Sketchup
David Cameron's speech on health and safety was the highlight of Tuesday's parliamentary proceedings.
, the Tory leader's speech at the think-tank Policy Exchange was little more than a list of "'elf and safety gone mad" anecdotes:
"First we had the classic of the genre: the children who had to wear goggles to play conkers. This is an oldie but goody. I could hear the tut-tutting.
Ìý
"Then we had the trainee hairdressers who were not allowed scissors in the classroom. Tsk tsk."
Mr Cameron "clearly wants to be the thinking man's Jeremy Clarkson" on the basis of this speech. Mr Hoggart also raises the subject of Europe, usually the culprit when it comes to any talk about unwanted rules and regulations, and the likelihood of its work being undone in future:
"Cameron speaks as if this will be possible. I suspect it is akin to promising bacon butties for our brave lads in Afghanistan, just as soon as we can dispatch flying pigs over there."
Alan Johnson's performance in the Commons on the extradition of Gary McKinnon to the US for hacking into the Pentagon. He says the home secretary came up against a difficult audience, even among his own party's MPs:
"Mr Johnson joked that he had never been called 'spineless and brave in the same afternoon' but the House did not laugh. Instead there was just a rather sticky silence.
Ìý
"Mr Johnson's normal bloke-next-door routine was not working. His own backbenchers were unamused."
Yesterday in Parliament's Sean Curran agrees with this version of events:
"He'd lost the popularity contest in the Commons and few MPs were willing to be convinced by his arguments."the lack of any actual news in David Miliband's announcement on the British sailors being held by Iran:
"[T]he only thing to say is that there's nothing to say. Maybe David couldn't get Iran on the phone. Maybe everyone was off. Maybe when things happen out of the public glare they don't happen.
Ìý
"The Commons leapt to its role of scrutiny. Someone asked for an update. Miliband rose to say there was nothing updatable."
•
•
•
• Sean Curran | Yesterday in Parliament
•
