Gordon Brown out of touch on VAT!

Gordon Brown is totally out of touch with what hard pressed people are actually spending their money on.

At today's Prime ministers questions he said that the VAT cut was saving the average family £5 per week. If you calculate that you would need to spend £235 per week on goods and services which attract VAT. (£1,018 per calender month or £12,220 per year).

So, after you have paid for all those things that do not have VAT on them, like rent/mortgage, council tax, food, domestic gas those things that do attract VAT but have had their duty raised, like cigarettes, beer and petrol, do you have £235 left? I don't. Neither does anyone I know.

Which planet is he living on? On the other hand for the same money he could have raised personal income tax allowances to £10,000 thus putting £67 per calender month in my pocket, or about £15 per week! Three times as much as the government claim and much much more than that over what benefit I get from the VAT cut.

Flash Gordon Brown claims to have saved the world!

The Crown blog has this fantastic clip of Flash Gordon Brown claiming that he saved the world at Prime ministers questions today!



Very amusing.

So how did Nick Clegg get on at his first PMQs?

Well, in the House of Commons, fine is the answer. Workmanlike, easy introduction to the bear pit that is Prime Ministers Questions. It would be harsh in the extreme to expect him to shine, as he only gets two questions after all.

Overall though, his first outing was disappointing because it got not air time, at least not on TV. That is a shame really as that is more the media than anything else, but there you go.

Still, looking on the bright side, at least he did not start by presenting an open goal like Ming Campbell did!

The BBC has this.

Prime Ministers Questions, My thoughts so far.

I did not catch much of Cameron so I can't comment there, but I have to say that Vince Cable got the better of Gordon Brown, by firstly asking what, when Gordon is eating his Brussels sprouts, he would consider what the Labour governments biggest disaster of the year was?

Gordon Brown replied with some flim flam ending with a comment about the Liberal Democrat leadership and how Vince Cable could well be back there soon.

Vince replied that given Gordon Brown's own position he should not speculate on leadership bids!

The only problem for the Liberal Democrats is I have trouble seeing either Nick Clegg or Chris Huhne doing better than Vince Cable.

The BBC has this.

Update 14:23

The BBC also has this on Cable's killer punch!

Prime Ministers Questions should be interesting today!

I wonder how Gordon Brown will get on?

Update 12:43

I missed some of it but it was a bit dull.

Gordon Brown did get Vince Cable back for his joke last week with a line something like "I notice you are getting better at jokes than economics".

We will have to see how it plays in the news if at all.

From Stalin to Mr Bean: A remarkable transformation!

This is how Vince Cable described Gordon Brown at Prime Ministers Questions.

Very very funny.

He went on to say that he brings chaos out of order rather than order out of chaos. The house fell about laughing.

Prime Ministers Questions: looked like a no score draw today

However Gordon Brown does not seem to be able to get his punchlines right which is a shame. He did have a good one about the Liberal Democrats and everyone in the parliamentary party could be in the err.... parliamentary party.

However we will have to wait and see how the main news reports it if at all.

Prime Ministers Questions: Who won?

Well, judging by the sound bites on TV and the media reaction David Cameron did. He cemented the impression of Gordon Brown over the last week in the public's mind. Well, that is, if they were paying attention.

Next week, David Cameron needs to come across easier on Brown. Firstly Brown will be looking to hit back, and that will disarm him and make him look petty, secondly playing the same harsh game every week looks bad.

That said, David Cameron is going to have to mention Gordon Brown's own goal of advertising the petition for a 2007 election.

Gordon Brown's 4th Prime Ministers Questions

Well, this is Gordon Brown's 4th Prime Ministers Questions and the last before the summer recess.

So far on the floods, there seems to be some consensus on the floods, though David Cameron has raised the question of funding for local councils to cover flood relief.

However it has been fairly consensual on the floods.

Some MP's seem to be needling Gordon Brown for not getting his feet wet in the floods, preferring to stay in the air or at control centers.


In David Cameron's second round of questions he raised the question of the EU Constitution. Apparently the Spanish Foreign minister says the treaty is 98% of the treaty whilst the Irish Prime Minister says it is 90%. How much does Gordon Brown think it is? Unsurprisingly Gordon Brown has not given a percentage.

Interesting trading quotes from each others sides, though Gordon Brown did have a good last word, not answering the question but putting the line that the Conservatives have gone back to "the old agenda".

In answer to a Liberal Democrat question on military overstretch he said he would provide all the equipment that the armed services need in Afghanistan. We have had this promise before, and it still has not been met!

For More on Prime Ministers Questions, see here.

The end of Cabinet government?

One of the interesting things about Gordon Brown's new broom is that he promised a "new politics" "change" and "a return to cabinet government".

On the super casino's U-turn of course there was no cabinet discussion at all, whilst the decision was revealed by way of a planted question at Prime Ministers Questions.

We know there was no cabinet discussion because of this quote in the Guardian here:

His spokesman said the prime minister had not discussed it with the cabinet, but had agreed a position with the new culture secretary, James Purnell.

Hmm..

I agree with the decision itself, or rather I had not been persuaded by the argument for "Super Casinos" but am very dubious about the decision making process both for and the U-turn against.

I am also concerned about the wasted costs for all the doomed bids. Rather unsurprisingly Manchester and its MP's are not best pleased.

Gordon Brown's second PMQ's

I am just watching Gordon Brown's second Prime Ministers Questions, where he looks like he might be rowing back on gambling and super casino's.

To be fair it looked like Gordon Brown did much better than last time. That said he had a low base to start from.

What David Cameron did not do was tackle him on issues he may not have been aware of.

The issue under discussion centered around centralising hospital services in less larger bigger hospitals after a report was published today. Gordon Brown seemed to avoid answering the rather obvious point that those hospitals that are not specialist centers must close or reduce services.

Gordon Brown at Prime Ministers Questions

I could only hear the audio and missed the first few minutes, but Gordon Brown does seem to creak under pressure. he was stammering very frequently. I wonder if he will improve?

I was also amused that in answer to one question he claimed he had only been in the job for 5 days! This is in fact his 7th day as PM. Oops. I understand some on his benches did not look happy.

It appears that Gordon is also solidly behind ID cards which is going to mean he can't cream off that many Liberal Democrats. When asked by David Cameron about it, he of course quoted some on the Conservative side who seemed to be in favor, a point Cameron neutralised by pointing out a statement by Douglass Alexander Alistair Darling* the new Chancellor completely against ID cards. Cameron's team know Gordon's game, so will make sure he has Labour quotes against the Labour line on a whole range of issues now.

I liked Ming Campbell's reply to Gordon Brown saying his door was always open to the honourable gentleman to which Ming replied that it "was more of a trapdoor" and there was no evidence of change there.

However all that will be important is how the media report it.

The BBC has this and this on the importance of PMQ's.

*Thanks for the emailed correction, *cough* typo on my part.