Prime Minister Questions - 28th January 2015

This weeks Prime Minister Questions was all about the NHS and both David Cameron and Ed Milliband repeated their usual arguments. 

I have to say I didn't find either of them convincing and now they know that the General Election is round the corner both are desparate to not to make that mistake that could cost them election. 

However I do think David Cameron was being more cautious in his delivery than Ed Miliband. Ed is confident and he probably knows were the votes are going to come from to get him over the finishing line. 

However he must still keep up his attacks on David Cameron and not get complacent or before he knows it the election would have come and gone..

So Ed is doing reasonable well he just has to prepare himself for the negative   campaigning the Tories will be doing. 

Prime Minister's Questions - 7th May 2014

In today's Prime Minister Questions Ed Milliband focused his six questions on rents and the Pfizer and AstraZeneca deal.

I did like the questions the Ed Miliband chose to ask David Cameron. But at the same time would have been nice if Ed had asked David Cameron about the rise in zero hour contracts. 

I was a little disappointed with Ed Milliband today after he has been doing so well. He needs to keep up the strong attacks and today he came across less combative and more diplomatic. 

A year to the next General Election and Ed Milliband and his backbenchers need to get ready for the battle and it starts with PMQ's. 

I am confident that today was a slight blip and Ed Milliband will back on message his strong more aggressive attacks. 

Prime Minister's questions - 8th April 2014

This weeks Prime Minister's questions was the last one before the Easter recess. Ed Milliband focused his six questions on the conduct and resignation of the Culture Secretary Maria Miller. 

Ed was excellent and contrary to what David Cameron was saying about Ed joining the political bandwagon. Ed came across well in trying to explain to David Cameron how is backing of Maria Miller was misguided. 

It was notable that when David Cameron was responding to Ed Milliband is normally very vocal back benchers where fairly quiet. 

 

That tells me that they may not politically agree with Ed Milliband but they understood his line of questioning and they did not want to be seen as backing Maria Miiller. 

So another strong performance by Ed Milliband  and I hope he will be able to hold into this momentum that he has built.   

Labour Party Conference - Ed Milliband's speech

The day had finally arrived! and Ed Milliband his took place in front of the faithful party delegates.

From a presentational point of view the Labour Party and Ed did great job. Ed made sure that his key demographic where right behind him. 

From a speaking  point of view Ed explained is policy initiatives incredibly well. 

He laid out substantive policy plans like the energy policy. He discussed freezing energy prices if he becomes the next Prime Minister.

Ed came across as authoritative and well meaning. What was most impressive was that he did not need any notes or autocue. 

However this is where real work starts as now he needs to prepare himself for the right wing media onslaught. 

As Ed knows himself he needs to convince the British people that he has credible leadership qualities. 

If he can  do that then it will increase his personal standing in the opinion polls.

Then ultimately become the next Prime Minister of the UK.

Prime Ministers Question-11/09/2013

Yesterday Prime Minister's Questions raised number of important issues.

Ed Milliband focused his questions on the fall in living standards. Ed especially highlighted Michael Gove's comments on food banks.

Michael stated that people who use food banks may  not  have managed their finances properly.

Ed Milliband said that Michael Gove was a disgrace for making such a comment. Although David Cameron didn't back Michael Gove he didn't condem the comments either.

I think Ed gets better every week at PMQ's and a sign Ed Milliband is doing well is when David Cameron resorts to cheap insults.

It was certainly a very lively PMQ's with Tory MP's asking questions ranging from abortion to Syria.Labour MP's asking questions about living standards. 

David Cameron did not perform particularly well this week and I think that it is going to get tougher.

 Especially as David Cameron has claimed that the recession is now over and the economy is slowly growing. 

If this assertion is not backed with data in the next few months then he could find himself having real political problems.

Ed Milliband has different set of  problems. He has to be able to convince the electorate that he is ready to be Prime Minister. 

He has about eighteen months to prove this and I for one am confident that Ed Milliband will be successful at the ballot box.

Prime Minister's Questions 04/09/13

Okay I have to admit that I expected real fireworks in today's PMQ's. However I appreciated both David Cameron and Ed Miliband's statesman like approach to PMQ's.

Both Ed Milliband and David Cameron restated their desire of a peaceful intervention with David Cameron restating that Britain would not be involved in any military action. 

