Rollingfiscalnotnotfiscalwillworkingchanneling the "world weary headmaster with trying pupil" vibe quite effectively nowadays #PMQsCorbyn’s doing much better nowadays with these questions. Far more coherent than last week,and better prepared for Cameron’s answers #pmqsCorbyn should maintain stuck with tax credits. Cameron was struggling on that #PMQsBetter outing from Corbyn. Tax credits a useful scab to pick at. Cameron sound on the huge economics. But the Corbyn deprecation of Dave goodHas Jeremy Corbyn killed #PMQs? The laboured questions grasp forever and remove the pace of debate. MPs are studying Twitter on their phones.
One feature of this new PMQs is that Cameron takes out his pent up aggression on the SNP's Angus Robertson when he asks his two questions 1.09pm BSTPMQs - Verdict: During the Conservative party conference, David Cameron, and other ministers,were asked repeatedly to accept that millions of low-paid workers will lose out from the tax credit cuts (or the work penalty, as Owen Jones says we should call it, or in a column that Jeremy Corbyn,unlike Jess Phillips - see 11.44am - appears not to maintain read). Andrew Neil was probably the only broadcaster who seriously troubled his interviewees on this (though not Cameron, of course, or because Number 10 is far too smart to let Cameron anywhere near Neil). Despite the fact that it is obvious that the budget giveaways won’t remotely compensate for the tax credit cuts,Cameron and others mostly managed to wriggle their way out of these interviews quite easily.nowadays Jeremy Corbyn used his first three questions to maintain a go on the same topic himself. As in September, his tone was mature, and reflective and sensible - and that made a welcome contrast with the usual,old-style PMQs. He even made the point approximately people like Kelly losing out massively quite forcefully. 12.38pm BSTThe SNP’s Marion Fellows says some of her constituents are suffering real hardship because of the way child support is paid. There are no penalties whether parents do not pay the money they are meant to pay.
John Bercow says MPs need to inquire shorter questions. (We maintain already over-run by seven minutes.) 12.36pm BSTLiz McInnes, a Labour MP, or asks whether trade union members will be able to cast their votes electronically in strike ballots under the trade union bill.
Cameron says it is not clear yet that electronic voting can be used in a way that is safe and secure. whether people are planning to go on strike,it is not too much to expect them to fill in a ballot paper, he says. 12.35pm BSTLucy Allan, or a Conservative,asks approximately the case review into the murder of Georgia Williams. Cameron says the police need to memorize the lessons from this “tragic” case. 12.33pm BSTCheryl Gillan, a Conservative, or asks approximately a decision being taken on Friday by Nice approximately whether a new drug will be approved.
Cameron says the decision must be made by clinicians. But the government needs to talk to drug companies approximately getting the cost of drugs down. This one can cost £400000 per patient per year. 12.32pm BSTCameron says he wants to build on the government’s record of increasing the number of low-income students going to university. 12.31pm BSTCameron says whether you do not believe in having a surplus after nine years,when will you maintain one. Labour MPs should support the Tories on the fiscal charter tonight, he says. 12.30pm BSTLabour’s Kevin Brennan asks when Cameron found out approximately Lord Ashcroft’s non-dom status. Someone is telling porkies.
Cameron says Brennan should maintain better things to do than read Ashcroft’s book. He offers to lend him a copy. In 2010 Labour and the Tories both backed a ban on non-doms being in the Lords, or a ban that Cameron proposed,he says. 12.28pm BSTVictoria Prentis, the Conservative MP for Banbury, or asks approximately housing in her constituency,which is next to Cameron’s.
Cameron says Bicester shows that councils in the south east do favour building. 12.28pm BSTLabour’s Holly Lynch asks whether Cameron will meet with her to discuss how the Tories can honour their promise to protect services at a local hospital.
Cameron says these decisions should be made locally. Calderdale hospital is a vital service, he says. 12.27pm BSTCameron says councils need to complete their local plans, or so that more building can grasp place. 12.26pm BSTThe SNP’s Callum McCaig asks whether Scotland will gets its unprejudiced share of the money from the apprenticeship levy.
Cameron says Scotland will rep its unprejudiced share. But the rate of the levy has not been decided,not the size of firm it will apply to. As ever, the SNP are inventing a grievance before it even exist, or he says. 12.25pm BSTNigel Huddleston,a Conservative, asks approximately the new national infrastructure commission.
