise trade tariffs.

Having established Gordon Brown's commitment to globalisation David Cameron then raised the topic of "British jobs for British workers" and asked if the Prime Minister's use of that phrase showed a lack of judgement.

This was a fight or flight moment for Gordon Brown, and true to his character he chose "fight". In what seemed a rehearsed rhetorical response he asked whether there was anyone who did not want British workers to have jobs. The Labour benches voiced support, although not as enthusiastically as they usually do.

David Cameron threw at the Prime Minister Keith Vaz's criticism of the slogan, and went on to say that Gordon Brown was unable to admit mistakes (this seems a fair point).

Gordon Brown finished his weekly set-to with David Cameron by going off at a tangent and saying the Tories were "talking Britain down" (as well as being "do nothings").

This was not the end of "British jobs for British workers" however.

Liberal-Democrat Leader Nick Clegg refined the slogan into "British taxes for British companies", and a Dr John Pugh stood up in the remote backbenches to recommend "British holidays for British and non-British people".

Having thus established the phrase as a way of torturing the Prime Minister, we are likely to see it repeated in endless variations in the months to come.

Above: the recent "wildcat" strikes against the employment of imported labour have a genesis in the disillusion of indigenous social classes C2, D and E with the political party that has formerly represented their interests. The government's response has for some time been inept (claiming that comfortably well-off professional people who retire early to run a gite complex in Provence are comparable with migrant labourers under-cutting the established UK wage structures is an argument that leaves most people bewildered and angry). The collapse of the old Liberal party in the Edwardian period (to be replaced by the old Labour party) shows what can happen when this core demographic starts looking for a new political home.

Above: a Chinese business demonstrating a commitment to... what exactly? What nervousness has led to them displaying a flag in their window? Lord Mandelson in the House of Lords condemned the "zenophobia" of the wild-cat strikers which doesn't seem to be language designed to calm the situation down (historically in European culture zenophobia results not from hardship per se, but from hardship combined with a sense of national or class humiliation).

More on the Doha negotiations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doha_Round