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PMQs - The verdict
Daniel Forman
All eyes were on Sir Menzies Campbell, acting Liberal Democrat leader and candidate for the job permanently, at prime minister's questions today.
He rose to his feet to loud Labour and Tory cheers/jeers for the first of his two allotted questions. Part of the problem for the Lib Dems at PMQs is the combined weight of the alliance of MPs against them and many times it got the better of Charles Kennedy.
But Sir Menzies is an accomplished Commons performer - indeed the contrast with Kennedy in this respect is a central tenet of his campaign, with the Lib Dems usually getting so little attention elsewhere - and he managed to compose himself by wishing his hecklers a happy new year and paying tribute to recently deceased former MPs Rachel Squire and Tony Banks.
And, despite promising not to exploit his interim leadership for electoral gain, the foreign affairs spokesman did attempt to show MPs and activists that he can do domestic as well as international affairs.
Recent reports had shown government education, health and police policies were all failing, Sir Menzies suggested. "Why is the government making such a mess of public service reform?"
Blair asked for a more "balanced" account, listing Labour's public service achievements.
Then 'Ming' made his big mistake. If balance was what he was after, he asked, "why do one in five schools not have a permanent headteacher?"
Not, on reflection, the most appropriate point for the acting leader of a political party without a permanent head to make, as MPs on all sides sought to remind him.
Sir Menzies did have the grace to acknowledge he was having "one of those days", but probably compounded his error by pressing on with a premeditated soundbite about "Blairism" suffering from "centralism".
Free now to retaliate in full, the prime minister rubbed it in. "It can be difficult to find a head of an organisation," he pointed out. "Particularly if it is a failing organisation."
On the policy point, he asked why the Lib Dems were opposing his plans for more school and hospital independence if they were so keen on devolution.
Later, at David Cameron's prompting in fact, Blair did welcome Sir Menzies to his new position, an endorsement he signalled he could probably do without.
So Blair offered the same welcome to Lib Dem president Simon Hughes, not yet a candidate but expected to be so soon and sat next to Sir Menzies, in "whatever position it is he occupies".
Imaginatively claiming Hughes was now backing Labour health policy, he said he would "start backing him rather than the other one".
As Hughes also indicated that that backing would be the kiss of death, Blair said there was "no end to the Liberal Democrat careers I could sacrifice today".
"Where's the other one?" he asked, referring to the absent third leadership contender Mark Oaten.
Statesman Cameron?
In contrast with Campbell's domestic assault, Cameron tried the opposite tack, trying to project himself as a statesman by focussing on international issues - Iran and Aids - in his consensual style.
By the time of the next election the leader of the Opposition needs to show he is a prime minister in waiting and able to match the gravitas of Gordon Brown and possibly Sir Menzies on the international stage.
But Blair was keen not to agree with everything the Conservative said, not least to keep his MPs happy, many of whom thought Cameron's call for more "pluralism and liberalism" in Iran a bit rich.
However he went much further than Cameron in his language on Iran and its nuclear programme, calling it "malign" and not ruling anything out in response to the latest nuclear developments.
The prime minister also sought to rebut Cameron's call for the government to "do more" on combating Aids.
"I need absolutely no instructions from him or anyone else," he said, pointing out that "this country has led the way" on international development under his and Brown's stewardship.
Blair also raised a laugh when he said that "it would be hard for me to set targets... for other countries". NHS managers may now be more inclined to move abroad, but perhaps not to Tehran.
The verdict
Blair: 8/10 - Strong start to the new year but keeps forgetting his courtesies
Cameron: 7/10 - A bit boring but so far managing to stick to his relatively consensual style
Campbell: 4/10 - By his own high standards, abysmal
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Published: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 14:18:15 GMT+00
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