Prime Minister Questions- 29/01/14

In Today's Prime Minister's questions Ed Miliband asked David Cameron one question on Syria and it was about the number of Syrians that Britain would be willing to accept.

David Cameron gave a strong response about how Britain would take the most vulnerable but did not specify how many. 

 

Ed moved on to Labour proposal of a 50% tax rate for millionaires and he asked David Cameron three times if it was true that the Tories wanted to further reduce millionaire's tax rate to 40%. 

Three times David Cameron refused to directly answer the question. Ed managed to get David Cameron in that political corner. Which made David Cameron look weak and indecisive. 

Ed did well this week and he asking the issues that affect people up and down the country. Whilst David Cameron was shouting out a lot of his answers today and looked little out of his depth. 

Review of the of President Obama's speech

President Obama made his State of the Union speech  last night, as I expected a large part of the speech was decidated to the US economy. 

President made an impassioned plea for better pay for low paid workers and for Congress to work with him pass some bills.

President Obama discussed the successes of the Affordable Care Act and how it was changing people lives. 

It was great that President Obama talked about the NSA and making sure that they do not over reach their power in the future.  

From an international prespective it was good that he discussed the withdrawing of troops from Afghanistan and regulating the drone programme. Giving more assistance to Syrian opposition. 

Overall President Obama made a good speech and but some pundits have said it was quite a predictable speech. 

I don't think that is always a bad thing as President Obama was developing topics from last year. 

As usual the Democrats where very appreciative of his speech whilst the Republicans looked largely unmoved by his speech. 

So it look like the  President has another partisan year of politics to look forward to. Where he will probably make some progress but with very little help from the Republicans. 

Preview to President Obama's State of the Union address

Tonight President Obama will make his State of the Union address and there are various topics which I think he will touch on. 

Firstly he will talk about the US economy and how things have greatly improved in the last year or so but will probably state how there is a lot more to do and this is difficult without the help of Congress. 

Secondly he might talk about the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare and how after it's initial teething problems the act is greatly benefiting many Americans. 

Thirdly on the international front he might talk about Syria and how the America needs to bring world leaders together to end the current crisis. 

The topics I hope President Obama will discuss is firstly doing more to limit access to guns and I hope he worries less about the gun lobbyist. 

Secondly I hope he will talk about the NSA and hopefully he plans to ensure they do not abuse their power. 

Thirdly I hope on international he will talk about Afghanistan and how handing of power back to the Afghans is going. 

So there is a lot for President Obama to discuss and is approval rating is back up to 50% and this means that Americans are reasonably happy with his Presidency but he has a lot of work to do! 

Prime Minister Question's

Yesterday Prime Ministers Question's was on the back of the good news that unemployment had gone done to 7.1%.

However Ed Miliband first three questions to David Cameron was about the humanitarian crisis currently going on in Syria. 

Ed was trying to encourage David Cameron to take in some of the refugees. There exchanges where polite but I couldn't help but think that. 

David Cameron reluctance to taking in Syrian refugees is more about appeasing his media backers like the Daily Mail and not given any political ground to UKIP.

 

Ed next three questions where about the economy and at that this stage like Ed put it that David Cameron had fallen back into his 'bullingdon club' routine. 

The Ed was trying to stay calm and not shout but that may not be so effective in the chamber. 

So Ed did well this his six questions but David Cameron came across as more commanding as he shouted a little louder than Ed did. 

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.