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PMQs - The verdict
Daniel Forman
After some preliminaries on the Bichard report, gratuitous best wishes to the England football team and condolences to fallen troops in Afghanistan, the real meat of prime minister's questions was on law and order.
And despite the morning's headlines highlighting the 53 life sentence prisoners who have been let out of jail early since 2000, Tony Blair just about got the better of David Cameron by doing what he does best when in a corner: hitting back hard at his attacker.
The Tory leader noted that the "new home secretary has been hard at work"... performing u-turns, criticising civil servants and speaking out against judges.
He followed up this pre-prepared line with another at the expense of John Reid, who glared back one seat away from Blair. "Are there any early signs that this home secretary is going to be any better than the last one?" Cameron asked.
But Blair also had his answer ready. The majority of the 53 were released under a Tory law, he told MPs, while the Conservatives had opposed the 2003 Criminal Justice Act which tightened up the rules on parole.
Cameron replied that the practice of sentences being reduced by a third on a guilty plea was the brainchild of Blair's sentencing guidelines council.
The prime minister said this was "absolute rubbish" as the SGC had been "supported across the whole of this house". Ever the master of the soundbite, he accused the Conservatives of "talking tough in the media [but] voting soft in parliament".
Cameron bravely battled on but rather lost his way and was forced to pause, always an error when the Commons is worked up into a frenzy and one on which Labour MPs leapt, forcing the Tory chief to plead with them to "hang on". "They're shouting because they don't like it," he suggested, but most of them were shouting because they did.
After composing himself Cameron focussed his fire on Reid once more, telling him to "stop trying to blame everyone else and get on with the job". Blair liked his own "talk tough, vote soft" line so much he used it again to ensure it makes the six o'clock news and clearly took the first round on points.
With the temperature rising, Sir Menzies Campbell was looking increasingly nervous as he waited his turn. But the Liberal Democrat leader built on his stronger showing of last week by coming up with a couple more useful questions, this time on nuclear power.
The energy white paper of 2003, he noted, had claimed nuclear was an "unattractive proposition" (prompting some sniggering from MPs at Sir Menzies' expense) on grounds of cost and waste. "What has changed?" he asked.
Blair gave a fairly detailed response and proudly boasted that it had "answered his question".
Sir Menzies said it had not as the prime minister had failed to address the issue of cost. "Who will pay?" he wondered.
Not wanting to answer that one, Blair was on the back foot, reduced to saying that the "debate has to be engaged in". Having missed out on a honeymoon period, Sir Menzies does at last appear to be at least steadying the ship.
Cameron came back on nursing job losses, this time attacking the health secretary for claiming it had been the "best ever year for the NHS" but was met with the predictable and repetitive, if effective, response from Blair.
The Tories had opposed NHS investment, jobs, pay deals and pensions, the prime minister reported. Cameron may be trying to "speak up" for public service staff, he claimed, but "whoever is in a position to speak up for them, he is not".
Enjoying himself, Blair had a bit more fun at Tory and Lib Dem expenses, mocking their failure to work together on climate change and putting down the third party's John Thurso - who asked him to name a single successful government IT project - by suggesting the Passport Service's.
But Labour's Lyn Brown brought him back down to earth by asking him to welcome the apology offered by the Metropolitan Police's Andy Hayman, head of the anti-terrorist branch, to her local community caught up in the Forest Gate anti-terror raid.
Significantly, Blair "fully endorsed" the apology. However he repeated his "101 per cent" backing for the raid and the work of the police, asking MPs to "imagine" the response if intelligence was not acted upon and putting the drama of PMQs firmly into perspective.
The verdict
Blair: 8/10 - His 'if in doubt, attack the Tories' strategy worked.
Cameron: 6/10 - Managed to turn promising material to his own disadvantage.
Campbell: 7/10 - Suddenly Sir Menzies is making it look easy.
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Published: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 14:07:39 GMT+01
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