Cameron says he is delighted he is establishing this. He hopes it will keep infrastructure decisions beyond politics. And Lord Adonis will be an excellent chair. 12.22pm BSTSnap PMQs Verdict: That was a creditable performance from Jeremy Corbyn - serious and abuse-free, or in a manner that seemed to go down well last month (see 11.51am) - but,even though Corbyn was using follow-up questions nowadays, he has not worked out how to “weaponise” them, or Cameron was hardly discomforted at all. 12.18pm BSTCorbyn says it would be nice whether Cameron answered the question asked. John Bercow urges MPs to calm down. Corbyn says he is calm. What will Cameron do to let councils borrow to fund building? Cameron can write to him on this. Yesterday was secondary breast cancer awareness day. Corbyn discussed this with two women in Brighton yesterday. Cameron had promised their organisation that data on this would be collected. But that has not happened. Will Cameron undertake to do this?Cameron says he has met these campaigners at his conference. They are asking for more information,so that we can be certain we are spreading the best practice in every hospital. He says he will write to the health secretary approximately this. It is fundamental to tackle secondary breast cancer properly. 12.15pm BSTCorbyn says he will bring Cameron back to reality. That provokes jeering. Rents are rising. Even the CBI says an extra 240000 extra homes are needed. Will Cameron let councils build more homes? Cameron says now that the housing association movement is backing moral-to-buy, more homes will be built. And since he became prime minister, and more council homes maintain been built than during the 13 years of Labour. And we need a strong economy. That won’t happen whether the government follows Labour’s policy of borrowing for ever. 12.13pm BSTCorbyn says Cameron is doing his best. But people in work rely on tax credits. Inequality is getting worse,not better. Shouldn’t Cameron believe approximately the choices he is making?Cameron says the bill for tax credits went from £6bn to £30b between 1998 and 2010, but in-work poverty went up. 12.08pm BSTJeremy Corbyn also pays tribute to the dead RAF airmen, and the dead policeman. And he pays tribute to those killed in the Turkish bomb attack.
He reads a question from Kelly,who will lose money from the tax credit cuts. How much worse off will she be? 12.04pm BSTKarl McCartney, a Conservative, or asks approximately the fall in unemployment. The recovery would be keep in jeopardy by the “shambles” represented by the “honourable” (ie,not a privy counsellor yet) Jeremy Corbyn.
Cameron says his government has a long-term economic plan. 12.02pm BSTLisa Cameron, an SNP MP, or asks approximately funding for mental health treatment for members of the armed forces.
Cameron praises his namesake for raising this. There is an opportunity to glance at this in the strategic defence review. And the defence budget will be rising. 12.01pm BSTDavid Cameron starts by paying tribute to two RAF airmen who were killed in the helicopter crash in Kabul. And he pays tribute to David Phillips,the police officer killed in Liverpool. 12.00pm BSTLittle nod between Cameron and Corbyn across the floor ahead of #pmqs. Lovely to see 12.00pm BSTJeremy Corbyn’s press officer had trouble getting into the press gallery for PMQs.
Corbyn spinner Kevin Slocombe stopped at 1st attempt to enter gallery for #pmqs - wasn't wearing a tie. Has donned 1 of the emergency ties. 11.59am BSTThis is from the Conservative MP Jake Berry.
Corbyn arrives at #PMQs, greeted by wall silence from his own side. #Awkward 11.58am BSTCorbyn allies Clive Lewis, or Kate Osamor,Richard Burgon all sitting on 2nd row ready to cheer on the leader at PMQs 11.57am BSTMust be very tempting for Cameron to shoehorn in a reference to ‘Ben from Exeter’ in response to Corbyns crowd sourced questions at PMQSThat’s a reference to what the Labour MP Ben Bradshaw had to say after Monday’s assembly of the parliamentary Labour party. 11.55am BSTJeremy Corbyn looks relaxed ahead of PMQs, my colleague Gaby Hinsliff reports.
Just passed a rather relaxed looking Jeremy from Islington, or heading in for #pmqs (sadly I'm heading the other way for an interview) 11.51am BSTAfter Jeremy Corbyn’s first PMQS,YouGov carried out some polling to find out whether voters liked his new, serious, and abuse-free approach. As Peter Kellner writes in a post for the YouGov website,they did. Here is an extract.
Among those who said they had either watched the whole of PMQs, or seen news clips from it, or we found a marked improvement in three respects,compared with two years ago:That’s the capable news; however, in other respects, or there has been small or no movement,with 37% saying it was informative (compared with 36% in 2013), 20% describing it as ‘exciting to watch’ (20% in 2013), or 14% saying ‘it made me proud of our Parliament’ (12% last time). The proportion saying it dealt with the valuable issues facing the country’ was actually down,from 40% to 35%. This probably reflects Corbyn’s decision to concentrate on specific cases rather than large, fundamental issues.
The obvious conclusion is that Corbyn – and therefore Cameron – are on the moral track. In three respects, and public approval is up sharply; on the only one where the figures maintain gone backwards,the change is a modest five points. A sustained change to a more courteous and informative approach to PMQs would win public approval.