I think this could become a real problem for David Cameron because already German intelligence, has confirmed that President Assad did use chemical weapons on the rebels. 

If the UN ultimately does back military intervention then it could make David Cameron and Britain appear as bystanders on an international stage. 

On domestic questions Labour MP's asked David Cameron about his view on the mansion tax versus  bedroom tax and he replied asking the Labour leadership if they where going to reverse the bedroom tax.

Another Labour MP's asked about food banks and David Cameron responded that least his government informing people at the job centre about the existence of food banks. 

David Cameron main problem came from  his back benchers who posed somewhat uncomfortable questions to him about Syria and  the NHS. In particularly the NHS question  from Jesse Norman an MP that David Cameron sacked as an adviser today!

So although PMQ's was more subdued than I had anticipated, today's questions could have a future significance. 

PMQ review 10/07/13

Today's PMQ's was all about party funding and Ed Milliband did not hesitate ask David Cameron questions about Tory funding. David Cameron sidestepped most of Ed Milliband's questions and instead focused on how much political influence unions have on the Labour Party.

As it is questions to the Prime Minister it was evident that David Cameron had not answered any of the questions put him by Ed Milliband and therefore Ed Milliband was the clear winner. My problem with focusing the entire PMQ's on funding is that voters have real concerns about their jobs and standard of living.

Tory backbenches also asked questions about Britain's influence in the EU and the unions. Whilst Labour backbenchers asked about Tory donators like JCB allegedly  having influence over policy. I sincerely hope that  in the last PMQ of the year next week Ed will go back to fighting the rights of squeezed middle and leave David Cameron to talk about union influences.

However for this week it was imperative that Ed Millliband stood firm on this issue of union donations and even suggesting a cap of £5000 on political donations because if he hadn't then Tories would have accused him of being indecisive and weak.

 It remain to be seen whether fighting about donations moves votes either way however what Ed Milliband doesn't need is voter antipathy as this will discourage them from going to the polls and voting in 2015.

Ed Milliband Union Reform

Ed Milliband made a historic speech yesterday on the Labour Party links with the unions. I applaud Ed for taking this initiative especially as it could have some serious financial implications. It shows that Ed is not afraid to take on challenges no matter how serious they are.

If Ed wants to be the next PM he has to be seen as a man that has no fear when it comes to taking on challenges. The fact that Ed's speech was applauded by both Tony Blair and Len McCLuskey goes to show that Ed is working hard to unite the different factions of the Labour Party.

As Ed is aware that if he did not take the initiative then David Cameron would have seized on this opportunity and would have described him as weak and an ineffective leader. Now I hope that  Ed will take the real argument about party donations to David Cameron.

Prime Minister's Questions review 03/07/13

Today PMQ's started off fairly nicely with Ed Milliband asking about the UK government responses to the clashes in Egypt. David Cameron provided a nice considered response about how the government was liaising with the Egyptian government and how President Obama had spoken to President Morsi.

However when Ed Milliband asked David Cameron about primary school places that's when Cameron became defensive and started his usual "its all Labour's fault". Today Cameron went a step further and most of his responses to the Labour MPs was embedded with "they are all here because of Len McCluskey"

Cameron responses were a little interesting at first but then just got repetitive and boring and he came across to me as quite desperate as well. Cameron is clearly gearing up for the next election and he thinks that it can be fought on painting Ed Milliband as a die had trade unionist.

Cameron was asked various questions ranging from food banks to bedroom tax and his standard response was either it is all Labour's fault or the Unite union is pulling the strings of the Labour party.

I thought Ed Milliband did quite well today in raising issues that are affecting families up and down the country. Whilst David Cameron does not come across as a man who understand the daily struggles of families in the UK.

Prime Minister's Questions

In this weeks PMQ's Ed Milliband mainly focused his attack on the lack of banking regulation. Whilst David Cameron claimed that Labour had done nothing to regulate the banks when in power.

However the most interesting point of this weeks PMQ was when a Labour  MP asked David Cameron what he was going to do about the rise in child poverty.

Mr Cameron responded that he was trying to reduce the national debt. At this point Speaker Bercow interrupted and told Cameron that he was going to move on to the next question as he (the Speaker) not responsible for the national debt.

It's the first time I have seen the Speaker tell off David Cameron and Cameron looked very embarrassed. 

So PMQ's this week was not a classic but Speaker Bercow telling off David Cameron made it a little more interesting.