The stalking spectre of black-hearted deceit should have hung heavily over this week's prime minister's questions. Instead, Gordon Brown's fumble brought the House down.By Alex Stevenson
All the ingredients were there. In the build-up we'd seen David Cameron claim there was a "thread of dishonesty" running through the government. Then Peter Mandelson came out fighting this morning, accusing George Osborne of a "deliberate untruth". This PMQs was always going to be about one thing - who can be believed on public spending.
That's where the statistics come in. Having slain the capital spending dragon last week, Brown-killer Cameron moved on to bigger, brighter things - total spending.
We were just getting started when the disaster struck. Brown, unthinking perhaps, boasted of a "zero per cent rise in 2013".
For the briefest of moments the entire Commons froze. In cartoon-mode Wile E. Coyote Brown looks at the camera, lips trembling and eyes bulging, as he realises he's just walked off a cliff. He pedals against thin air. He flaps his arms desperately. But then it's too late, the zero per cent rise has condemned his PMQs to ignominy, and he plunges away into the ether.
It didn't quite happen like that, of course. But the stunned, embarrassed faces of the Labour backbenchers as the Tories yelled and jeered said it all. "I think that answer gets zero per cent," Cameron observed, to predictable laughter.
It was all over before it had even started, but they pressed on nonetheless. Inevitably the issue became one of Brown's character. "Why can't he admit to the truth?" Cameron asked. Later he referred to the prime minister's "deceit". He wanted to know whether Brown could be "straight with the British public".
Nick Clegg added his own voice to proceedings, saying the "bogus debate" about public spending meant very little. How could he possibly trump the Brown-Cameron hate-fest? By hating them both himself! They were "both deliberately choosing to trade insults, so they can both deliberately avoid telling the truth", he said. If only someone would pay Clegg the courtesy of insulting him he might feel a little better.
Brown's response to all this was a muted disgust, a wobbling against "cheap jibes". He sought to stick to the politics. "I've already said, capital expenditure will riiiise," he quavered desperately. There were some decent points scored as he painted the Tories as the "party of unemployment". But the only real party being had in the Commons this lunchtime was on the benches behind Cameron.
It was "one of the most feeble performances" Brown had ever given, the Tory leader said. He was not in complete command - his claim that the Tory ten per cent cuts line was "not doing any damage to us" suggested he was a little rattled by that line of attack - but the vulnerabilities probingly sought by Brown were blown away by another classic prime ministerial gaffe.
Confronted with a serious, escalating row over dishonesty at the top of government, the prime minister turned this week's clash into yet another childish embarrassment. What was that puff of smoke, down there in the canyon of failed prime ministers? Ah yes, it was Coyote Brown, meeting reality with a bump.
Editor's Corner
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If it wasn't so serious we could all fall about laughing. While the politicians act like squabbling kids the real world is falling about our ears.
We need positive, honest, genuine and believable leadership. Tell it as we know it is - that is we are are in deep trouble! We will be sunk by our debt if we don't start taking action NOW instead of pretending everything is going to be OK.
I wish the Queen would dissolve Parliament and call an election! That is not to say I have any faith in Cameron but he is the best of a really bad bunch!
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its high time our politicians got on with the job there paid to do instead of acting like school children, are they ever going to learn that the general public are absolutely fed up with ther childishness . no wonder theres so much apathy in the country, i thought the new speaker would have taken more steps to control such unruly behaviour, just as a note as though the expences scandal wasnt enough one notices an mp used the ambulance service and 2 paramedics to enable him to cast his vote for the new speaker, again would this service have been there for the general public i think not one rule for them and another for us . time for a complete change all round and the sooner the better
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This so called PM Was brought in the back door....Now its time for him to leave ASAP through the Front Door...
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Other than a revolution what does this country have to do to rid itself of this blustering, inept, lying, buffoon. The electorate did not put him there and he has no right to hold that office.
In the aftermath of the next general election when labour have suffered the biggest defeat in electoral history we will be treated to the spectacle of Gordon Brown barricading himself into number 10 and refusing to come out.
The SAS will be sent in and he will be dragged out by the scruff of his neck still waffling and blithering.
The other option is for a general strike. If anyone is interested in getting this moving please let me know and I'll be the first to sign up. Lets bring the roads, railways, airports, all public services, local government, and industry to a standstill. Keep our demands simple; we want a general election now; not in six months time, not in a weeks time, NOW. We must all unite to rid the country of this idiot and his shambolic government.
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Why are we English ruled by a Scotsman who should be in Edinburgh? His constituency is not even in England. Brown awarded the pensioners 75 pence to their weekly pension in Parliament in a budget speech and on Telivision. You would have thought that he would have realised that it was daft and more expensive to administrate than it was worth. Will nobody save us from this hopleless PM?
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It,s time to stop PMQ. Media hype has replaced proper debate and decision making. All sides look like idiots.
roy Taylor
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It's all a jolly game to them. The cut and thrust, the quips, the parliamentary guffaws. Never forget that they do it for pay - and to steal even more money from the taxpayers by claiming expenses under rules they wrote themselves. And they didn't stop that because they saw it was criminal but because they were caught. Where is England in all this? The issues shift, the economy, health, education, law and order, defence. They evade answering questions truthfully on one by pushing forward one of the others. Meanwhile the one real issue upon which the future of this county rests remains unmentioned whilst the silence of politicians in the face of the anger of the English screams at us. Millions of immigrants have diluted our country to such an extent that it isn't one any more. The Scots want their independance from what was once England but is now a grunt-ridden "place" and who can blame them? Scotland seems to me to be an infinitely better place to live than what used to be the country of the English. Where are the mass-deportations of illegal grunts? Where are promises to never grant asylum to illegals, to winkle them out and deport every man, woman and child of them regardless of how successfully they may have leeched in and then the full-scale systematic execution of the policy? Why do we tolerate Moslems who are utterl;y unwanted by the English and always have been, alien in every possible way, culturally, religiously and socially and who, when they marry import another pile of unwanteds? Why do we tolerate the best part of a million poles who have betrayed their own country to come here and be housed, fed and employed cheaply here? Why do we not ruthlessly get a grip of all the immigrants that the English do not want and expel them? I'll tell you : Politicians only plan to be in office for four years at time. Five if they know they're going to lose the next election. Anything that may be difficult or risk them losing their cosy little earner in that time, or cause a bit of bother at the next election isn't dealt with. So they tell us - "the English" - that we welcome immigrants, that we want them, that they are "good" for us. That they make "a valuable contribution"... All of which has not an ounce of relevance. This is why : The English do . not . want . them. Have nver wanted them. Never voted for them. Want only rid of them. Want only their country back again. The time must come. It simply must.
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My old dad used to sum up parliament by saying "If brains were gunpowder they wouldn't have enough to blow their hats off!! how true
Staffy
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There is no problem with PM's Question Time. It is Brown who is incapable of holding a debate and he is within a party that is incapable of governing. If he had anything to say of substance he would have the opportunity to say it every week. The man says nothing because he has nothing to say. Stay Gordon because at least we will have a new party in power next time round.
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What do you expect from GORDAN BLAIR wanted the power then panicked & give it all to BRUSSEL'S throw him out now never mind ELECTIONS..
NO referendum No election just the way he likes it
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