The Moon of Liberty

Prime Ministers Questions - 18th July 2007

Venue - House of Commons, The Palace of Westminster

After Terrorism, which Cameron took the honours, and the NHS, in which Brown hit back, today's test for the two party leaders would be Law And Order. The topic is chosen by the opposition leader, where as the Prime Minsiter has the advantage of the last word. It is debatable which is the bigger advantage in this parliamentary game, today it was with Mr Cameron.

The topic was the early release scheme. Cameron began by asking how many prisoners released on the early release scheme had been convicted of violent offenses? Brown was on the back foot from the start. He had been given a brief, but it was clearly written by an adviser and had no official substance behind. He attempted to claim the answer to the question was that nobody covicted of violent offenses had been released early, reading from a script, his voice gradually got higher and more panicked, almost as if he knew the information he had been given was complete nonsense, and hoped by shouting the answer nobody would realise this, sadly for Mr Brown it made the real position perfectly clear.

Cameron came back and gave us the figure from the probation service themselves, 334 criminals convicted of serious violent offenses had been released early. He then went on to ask about a circular from the head of the probabtion service stating that thier views were ignored, and many they still considered a danger to the public were released against their advice. Brown's response was to claim the Governemnt had increased prison places and the Tories opposed the investment, trying the old 'Tory cuts' trick from last week, fine when your performing well, but when you are the Prime Minister givng the impression you have no idea whats going on in the prison service, the line falls rather more flat.

Cameron was on a roll. The only glitch was an annoying tendency to say 'right' or 'now' and pause before moving on to the next part of his argument. It stopped the flow and will look very bad if he does this on a bad today, today was not a bad day for him however. He asked if the Prime Minister had anything to say to the victims of those who had suffered crime at the hands of those released early and had re-offended. Brown merely went on a flustered rant about crime under the Tories doubling, he had nothing to say, his credibility from that moment was shot.

Cameron finished with a flourish. The Prime Minster did not know what was going on, had nothing to say to victims, 'same old incompetence, same old Labour.' The benches were the reverse of a week ago, Tories cheering, glum Labour faces. Brown ended the exchange with a lame pre-rehearsed line about Cameron not being the future but talking about the past. Given Cameron had talked about things going on now and the victims that are suffering from the policy now, and Brown talking about Crime doubling under the tories 10-15 years ago, the hollow line summed up the Prime Minsters miserable show.

THE MOON OF LIBERY VERDICT

DELIVERY - Brown was flustered and simply terrible today, Cameron had some excellent moments, but has to stop the 'right' and 'now' pauses which are annoying.

STRATEGY - Good move to go on this issue by Cameron and the quotes from others he selected to back up his argument were much better worked out than last week. Brown relied on a clearly inaccurate briefing and gave the impression of not telling us the whole story, so much for the end of the age of spin.

ARGUMENT - Cameron destroyed any attampt at a defense from Brown of the way this scheme has worked. Brown's refusal to say anythign in regard to the victims of re-offenders ensured nothing he had to say today seemed credible.

QUOTES - Cameron's flow at his last visit to the dispatch box produced many quotes that summed up how Brown came across. watch for more of the line 'Same old Labour.' tying Brown to Old Labour's failed past, and Tony Blair, at the same time. If that sticks it will be bad news for Brown. Brown's line about Cameron 'wanting to talk about the past' was the opposite of what occured today, and was feeble as a result.

MISC - Back to Brown's refusal to say anything about the victims of re-offenders. This type of error will reinforce the view Brown is a technocrat with no sense of the emotional side required to reach out to people. This flaw could become a major issue in a full length election campaign.

MOON OF LIBERTY SCORE - Gordon Brown 0 David Cameron 4, - Good subject, delivery and line of argument from Cameron, Brown needs to go back to the drawing board. The 'Big Clunking Fist' was well and truely nullified today.