Published on March 7th, 2012 | by Sam Hargreaves
Image © [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="567" caption="Is Ed starting to turn things round? ©Anthony Beyga"][/caption] Every Wednesday the country has it’s confidence in politicians challenged by Prime Ministers Questions. It has become more about the personalities of the two politicians facing over the dispatch box than the constituents and the country they represent. It sadly takes a tragedy in Helmand to bring an element of sobriety to the session. The first ten minutes of the session were dominated by issues of defence policy, military covenant and Afghanistan. The debate was on the whole respectful. Business as usual continued once again after ten minutes. After three weeks of health dominating the questions both sides had run out of insults to throw at each other. They moved onto a subject which dominates the life of every voter, the economy. Such an important issue surely would yield an informed and reasoned debate. Unfortunately just as the werewolf turns into a savage beast when a full moon appears, when the clock strikes 12 on a Wednesday turns the average MP into shouting, paper waving machine. The next fifteen minutes were filled with what has been fairly standard sniping by Labour and Conservative MPs at each other. The only other distinctive development was one of style rather than one of substance. Milliband and Cameron appear to have altered their rhetorical styles. The Prime Minister throughout question time seemed easily irritated and used the personal examples of having raised a child with disabilities. Whereas Milliband has adopted a calmer more measured style of questioning, this gave the impression that Milliband was leading the PM. Best moment: The lack of heckling in the first ten minutes Worst moment: MP for Ayrshire referring to the SNP as ‘nats’ and ‘separatists’ bad omen for the style of Independence referendum we shall see.