All spin and no substance

    14 June Prime Ministers Questions
 

Mr. Hague: "Is not the real reason that the Government are in such chaos on the euro spelled out in the memo written by the right hon. Gentleman's chief guru, Philip Gould? It reads:

From Philip to Alastair.

Once again TB is pandering, lacking conviction, unable to hold to a position for more than a few weeks, lacking the guts to be able to tough it out . . . "     (there is an  interruption at this point)

 "The Honorable Members should listen; the Labour party spent a lot of money on that advice. It says:  TB . . . lacks conviction, he's all spin and presentation, he just says things to please people not because he believes them. TB has not delivered. He is out of touch.

Does TB agree with that, or is it just the rest of us? "

The Prime Minister: "If the right honorable Gentleman is not careful, I shall read out what focus groups say about him. I shall spare him that. (interruption)
I would have thought that the right hon. Gentleman would like to congratulate the Government on
delivery. Under this Government, there are now 978,000 more jobs in the economy.. 210,000 of them under the new deal,
which he is committed to scrapping."
 
 

Mr. Hague: "Change the subject when one is losing.. we all know that tactic. We would be delighted if the Prime Minister read out the comments of his focus groups because we could then ask for the whole document to be placed in the Library, and that would be very interesting.
Is not the truth now coming from some of Labour's own Back Benchers? The hon. Member for Stoke- on-Trent, Central  said that this Government is arrogant. It's all glitz.
The honorable Member for Cannock Chase said that  the Government's all presentation, it's missing the big picture.

They have joined the honorable Member for Liverpool, Walton  and the right honorable Member for Birkenhead in accurately describing the Government.

The Prime Minister started with every political advantage, and now he has squandered that advantage with spin, gimmick and a
failure to deliver. Is it not the case that he has run out of steam and is running out of time, and if he carries on like this he will be
run out of office?"

The Prime Minister: "Let us compare records on delivery. I have referred to the 1 million more jobs. We have halved
long term unemployment, 1 million people have been lifted out of poverty, there are 5,500 more nurses, and £6 billion has been spent on school buildings. What did the right hon. Gentleman do in office? The national debt doubled, crime doubled, child poverty trebled and pension poverty doubled.

The right hon. Gentleman challenged me to read out the comments of the focus groups, so I shall read their comments about him. They say he is "boring", "false", "he irritates me greatly", "pathetic", "drip", "non-entity", "no substance", "no personality", "no stage presence", "complete waste of time", "no policies" and, at the end,  very unimpressive team, particularly William Hague."