Tag Archives: pmqs

Gordon Brown and our Tube

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PMQs – and Gordon didn’t have a good one – repetitive and unsure of facts or what to say. It’s not so easy being PM as he expected.

Vince Cable had a question on the order paper and used it to batter Gordon over his head with the failure of Metronet – whose slide into economic meltdown was inevitable. There’s no sliding away from this issue for Gordon because when he was Chancellor – the PPP for the tube was his baby. Ken L went to court to try and stop this dreadful contract which cost something like £500 million in consultants and lawyers alone.

I was shoulder to shoulder with Ken against the PPP – for the very reasons that are now coming to light.

Make no mistake – these are Gordon’s PPP chickens coming home to roost – and not so new Gordon is entirely to blame for this debacle.

PMQs

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Brown was a great deal better today than last week – and followed PMQs with a draft Queen’s Speech. Innovation – the ability to discuss and disseminate proposals before the Queen’s Speech – or does the PM just want his manifesto out there for an autumn election which gets called before the actual Queen’s Speech? Hmmmmmmm.

Then it was the Tory Opposition Day debates. There was a tepid motion, apple pie against which it was impossible to vote – however, it was based on the report by Iain Duncan Smith. In fact, I went to record for the Week at Westminster to discuss the ‘back to basics’ marriage proposals of the Tories with Diane Abbot and Nadine Dorries. Needless to say – Nadine supported her Tory colleagues and tried valiantly but unsuccessfully to argue that the £20 per week for married couples was the answer to all our ills. Diane and I were on the other side on this one.

To me – ludicrous to go backwards and propose a 19th century solution to a 21st century problem. Yes – we all agreed that having two parents in situ was the optimum (although only Nadine thought they had to be married not just cohabiting) but Diane and I recognise the world we live in – not make believe. That genie isn’t going back in the bottle – not for Tories or anyone. It was a fun knock around – better than having the boys in! Then I returned and sat in the last half hour of the debate itself – but listening to Tories bang the marriage drum just makes me wonder whether they have changed at all!

Ming makes us laugh at Question Time

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So – Gordon’s first PMQs. Ming scored today – with a joke! Gordon was saying that his door was always open to Ming – and Ming said ‘Yes – a trap door’. It doesn’t quite come over in print – but it rocked the House with laughter – the right sort of laughter. As for Gordon – I thought he was much as you would expect – serious, slightly ill-informed on some issues (as he said – he had only been in the job for five days – but excuses don’t go down too well in the HoC) and he was trying to be conciliatory saying to most questioners – I will consider the points the Honourable Member has made. So – dullsville really!

Prime Minister's Questions

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Tony Blair, clearly demob happy, made mincemeat of Cameron at PMQs today – as has been his wont recently. I don’t know who is writing Cameron’s stuff – but it is well bad! He chose to go at Reid on the paedophile issue – but Blair just turned it right round by quoting back votes in Parliament. Of course – you can argue over the meaning of such votes sometimes. But the point is – that Cameron’s team should have seen this elephant trap – and they didn’t. And yet again Cameron’s blushes (literally) were not spared.

International Questions: Darfur

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International Questions today before PMQs – and I go in on Darfur:

Lynne Featherstone (Hornsey and Wood Green) (LD): The Secretary of State has just said that pressure was important. Bashir’s agreement for the deployment of the force does not come into effect until 2008, so has the Secretary of State considered using the international spotlight on China, owing to the Olympics, as leverage to encourage China to use its influence with Khartoum to end the genocide and stop Darfuris being killed between now and when Bashir may or may not allow troops to be deployed in 2008?

Hilary Benn: We certainly have encouraged China and all members of the Security Council and other nations to play their part in encouraging the Government of Sudan to do the right thing. I welcome the fact that the Chinese have now appointed a special envoy, Liu Guijin. That, plus the effort made by China in November when we had the meeting in Addis Ababa, chaired by Kofi Annan, which came up with the proposals for the hybrid force that have now been agreed by the Government of Sudan, demonstrates that China has taken a greater interest in trying to play a part. But the truth is that every single country has a responsibility to do more and to use all the influence that it has, including, if required, the threat of sanctions, to ensure that fine words are turned into action, because action is what is needed.

So – he didn’t really answer the key point – whether the Government has the guts to apply the screws to get China to help focus Bashir’s mind on delivering on his promises – and earlier than he wants.

Prime Minister's Questions

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PMQs today! Tony is obviously demob happy and enjoying life. He was very sparky today. Cameron had another bad hair day. I don’t know who is advising him – but his choice of attack is failing. Lot’s of stuff about asking what the ‘new’ Prime Minister will or won’t do. Firstly – he is no match for Tony. Secondly – the problem he has whenever he goes for health or education or useless ministers is that he always finds himself on the back foot because however different Dave wishes to present himself as – Tony reminds him of what the Tory party thinks and says – and usually quotes some killer Tory hostage to fortune to nail his coffin. It will be soooooooo interesting to see how it goes when Gordon is crowned. And Ming did well – but it wasn’t hard given the open goal the Government’s White Paper on Energy is in terms of its nuclear strategy.

