PMs questions

A rather earnest PMs questions, with most of the questions from MPs focussing on how the credit crunch is going to impact on their constituents.

A recurring them was the issue of energy prices for the vulnerable to which the PM repeated his much favoured winter fuel allowances (probably not needed for those who spend the Summer somewhere warm).

Cameron tried again and again unsucessfully to try to and get GB to admit that he had not abolished boom and bust. I'm not sure what the strategy was here - it wasn't going to work, and Brown managed to weather the storm with one of his lists and even couldn't resist saying that we hadn't got 15% interest rates like in the Tory busts.

The minute Dennis Skinner got up, I knew that Osborne was in for a hit. Previously he had been was the victim of a shot across the bows from Clegg - a reference to the PM being "All at sea" quickly followed by "... but not on a luxury yacht"

Interesting that the Speaker chose Dennis Skinner to ask the PM a question - especially given his previous exocets launched against Osborne.

Skinner directed his main guns at the good ship Osborne, by asking Gordon for a rock solid assurance that whatever he has to do to clear the nation's debt, he would never ever meet a Russian billionaire to cadge the money.

Cameron tried to laugh it off, while Osborne looked as though he may have sprung a leak.

Altogether unsurprising from Skinner. But Gordon Brown responded by saying that it was a very serious matter and that he hoped it would be investigated.

Is there anything actually to investigate on Osborne? I don't think so. No money changed hands. He denies it. I still think that this will blow over and that Osborne will finish repairs to the hull in the next few days.

Newsnight on Gideon's day of woe

The lead item on Newsnight was predictably George Osborne's troubled day concerning yachts, donations and the like. A fairly accurate VT report then turned to a debate in the studio with Paxman and a trio of MPs from the main parties.

A complete waste of time. Paxman started by asking the panel whether they would have accepted hospitality aboard a yacht and it really didn't get much better than that...

Peter Lilley consistently - and correctly - maintained that Osborne had not done anything wrong and had denied the allegations. Norman Baker took a rather pious view of the whole situation and the Labour MP - whose name escapes me - spent most of the time rather smugly pointing out that this mess was Osborne's own fault for blabbing about Peter Mandelson in the first place...

An amazing 10 or so minutes was devoted to this non-discussion about what is, in all reality, a rather thin story. Even Jeremy declared "Well let's move on because we aren't getting anywhere here"


Next up was the coverage of Mervyn King's speech in Leeds. Paul Mason filed a decent report and then there was another panel discussion with Newsnight's shadow MPC. Ken Clarke spoke almost so much that Ruth Lea had little chance of getting a word in and seemed quite frustrated at some points by this. Jeremy seemed disinterested in chairing effectively. On the whole, too little time was given to the thoughts of the panel.

Perhaps they should have cut the Osborne story and just had the facts (as currently known) of the matter and left out the ridiculous panel discussion altogether.

Oligarchs, Osborne and a yacht

And just for added spice, Peter Mandelson is thrown into the mix.

This has all erupted today - in a letter to the Times from Nathaniel Rothschild. The letter alleges that George Osborne and a senior Conservative party fundraiser, Andrew Feldman, met with Oleg Deripaska - a Russian oligarch, and that the possibility of a £50,000 donation to the Conservative party was discussed.

This is a problem as it is illegal for political parties to take donations from non-UK citizens. George Osborne has today made a statement, "A very specific allegation has been made that we solicited a donation from Mr Deripaska and I want to make it absolutely clear that we neither asked for money nor did we receive money."



So what does Mandelson have to do with it?

A few weeks ago, there was some media interest in Mandelson accepting the hospitality of Deripaska on his yacht in Corfu. This was leaked to the press and there was a suggestion of a conflict of interest given Mandelson's role as EU trade commissioner.

What has also been doing the rounds is that Mandelson "dripped pure poison" to a senior member of the shadow cabinet about Gordon Brown. While Mandelson was EU trade commissioner, the papers treated it as interesting tittle-tattle. Only with his dramatic return to the cabinet and rapprochement with Brown did this then become newsworthy.

Nathaniel Rothschild has now written his very angry letter to the Times suggesting the paper concentrate on Osborne's activities rather than the paper's 'trivial obsession' with Mr Mandelson. It appears as though Rothschild is unhappy and believes that Osborne was responsible for the stories about Peter Mandelson.

So currently, Osborne is claiming one thing and Rothschild claiming another. I can see the lawyers doing well out of this if it carries on this way.


Perhaps Osborne should have joined Dave on his bucket and spade holiday in Cornwall?