• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
  • Guest Content
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home News Joes Sketch

Parliamentary sketch 17th June – Hi-vis Osborne leaves Labour opaque

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Today’s PMQs were considered, respectful and…boring. This might be what the public claim they want, but would they actually watch that every week? I mean who doesn’t tune in for live environmental, food and rural affairs questions with Liz Truss on BBC Parliament (Thurs 9.30am, as if you didn’t know). […]

Joe Mellor by Joe Mellor
2015-06-17 14:47
in Joes Sketch, News, Politics
Parliamentary Sketch

Politics is Great Britain

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor

Today’s PMQs were considered, respectful and…boring. This might be what the public claim they want, but would they actually watch that every week? I mean who doesn’t tune in for live environmental, food and rural affairs questions with Liz Truss on BBC Parliament (Thurs 9.30am, as if you didn’t know).

Hilary Benn stood in for, well, an empty space and Gideon took up the reins for the Tories. Perhaps they could have given the Labour leadership challengers a go at PMQs each week.  The PM could even introduce each one, this week we have “the crusty old lefty”, “the Tory”, “Ed Ball’s missus” and “the Health Sec during the Mid-Staffs scandal”.

The confrontational nature is what makes this session interesting to the wider public, and today it had the cut and thrust of a bring-and-buy sale, in Salisbury. Hilary Benn, Lab, is no firebrand like his late father, and delivered the questions like a tax accountant suffering with a recurrent back problem.

This was Gideon’s chance to shine and prove he has what it takes to be a PM, but Benn’s sober questioning about Islamic radicalisation, didn’t really give him any wriggle room. He even made a pre-written joke, which was misjudged due to the severity of the question he was asked, which was in fairly poor taste.

To be fair to Osborne, he was very well received by his own party and I promised myself I wasn’t going to make any poor drug puns or any snide remarks about alleged narcotic activities. It is cheap and childish, if he was going to try and be prime ministerial, so was I.

He finally got into his comfort zone when Benn finished his questions and got rubbed down by his osteopath. Nigel Huddleston, Con, asked a question about access to pensions, Gideon responded saying, “we need pension freedoms for people who have worked hard and saved all their lives…to be ripped off by investment cowboys, “ Ok, he didn’t say the last bit, but I will eat a Paddy Ashdown sized hat if it doesn’t happen.

Osborne went on to praise the “Northern Powerhouse,” on landing the world’s largest science experiment, and he wasn’t even talking about fracking, it was the decision to host the world’s largest radio telescope at Jodrell Bank near Manchester.

But the stand-in PM was asked a question about the controversial gas extraction process from Geraint Davies, Lab, who was concerned about the possibility of unsafe waste water. Gideon was resolute, “we shouldn’t turn our back on the jobs potential and all the other (tectonic) activity if it happened elsewhere in the world”. Again, he didn’t say the word tectonic and again, keep the hat on ice.

RelatedPosts

Truss to step back into political limelight

Bercow schools Nigel Farage over Brexit

Trans woman India Willoughby slams ‘1970s’ audience

Furious teacher puts Tory right into their place

What was strange is that for a man, who I assume was behind the “Long term economic plan” nonsense, he only managed to get “economic plan” out, on the two occasions when he tried to nail the famous slogan, which was rather odd.

Someone who doesn’t need an economic plan long or short is Richard Drax, Con, MP for South Dorset who appears so upper-class and has a surname that conjures up images medieval fiefdoms, you get the impression when he said today “in my constituency”, I assumed he actually owns the entire county.

Sycophantic question of the day

Richard Harrington, Con, who praised the number of apprenticeships in the UK only for Osborne to congratulate him on his recent appointment, as an apprenticeship advisor to the Government. He may as well have worn a badge or had a T-shirt made with this information on, I was quite embarrassed for him.

Winner

Gideon, he did OK, and he even got to brag about visiting a factory in Derby, and we know how much he loves to don the hi-vis, it must remind him of the warehouse raves he attended in the late 80s…oops, just goes to show I’m not prime ministerial, but then, let’s be honest, neither is he.

Content Protection by DMCA.com

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

Wales’ first minister “baffled” by people who support first-past-the-post elections

Famous man asks ‘am I being cancelled?’ in new prime-time show on national television

CBI chief: ‘You can’t turn baggage handlers into butchers overnight’

Man updated Tinder profile with pics of himself surrounded by toilet paper

Sir Keir Starmer vows to expose Boris Johnson and win back Labour voters who voted Tory

How to cost a house renovation

‘Pack your bongo and get out’: Australia orders deportation of Katie Hopkins

Truss cancels trip out of Westminster at the last minute

Blood pressure drug taken by thousands of Britons could combat Alzheimer’s disease

Photobooth set up to avoid hundreds of Dartmoor ponies being shot over new Brexit regulations

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Commercial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.