Gordon Brown as PM: good, bad or indifferent?

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This Gordon Brownweek’s Liberal Democrat News carries my latest column – and it’s about how Gordon Brown might turn out as Prime Minister:

When I was first elected to Parliament, I looked forward to meeting and seeing in action close up our major politicians, many of whom had previously only been a face on the TV to me.

But Gordon Brown has been strangely absent from my Parliamentary experience. Despite having a huge influence that strays well beyond the Treasury, he rarely debates, rarely answers questions and even in his own Treasury patch leaves most of the Parliamentary speaking to his junior ministers.

You can read the rest of the piece on my website.

Just Equal Treatment campaign

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PMQs and you can tell that Tony B is becoming demob happy. Wiped the floor with Cameron and was snappy and sharp in all responses. Big grin on his face and a class act. Shame that Brown boy is going to seem oh so dulllllll by comparison. And I don’t even approve of PMQs as a grown up pastime!

Over to the mass lobby by Help the Aged for their Just Equal Treatment campaign. And three cheers for them. Fantastic turn out from Haringey – maybe as many as 50 – so took me ages to get the list of each of their own personal experiences of discrimination against the elderly – but it was really valuable getting real stories from real people about how the legislation we talk about and vote on in Parliament really impacts on people at the coal face. (You can see some photos over on my Flickr account).

On the list of issues raised (which is very long) were: can’t get travel insurance easily over age 70 (if at all) and the prices shoot up astronomically; get fobbed off with cheaper and inferior quality generic drugs; the Council Tax (well, the Liberal Democrats would scrap it); incentives to work beyond retirement age (i.e. not earning less by working than would on pension); when health cuts are made they so often target the old peoples’ services (true – chiropody etc) and much much more. So many questions to follow up on – and speaking as someone who wants to be an old person (it’s pretty good option given the alternative!) I declare an interest.

The Doha trade talks: my first question time

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Today was the first International Development Questions since I’ve taken over as the Liberal Democrats’ Shadow Secretary of State for International Development. The ways the questions work is that there is a list of questions that will be orally asked of the International Development Secretary of State or his Ministers and they are published on what is called the Order Paper. We precede Prime Ministers’ Questions and have half an hour for questions and answers.

Each question on the Order Paper is answered by the Minister or Secretary – and then the author of the oral question can ask one supplementary, and also other people can join in. As Shadow Secretary of State – I get called by Mr Speaker to chip in on any question on the Order Paper that I choose – but with such a time limit it would be risky not to go on one of the first three questions as it can be quite a long time on one question if there are a lot of people standing to catch Mr Speaker’s eye.

I decided to come in on Question 3 on the Doha Trade talks:

Lynne Featherstone (Hornsey & Wood Green, Liberal Democrat)
There have recently been warm words from Europe and America about reinvigorating the Doha talks, but I am not convinced that there is any real political will behind that. It was certainly not at the top of the agenda of the President’s “State of the Union” speech last night. What new and different steps has the Secretary of State taken recently to break the inertia and take advantage of the different political landscape that now exists in the American Congress?

Mr. Thomas
I congratulate the hon. Lady on her appointment as shadow Secretary of State for International Development. Let me repeat what I have said in response to earlier questions. The EC representative, Peter Mandelson, has taken part in constructive discussions, as did my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on his visit to the United States just before Christmas. My right hon. Friends the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry held useful and productive discussions with their Indian counterparts last week, and we continue to talk to our allies in Europe with the aim of advancing the EC’s position further.

There are signs of progress, but we still have some way to go. Obviously we need to do more to lock down the deal which, as I think is recognised by Members in all parts of the House, is fundamental if developing countries are to make the progress that we all want in order to achieve the millennium development goals.

We are also after the Government over the BAe scandal (dropping of corruption inquiry by Labour). Hilary Benn is the ministerial champion for combatting international corruption. So we asked him whether he had been consulted by the Government over their decision to drop the prosecution. No – said Hilary – they hadn’t consulted him and that was OK because they did not need to. Now if I were Hilary I would be livid to not be consulted. We (my colleague Martin Horwood more accurately) were then hoping to get called in PMQs that followed so that he could then ask Tony Blair why he hadn’t consulted his champion for combatting corruption – but sadly – Mr Speaker again failed to call a single LibDem on a supplementary. He hasn’t called one this year!

PMQs

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Prime Minister Questions were not very inspiring today – tired old Prime Minister. Where’s his sparkle gone? Mind you Cameron lost the plot. He went on the mess in the Home Office – but failed to hit home trying too hard to turn it around to the Conservative policy (one of the rarest commodities in politics) which is to have a Minster of Homeland Security. So he tried to turn a complete balls up by John Reid and the Home Office into a reason for a terrorism minister. Didn’t fly at all.

Ming went on Iraq and pushed Blair to see whether – given that Bush is going to announce 22,000 more troops tonight – Blair is going to send any more British troops. He didn’t answer as usual. So good question – but no answer!