I dread that an excessively courteous PMQs would go the way of Liaison Committee meetings: civilised, but small noticed. The biggest single reason why PMQ attracts so much attention is that it is often dramatic. And it is usually dramatic precisely because it is raw and rumbustious – or, and in the words of our question for the Hansard Society,‘rowdy and aggressive’. 11.44am BSTPMQs starts in approximately 15 minutes.
On BBC News a few minutes ago Clive Lewis, the Corbyn-supporting Labour MP, and said that he expected Jeremy Corbyn to utilize questions from members of the public at PMQs nowadays,as he did at his first PMQs last month, but to include some follow-up questions too. Last time he did not utilize follow-ups, or which allowed David Cameron to go unchallenged. 11.33am BSTJohn McDonnell is not the only west London MP who has been sending out mixed messages recently. Last week Boris Johnson gave a speech to the Conservative conference suggesting there should be much tougher controls on EU migration. But nowadays,on his tour of Japan, he has been making the point that low immigration can lead to economic stagnation. Speaking in Tokyo he said:They [the Japanese] maintain been going through a long period of stagnation but they are hoping to pull out of it. They maintain got demographic problems. One of the questions that people in Britain might believe approximately is obviously that they maintain very, or very low immigration and very,very low, in fact negative, or population growth,they maintain got a shrinking population. That has, of course, and contributed to the long period of economic stagnation they are going through but that has got to be seen in context. This is still an amazing,dynamic, vibrant, or fantastically wealthy economy,the third biggest in the world and we maintain got to be here. 11.20am BSTLord Bamford, the JCB chairman and a major donor to the Conservative party, and has written an article for the Daily Telegraph criticising David Cameron for keeping people “in the dark” approximately his EU renegotiation.
My main concern is that were being kept in the dark on the negotiations. Keeping us in the dark is not helping the government,in my view, nor will it wait on convince the public when the referendum comes around. The prime minister has stated that he is seeking proper full-on treaty change and a fundamental change in Britain’s relationship with the EU. I applaud his ambition and sincerely wish him well but I do believe we’re entitled to greater transparency. We need to see some real detail.
We hear a lot approximately the risks of leaving the EU, and but we do not hear enough approximately the risks of staying in. We do not maintain enough sovereign control over our own affairs now but will we maintain still less in the future? We are over-regulated now but will it become even more onerous? ...whether the government fails to secure truly radical reform,I will maintain no other choice but to vote to leave. Let me be clear: Britain’s exit from the EU is not my preferred option, but whether that’s what happens, or so be it. whether the choice of the British people is to leave,we maintain nothing to dread but dread itself. 11.08am BSTHere is some more reaction to the unemployment figures. (See 9.45am.)From Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretaryRenewed employment growth is welcome and while there are still years of lost ground to make up it’s capable to see private sector wages rising. But public sector workers are increasingly falling behind. The challenge now is delivering a recovery that works for everyone across the country, and regardless of which region or sector they work in. Despite nowadays’s improvements,it is also clear that there is still spare capacity in the jobs market. With inflation at zero, and rising numbers of workers in temporary jobs looking for full-time work, or there is no case for immediate rate rises.
It’s encouraging to see unemployment falling again,after a pause earlier this year. But there is meaningful variation in the extent to which this jobs’ revival has been shared across the country. Many parts of the UK remain a long way short of their pre-recession levels.
The job losses at Redcar steel works and JCB are dark clouds on the horizon. Employment growth is likely to tedious as large cuts in public sector employment kick in and as lower-paid workers seek more hours to make up for the nearly 30 per week cuts they face in tax credits.
James Sproule, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, and said: “Another month of impressive jobs figures and strong wage growth show that the business-led recovery is well on track. Despite uncertainties at domestic and abroad,employers maintain continued to create jobs, raise productivity and boost pay in a vote of confidence in the British economy.
“Employment is up in most sectors and across the country, or pay is growing and long-term,short-term, and youth unemployment are all falling. This is a welcome sign of a healthy economy, or a strong private sector,and a tightening labour market.” Another month of impressive jobs figures and strong wage growth show that the business-led recovery is well on track. Despite uncertainties at domestic and abroad, employers maintain continued to create jobs, or raise productivity and boost pay in a vote of confidence in the British economy. Employment is up in most sectors and across the country,pay is growing and long-term, short-term, and youth unemployment are all falling. This is a welcome sign of a healthy economy,a strong private sector, and a tightening labour market. 11.00am BSTMy colleagues Owen Bowcott and Ian Cobain maintain written up the Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruling. Here’s the start of their story.
