PMQs: Ed said this, Dave said that, and life carries on
With a nice long break for Christmas you'd think Ed Miliband and David Cameron could have come up with something a little more interesting than the same old rows, writes political blogger Daniel Wainwright.
For anyone not familiar with the format, it goes something like this:
The Tories, and by association the Liberal Democrats, get accused of caring only about the rich.
Labour gets accused of having spent all our money during its 13 years in power and having no ideas on the economy.
And so it was with another round of the bad-tempered debate over the one per cent increase in welfare, which Labour says is not enough.
The Prime Minister said: "These are difficult decisions and they should be made in the context that benefits over the past five years have gone up 20 per cent and that average earnings went up 10 per cent."
There was a dig over the cuts to child benefit, which will see people earning over £50,000 a year gradually stripped of the payments.
Mr Cameron said: "Eighty five per cent of families who receive child benefit will go on getting that.
"But is it right that people who earn £20,000 or £30,000 should go on giving it to people who earn £60,000 or more?"
Accused later on of being 'unfair' he added: "We are being fair because we are restricting the increase on tax credits and public sector pay but we're asking the same of those on welfare."
There was a question from Warley MP John Spellar, who wanted to raise the old chestnut of fox hunting.
"Isn't a clear example at how out of touch this PM is that while the overwhelming majority of the public want to maintain the ban on fox-hunting, he wants to repeal it?"
The Prime Minister said: "I've never broken the law and the only red pests I want to pursue are in this house."
Woah, Dave, where did that come from? Who said anything about breaking the law? There was something in the press about his local hunt being guilty of breaking the law but that was about it.
Ed Miliband wanted to focus on Mr Cameron and Nick Clegg's umpteenth renewal of their coalition vows and asked why the audit of 'broken promises' was yet to be published.
"Was it his decision not to publish the audit because it would overshadow favourable coverage?" he asked.
Mr Cameron replied: "It's my decision that it's being published this afternoon. Is this really the best he can do?
"He's had a week sitting in the Canary Islands with nothing else to think of."
