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BBC Politics

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Re: BBC Politics

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BBC Politics PMQ Analysis

The first time two new leaders face up at the dispatch box for Prime Minister’s Questions is always a big deal with high stakes, and the showdown between Mr. Manning and Mr. Milne is no exception. Both leaders had a degree of confidence from their parties shaken, Mr. Manning through the release of his scandal concerning his daughter, and from increasing pressure from the right-wing of the party to embrace their priorities, and Mr. Milne through the scandal of a different Mr. Milne with controversial views being appointed to the party’s senior staff.

Both leaders did an excellent job of shoring up confidence in their leadership in the minds of the people, but in different ways. Mr. Manning came across as a logical successor to Mr. Cameron, adopting many of the same tactics that we saw from Mr. Cameron in PMQs. Mr. Manning came armed with barbs and statistics to hype up the Conservative Party’s record, and skillfully avoided some of the tougher substantive questions that Mr. Milne put to him (particularly on crime) with spannable arguments and facts that play well with the British Public.

Mr. Milne scored some early punches in his questions on crime, doing an excellent job in tying the last Conservative-LibDem Coalition to massive cuts in police, and pointing out the relative absurdity of hiring only a fraction of the officers lost. Mr. Milne also provided exceedingly good sound bites that play well in left-wing media and to his base.

Unfortunately for Mr. Milne, much of his soundbites and points were buried in overly verbose questions. This didn’t matter for left-leaning media that could edit these soundbites, but in the live tug and pull of the actual questioning in Parliament, it did not deliver the “live punches” to throw off Mr. Manning that was intended.

Mr. Manning showed a Cameronite ability to take a hardball question and lob it back without answering it directly, but instead by delivering a bunch of self-congratulatory statistics and spin that plays well in the House--and it was exactly the performance he needed in the first PMQs of his premiership. His strong showing in the House has also likely hushed his critics--at least for now. Mr. Manning will, however, need to be careful of not making the same mistakes Cameron made in PMQs. Deflection works--but only to a point, and some of Mr. Milne’s points ringed through to the public (particularly about Crime) and if these issues remain unresolved, deflection may be less effective in the future.

The SNP questions, while landing some good hits in Scotland, did little to hurt Mr. Manning. In the position as the 3rd largest party in Parliament for the first time, the SNP will need to walk a difficult balancing act between landing hits in Scotland--and also holding the Government to account. While the former may do well for them in Scotland, it does little to harm the Government, and more often than not will provide the Government with the set-up they need to appeal to Unionists in the United Kingdom at large.

As for Mr. Milne, while he was not the star of PMQ’s, he delivered a solid performance that Labour will be happy with. That said, he could have delivered a much stronger performance had he made his questions more concise and focused and potentially thrown Mr. Manning off kilter before delivering a knockout punch. While this PMQs was by no means a defeat for Mr. Milne or a decisive victory for Mr. Manning, there were missed opportunities for Labour that allowed the Tories to ultimately pull off the day.

It is also worth noting the team coordination of the Conservatives in lobbing several friendly questions to their leader that he was able to further use to his advantage to ensure he had the upper hand in PMQs. While the public is never particularly impressed with great answers to softball questions, Mr. Manning used these softballs as yet more soundbites to promote the coalition, and increased confidence in his premiership within the party. Labour would do well to follow the Tories’ example by showing up to PMQs and asking questions--and trying to give their leader an “assist” as the Tories managed to do.

Overall, this was a strong showing for Mr. Manning and a slight Tory Win just when he needed it most--but was by no means a loss for Labour and Mr. Milne, who also made a solid showing to the public.
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Re: BBC Politics

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BBC Politics PMQ Analysis

Mr. Milne’s first appearance at PMQ as Prime Minister went well for him, a welcome result for the Prime Minister after a lackluster performance during the leader debate during the General Election. Mr. Milne embraced the idea of “less is more”, often to his benefit.

Patricia Carmichael’s first PMQs in opposition did not go as smoothly for her. While there were no disasters in her questioning and she had many good points in her questions, she tried to do too much at once, hiding salient points in her long, meandering questions, that made it difficult (if not impossible) for the average member of the public–-or even some of the nerds watching Parliament TV–-to follow all her points and what she was getting at.

This all played to Mr. Milne’s benefit, allowing him to pick the portions of the questions he wanted to answer, and to ignore the rest–without seeming like he was avoiding the question–-for the average listener had long forgotten all of the points laid out in the essay put forward by the Leader of the Opposition.

