Here detailing my thoughts on PMQs for the 6th of January - albeit a few days late.
Karen Lumley kicks us off then with a jab at Corbyn not allowing Pat Mcfadden in the shadow cabinet supposedly for his comments on terrorist attacks.
Corbyn starts by questioning the PM on how well lessons of the floods of 2014 were learned, and Cameron bats this away well initially, citing that more money is available because of the strong economy they're running. In response Corbyn gets his teeth into Cameron looking at the cancelled flood defences in Leeds and he retorts by showing that in fact spending has gone up on flood defences. Over the next few questions, Cameron decides it's time to give the same answer three times, essentially repeating his answer to the Leeds issue on Cumbria and a warning from a professor. In the end it all comes back to Corbyn's dodgy economic policy and leadership.
Nadim Zahawi changes gear, inviting the PM to celebrate the 400th aniversary of the death of Shakespeare. Cameron pulls a few too many Shakespeare puns out of his arse, taking the piss out of Labour's reshuffle for the third time on the session.
Thankfully Angus Robertson is here to take control again - asking Cameron a question of why the Scottish doctors won't be striking next week (Today at the time of writing). Cameron responds pushing his ever ambiguous 7-day NHS plans. What I find interesting is that the amount of money going into the NHS from the tories is seemingly ever increasing. May last year saw Cameron pledge £8 Billion, then it was 10, now today I've heard 19.
The term Northern Powerhouse always makes me cringe. I'd like to see where Cameron considers 'The North'. Everywhere above Whitney perhaps?
Anna Turley with the classic strong Labour backbencher question - referencing the cuts despite money being 'no object'. In the past there have always been a few questions like this from backbench Labour MPs. Questions that are a bit faceceous but have an air of righteousness. I don't think I'm ever going to forget that Cameron has increased overall flood defence spending to 2.2 Billion ish. He's used that to bat away almost every funding question so far - effectively too.
Caroline Lucas steps up to ask the PMs commitment to greenhouse gas emission targets, and he cited some quite promising statistics. One being that 'the number of solar panels installed' is 98%. I'm not quite sure what that means. Can a number be 98%.
Ben Howlett sets up the PM with a figure of £313,000 going to the Foxhill Housing Zone. Of course, Cameron brings it back to people only building houses if a strong economy exists. He does it well, shifting the subject to favour him.
In the end, Cameron was impressive - I suppose the leader of the opposition always has it harder, but Cameron was hardly trouble here, even with some truly tough questions.
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