PMQs: It’s Sheffield Forgemasters, stupid! Oh yes! Of course it is!
Cross posted from Liberal Democrat Voice
An energetic Nick Clegg took Prime Minister’s Questions today. Notice how casually I said that. Only the first Liberal/LibDem to take questions to the Prime Minister since Lloyd George in the 1922. Pretty blooming historic, that.
If that was not enough, our cup ran well and truly over with yet another first and, perhaps, unique occasion. Jack Straw at the dispatch box pretending to be Labour leader! Clegg stood in for Cameron because the latter was in the USA. Straw stood in for Harman because she was in Peckham.
Jack Straw probably does bellowing quite well when he hasn’t got a sore throat. Today, he seemed to be rather hoarse so his bellowing sounded rather weak.
He was bellowing about Sheffield Forgemasters. You might say that Straw, and indeed the Labour party, are obsessed with Sheffield Forgemasters. They are always harping on about the company. This time Straw seemed to think he had found a earth-shattering inconsistency in the government’s reasoning. Something about diluting the shareholding.
The unwillingness of the SF board to “dilute its shareholding” was given by the government as a reason why a loan was asked for. But Straw says that the CEO of the company has said that he was always willing to dilute his shareholding. Straw seemed to think that this was a killer point. But it seems to be answered quite well by the simple riposte “Why didn’t he do it, then? – Why didn’t the CEO solve the problem by diluting the shareholding?”
Clegg replied with the usual line about Labour leaving the country in deep doo doo. He also accused Jack Straw of offering a “dissertation” rather than a question. Fair point. Straw was rambling a bit.
Nick Clegg also mined deeply from that new little goldmine for the government – Peter Mandelson’s memoirs. “We were deep in a pit of debt and still digging” is a particular gem which he quoted.
Straw also said that Clegg had said in the Yorkshire Post (stop nodding off at the back!) that SF could get a loan from elsewhere. But yesterday, Straw said, SF said that they couldn’t get a loan from elsewhere. “His (Clegg’s) whole edifice has collapsed” said Straw. He wishes.
I don’t think Straw really made any killer points here. Clegg quite rightly said that the last government did nothing to ensure banks were giving to firms like SF.
It seems that Labour have already printed millions of leaflets with “Sheffield Forgemasters” repeated on them five million times. This is their campaign. Sheffield Forgemasters. They think they are onto a winner here.
But it is an inherently dishonest and disingenuous line which they are taking. Even though it was a loan, the government would have had to borrow money, pay interest from the taxpayer, and then loan it to SF. And if they would have not cut the loan to Sheffield Forgemasters, what else would Labour have cut instead? They haven’t offered a single penny of specific savings to make up any of their £50 billion of planned cuts.
Other things which happened or emerged from this PMQs session were:
-Nick Clegg gave an excellent answer on the Building Schools for the Future programme cancellation. He emphasized that Labour would have had to cut the programme if they had come into power anyway. He also mentioned that the government would have a replacement programme which would include primary schools (which Labour had excluded from the BSF programme).
-Nick Clegg repeated the good news of the pupil premium on several occasions, including stressing that it will help pupils whether they are in urban or rural areas.
-Nick Clegg said that, after the Cameron/Obama meeting, there are grounds for optimism for hoping that Gary McKinnon will be tried in the UK.
-Straw went big on saying that the LibDems have no influence on the government, picking up on a poll finding publicized by Lord Ashcroft today. It seems unusual for the Labour party to be taking its cue from information provided by Lord Ashcroft. Clegg dealt with the point by listing a whole load of LibDem policies which are being pursued by the government.
-In answer to Clare Perry MP, Nick Clegg highlighted the authoritarian record of the Labour government.
-Clegg was asked whether, when he voted for the VAT increase, he was being a “revolutionary pragmatist” or “pragmatic revolutionary”. – A good line from the Plaid Cymru leader.
By the way, the BBC’s John Pienaar didn’t think Clegg did too badly and traded “blow for blow” with Straw. He also pointed out that Straw looked like he really hates the Liberal Democrats. Great.
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Burbler-in-chief
The Guardian seemed unimpressed by Clegg.I’m amazed how much Clegg’s ‘new politics’ looks and sounds just like the old politics.