Gordon Brown continued where he left off in 2008 branding the Conservatives the "do nothing" party. Brown likes nothing better than adhering to the age-old communications mantra of repetition, repetition, repetition to get his point across. As we all know our Dear Leader likes his dividing lines and this is his favourite at the moment. It seems obvious that this jibe has stung David Cameron hence the Tory leader's own flurry of activity of late to counter the charge. Both leaders seem desperate to be seen to be "doing something."
This, of course, is more of a problem for Gordon Brown as he is the Prime Minister and thus he cannot be seen to be impotent in the face of a recession which his opponents accuse him of not preparing the economy for by being a spendthrift in the booms years.
If Brown is still contrasting his "action" with what he wants us to believe is no action from the Conservatives, Cameron has improved his retort to the PM since the new year. In an interview with the FT yesterday, Cameron accused the government of behaving like “headless chickens… confusing activity with action.” And today, at PMQs, Cameron was keen to get the point across that for all the government’s apparent activity it was "achieving nothing" other than needlessly increasing Britain's debt.
Therefore, we are left with Brown’s “do nothing” Tories and Cameron’s “achieve nothing” Labour. A stalemate at the moment.
David Cameron used today’s PMQs to again call on Brown to admit his mistakes. The Tory leader does this in the full knowledge that Brown has a character flaw which means he cannot admit to anything in case it makes him look vulnerability. What the PM fails to realise is that this undermines his credibility as a politician who can prescribe solutions to the country’s problems. Cameron asked the PM to admit he was wrong to say he had abolished “boom and bust.” Brown refused saying it was a global financial crisis. Other issues Cameron went on were the government copying Tory policies. This followed Brown’s claim that no one was copying Tory policies around the world – no one was advocating cutting public spending. To which Cameron replied Labour was copying Tory policies with its pale imitations of the Conservative proposals for jobs and loans. In a good joke, the Tory leader said the PM didn’t need a butler in Downing Street (as has recently been reported), he needed a photocopier! The PM said he wasn’t copying the Tory jobs plan and accused the Tories’ National Loan Scheme of being a “do nothing policy” because the sums didn’t add up.
Cameron also asked the PM whether he was willing to repeat the growth forecasts made in the Pre-Budget Report? Brown unsurprisingly refused to do so saying whether they were met depended on international co-operation. This was strange as I do not remember the Chancellor making this point during his PBR in November. What I do remember, as did Cameron, is that the Chancellor said that the economy would begin to grow again in the third quarter of 2009 “because of decisions taken in the pre-Budget Report.” In other words, because of the government’s much trumpeted fiscal stimulus – namely, its VAT cut.
This led Cameron to criticise the VAT cut as an expensive failure which was adding £12.5 billion to government debt. Brown retorted saying the VAT cut was supported by former Chancellors Ken Clarke and Lord Lamont (not strictly true, as Clarke has since withdrawn his support for such a cut and it was wrong to imply Lamont supported the cut). The PM said the Tories were not united on this. Brown then tried to make the Tories sound uncaring and out of touch saying they may think the VAT cut unimportant, but at end of every week an average family has £5 extra in their pocket. (Wow – let’s throw a party to celebrate! With just a fiver in our back pocket, we'd better head to Iceland!) He said it may not matter to them, implying the Conservatives are the party of the wealthy, but it was more money for everyone in the community. Brown said the Tory party was the only party wanting public spending cuts; it was out-of-touch with rest of world; and completely isolated.
Cameron hit back arguing that no other country in the world was reducing VAT by 2.5 percent and no country was planning to increase taxes on those earning £19-20k – it was the PM who was isolated. Cameron also supplied his own quote from Clarke denouncing the PBR and accused the PM of ruining the golden economic legacy he had inherited from Clarke. Cameron then quoted retailers such as Marks and Spencer who have said the VAT cut had made “no material difference to our sales” and Sainsburys who have said the VAT was a “massive annoyance.” The PM again quoted Clarke on VAT; said the VAT cut was important; and said the Tories were on the wrong side of the argument, outside of the global consensus.
In his final intervention, Cameron said it was not just him who thought the VAT cut irrelevant, it was what the retailers thought. He accused the PM of running around like a headless chicken with bogus announcements. Worst of all he was building up debts for Britain’s children to save his own skin – a nice plug for the new poster campaign the Tories have launched this week which alleges that Brown’s borrowing means every child is born owing £17,000 in debt. Brown said Labour was the only party investing in children. He repeated for what felt like the hundredth time that the Tories were the “do nothing party” which would leave people defenceless in the face of the global crisis.
Nick Clegg then entered the fray and annoyed the Prime Minister immediately by claiming the Prime Minister was playing copycat with the Conservatives over their National Loan Scheme. Clegg said taxpayers had already sunk £37.5 billion into the banks to get them lending again, and wondered why they were being asked to risk another £10 billion just to get them lending. Instead of playing copycat, the PM should be playing hardball with the banks. The PM obviously didn’t like the copycat charge because he immediately said that he had already explained the Tory plans were unfunded. Brown outlined his business guarantee scheme for small businesses and said that since November, 20,000 firms had already benefited from the government’s tax flow policies.
Clegg began his second and final intervention with “here's what he should do…” which was met by jeers from the Labour benches. The Lib Dem leader said the PM should stop telling the banks to hoard cash and lend out at same time, and use the part-nationalised banks as a state bank. Clegg said the PM didn’t listen to him when he made this point two months ago. Isn't it time he listened now? Brown said he admired Clegg’s certainty. We have asked two banks which we have shares in to lend at 2007 levels and that is what they are doing at moment. As far as further action goes, we will not hesitate to look at other measures to get economy moving.
Verdict
At the moment the two main parties are engaged in a stalemate over the “action” they are or are not taking. Both have policies and an economic outlook that is diametrically opposed to the other. As such it is difficult to say who is winning at the moment. Brown says he is right and Cameron wrong. Cameron says Brown is wrong and he is right.
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