Despite Patricia Carmichael not hitting her points home due to very long questions, she did have some good points that Mr. Milne didn’t answer–-but didn’t hit him succinctly in follow-ups. This should be of some concern to Mr. Milne, and an indication that he does need to step up his performance in PMQs as he is likely to be asked similar tough questions in future–and if these questions were asked in a more direct way with more direct follow up, the result of last night’s PMQs could have been different.

Perhaps the most interesting backbench question came from the Liberal Democrat, David Hadleigh, whose question about Right to Buy hits a chord with many in the United Kingdom–and the Prime Minister’s reply did not quell concerns from that corner. Labour will need to consider its approach to this issue in more detail moving forward, and this issue represents an interesting opportunity for the Opposition to hammer the Government on this issue.

On the whole, this was a win for Mr. Milne, which he sorely needed, given the precarious position of his Government in the Parliamentary numbers and helped to boost his image slightly when he needed it--but this was less of a win because of Mr. Milne giving a stellar performance than it was a win because the people watching it had trouble following Carmichael's points. Patricia Carmichael will want to work on refining her tactics at the next PMQs, but should take consolation in the fact that the substance of what she’s trying to get at is sound–she just needs to work on delivering a more concise and punchy delivery to make those points stick–and stick Mr. Milne down in them. "Less is more" are words to live by--not just for the Leaders, but by Ministers and Shadow Ministers also.
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Re: BBC Politics

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BBC Politics PMQs Analysis

Another Wednesday in UK politics means another Prime Minister's Questions. This time, Prime Minister Milne faced off for the first time against new Conservative Leader William Frost. This PMQs was noted for being light on questions (OOC: submit more questions, folks!). However, some in the press gallery liked the speed with which it finished.

The theme of this PMQs is "choices". Mr Croft made an interesting choice to focus his six questions on the trial of safe injection sites in Blackpool. This was a risk. On the whole, it likely didn't pay off. That's not to say focusing on this was a bad strategy. However, Mr Croft likely could have focused three questions on this particular issue and gotten the same benefit rather than six. That said, there are certainly times when spending six questions on a single issue is warranted. This likely just wasn't it. Given the many other issues plaguing the government, there are likely other issues that could have been more effectively used by Mr Croft.

That brings us to the main event itself. It was boring. Such is the nature of focusing on a trial. Mr Croft tried sneaking in some one liners, but it is very difficult to tell what those one liners actually mean. At some points, Mr Croft had a good question, such as focusing on homes and businesses next to injection sites. However, his pivot away from those points, particularly in light of a weaker answer from the Prime Minister, was not the best strategic move. The pivot to questions about process was also not sound. People don't care about process (unless it's a horrendous national scandal, such as hosting parties during lockdown and being investigated by the police).

The Prime Minister, in places, had a useful strategy of pivoting back to the failures of the Conservative government or the lack of policies put forward by the Conservatives, who seem to have no answer on drug reform - despite knowing that this report was coming for some time. He rightly batted away some of Mr Croft's questions, which likely seemed a bit over-dramatic in the context of a trial. And he certainly batted away questions that were process focused. But on the numerous occasions where he had the opportunity to turn the tables on Mr Croft, he didn't. That was a clear miss.

In terms of the political ramifications of this PMQs, the readers of the Mail, the Express, and the Sun are likely to be alarmed at the government's actions. But they were likely alarmed at just about everything this government was doing in the first place. So that's a status quo effect. Meanwhile, on the left wing, the Guardian, the Mirror, and co. aren't hailing the Prime Minister's performance, but they do note that he's nice and competent. Which isn't a bad thing. Some, of course, might wish that Mr Milne had the flair of Mr Blair in responding during PMQs.

There are some warnings that are starting to be made clear though. People would like to see more energy and more effort to be confrontational from Mr Milne. Especially given Mr Frost's rather reviled persona on the left. Mr Frost, however, might need to tone it down. His constant proclamations of absolute disaster set to befall the United Kingdom risks having him appear as a Chicken Little-like figure. The press is starting to notice that. It would certainly not be good if they started reporting it.

The balance is that this is not a Conservative win. In the world of PMQs, this makes it a government win by default. That said, this isn't a resounding government win, it's a proxy win. The Prime Minister had a lot of opportunities to spike the ball back at Mr Croft and either missed them or chose not to. People hope for a little more spice the next time around.
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