The Last PMQs of Tony Blair
So it has finally happened. Blair has departed and Brown is in. As so often in politics, Prime Minister’s Questions was the focal point. The Chamber was packed, and I couldn’t find a seat. I stood in the gangway. I was tipped on the shoulder by a Labour whip and moved politely aside, only to see Quentin Davies being led forward to take his place behind Blair. Petty politics to the last. Even if - and it’s the biggest if possible - one could respect Davies’s reasons for crossing the floor, one has to wonder why people like him have to go the extra mile. If he meant what he said about the ties of friendship, why couldn’t he have simply said - “No, I’ve made my point, I won’t go into the Chamber?”
I was surrounded by Labour MPs, all of whom heckled Cameron. It’s always interesting when you hear someone like Cameron raise important issues - thousands losing their homes in a flood, or the Middle East - to hear grown men and women around you shout “pathetic”. Not to those affected by these issues.
A nice moment - when Cameron praised Blair and his family for surviving the tough times, Cherie, in the gallery, turned to Euan and said “That was nice”. Even Leo was there, and the family was sat next to the American ambassador - choreographed?
At the end the House rose and applauded. Apparently when Margaret Thatcher departed in the same arena, Labour hissed. Says it all, really.
gervaise said on July 3rd, 2007 at 12:42 pm:
Apparently the clapping was a carefully choreographed idea from your spinners, Ed. At least that’s what it said in Pendennis in The Observer. One of your lot told Armando Ianucci that they’d got the idea from his satire.