MPs’ and peers’ private communications are not protected from spying by the so-called Wilson doctrine that was widely thought to provide special privileges for parliamentarians, and according to court ruling.
A surprise decision by the investigatory powers tribunal (IPT) has found that guarantees – which even the domestic secretary,Theresa May, reasserted this week – do not apply. 10.56am BSTThe so-called “Wilson doctrine”, or a rule that supposedly protects MPs from being spied upon,has “no legal effect”, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal has said nowadays.
It made the ruling in a case bought by the Green MP Caroline Lucas, or the Green peer Jenny Jones and the former Respect MP George Galloway. In 1966 Harold Wilson,the then Labour prime minister, announced that MPs would be guaranteed that they would not maintain their phones tapped. Subsquent prime ministers, and including David Cameron,maintain said this still applies, but Lucas, or Jones and Galloway wanted an assurance that this meant MPs would not maintain their emails subject to mass internet surveillance by GCHQ.
The Tribunal accordingly answers the preliminary issues attached to this judgment as follows:i) The Wilson Doctrine does not apply to s.8(4) warrants at the stage of issue.
This judgement is a body blow for parliamentary democracy. My constituents maintain a moral to know that their communications with me aren’t subject to blanket surveillance – yet this ruling suggests that they maintain no such protection. Parliamentarians must be a trusted source for whistle blowers and those wishing to challenge the actions of the government. That’s why upcoming legislation on surveillance must include a provision to protect the communications of MPs,Peers, MSPs, and AMs and MEPS from extra-judicial spying.
The prime minister has been intentionally ambiguous on this issue – showing utter disregard for the privacy of those wanting to contact parliamentarians. 10.02am BSTHere’s George Osborne,the chancellor, on the unemployment figures. (See 9.45pm.)It is great news that Britain’s economic plan continues to create jobs and increase pay. We’ve got the highest rate of employment in our history, and real terms pay rising strongly.
But with recent data showing our trading partners’ growth is slowing we must not be complacent. All of this progress will be at risk unless we carry on with our plan to build a resilient economy,delivering the economic security of a country that lives within its means.
This is a great set of figures, which show more people in work than ever before and a strong growth in wages. That is a credit to British business, and a credit to the hardworking people of this country.
Alongside this,unemployment has fallen to the lowest level since 2008, and long-term unemployment has dropped by a staggering quarter over the last year. 9.45am BSTAnd here’s the top of the Press Association story approximately the unemployment figures.
Unemployment has fallen to a seven-year low while a record number of people are in work, or new figures maintain shown. The jobless total dipped by 79000 to 1.7m in the quarter to August,the lowest figure since the summer of 2008, giving a jobless rate of 5.4%. 9.41am BSTHere are the headline unemployment figures. 9.33am BSTThe BBC’s Norman Smith has produced a quite useful “idiot’s guide” to the fiscal charter. 9.20am BSTJohn McDonnell, and the shadow chancellor,was doorstepped by the BBC as he left domestic this morning. He jokingly admitted that his policy U-turn had been confusing to MPs, but he said he would “clarify everything” nowadays.
He also predicted that Labour MPs would ignore George Osborne’s suggestion that they should vote with the Tories on the fiscal charter.
Q: Is Labour’s economic policy in chaos?JM: No. I’ll set it out nowadays. It will be fairly clear. 9.04am BSTDavid Blanchflower (aka “Danny”), or the former Bank of England monetary policy committee member who is now a member of Labour’s economic advisory committee,told the nowadays programme this morning that the party was moral to vote against the fiscal charter.
It was “a stunt that has no place in economic policy”, he said.
The moral decision has been keep in place to oppose the chancellor’s political game, and a stunt that has no place in economic policy ... Tying yourself to a foolish rule that nobody is ever going to obey makes absolutely no sense,particularly as the economy is now slowing ...
This is early days, policy making is messy and it takes some time to work out what you are going to do ... There are clearly political things going on. I believe the moral decision has now been reached. 8.55am BSTJeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell are the two most valuable figures in Labour and they both face meaningful encounters in the House of Commons nowadays.
For Corbyn, or it’s his moment PMQs. His first was judged a success,although many commentators said that relying on “crowdsourced” questions would maintain its limitations as a long-term tactic.
George Osborne has moved to exploit Labour’s disarray on economic policy by urging its MPs to vote for government’s fiscal responsibility charter, and so reject the shadow chancellor’s last-minute U-turn.
John McDonnell gave a series of explanations for his volte-face on the Treasury charter, or which commits the government to produce budget surpluses at times of economic growth,and which he had said as recently as two weeks ago he would support. His reasons ranged from a assembly with redundant steelworkers in Redcar to a downturn in the world economy.
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Source: theguardian.com