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PMQs - The Verdict
Edward Davie
Usually prime minister's question time is the biggest set piece of the parliamentary week - but not when it precedes chancellor Gordon Brown's last Budget.
And it was the chancellor who dominated the opening jokes of this session as members exploited Lord Turnbull's assessment of Brown that he used "Stalinist" repression to run the Treasury.
Sir Gerald Kaufmann used the former senior civil servant's comments to point out Brown's achievements, something Tony Blair concurred with.
David Cameron got to his feet and said: "I don't know why the home secretary is smiling - he'll soon be running a power station in Siberia."
It got a good laugh from all sides of the House, not least from John Reid who seems to enjoy the Tory leader's analysis of the state of relations within the cabinet.
Cameron went on to ask some statesmanlike questions on the situation in Zimbabwe where the opposition are suffering under an increasingly tyrannical Robert Mugabe.
It could be argued that Mugabe has even more in common with Stalin than Gordon Brown.
The Tory leader's second set of questions were about modern slavery in Europe on the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.
Sir Menzies Campbell used his questions to talk about growing inequalities in the economy.
It was a foretaste of the Liberal Democrat attack on the Budget and it signalled that their leader realised that these exchanges will be forgotten almost as soon as the chancellor gets to his feet.
Sir Menzies said that the poor paid a disproportionate amount of tax whilst Blair retorted that the very poorest no longer pay any tax.
It's all about the statistics you use and how you interpret them - we'll have a lot more of that this afternoon.
The Verdict
Tony Blair - 7/10 - Competent and good practice for being upstaged by Brown on the big stage.
David Cameron - 8/10 - Made the best joke of the day and asked some statesmanlike questions on foreign affairs.
Sir Menzies Campbell - 6/10 - Asked about the economy - there'll be plenty of time for that later.
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Published: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 12:44:22 GMT+00
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