Great moment in Parliament

[TheNovice]

Cameron calling Ed Balls a 'muttering idiot' - classic!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/.../uk-politics-18174731

[Gromit]

Yes, AOG has been absent since sunday. Hope he is on his hols or something and he is OK.

[venator]

The problem with Parliament these days is television.

It's turned PM Questions into a comedy act, with the script writers competing for the best jibes.

[missnemesis]

I t wouldn't have been so bad if DC had made the remark then carried on with what he had to say but no, like all school bullies, he then turned to his underlings to make sure they were all suitably impressed with how clever he was being.

That kind of behavior is tragic in any grown man, let alone one who is supposed to be leading a country.

[Gromit]

Why do people persist in reiterating the lie that Labour would have signed us up to the Euro.

They had 13 years in power and they didn't do it. From the start of that period they said we would only join if it met certain criteria and if it was damaging Britain not being in the Eurozone. Neither of those conditions applied and we were quite happy not joining.

[venator]

Mandy, Gordon, Ed Tony et al were in favour.

They didn't do it only because they couldn't sell it to the country.

Gordon wanted to do it, and the famous conditions were dreamed up to make him look like a strong PM, which we now know to have been a travesty...

[lady-janine]

i always thought the reason we didn't join the Euro was because, first tony and gordo could not be guaranteed the title president of europe. nothing to do with what the rest of us might think about membership.

[venator]

President Tony and First Lady Cherie - would have put Berlusco and Sarko in the shade!

[lady-janine]

what a wonderful gang. such self-effacement ruling the roost.

[ludwig]

I don't think anyone actually said it was a particularly clever or witty remark did they?

What's notable about it is that it isn't. He lost his rag. He just about stopped short of calling him a tw4t - which would have been even better of course.

[Canary42]

When people have no valid response to a point in debate, they resort to diversionary personal insults. This merely shows up their incompetence.

[ludwig]

// When people have no valid response to a point in debate, they resort to diversionary personal insults. This merely shows up their incompetence. //

That's not what happened. Cameron was speaking, and Balls was muttering throughout it (he's moved on from the arm waving thing). Cameron lost his temper and snapped an unscripted insult at him.

I make it a 1 - 1 draw in the childish game, because Balls achieved his aim of winding the PM up until he snapped, but the laughter was so long, widespread and uproarious when he got called an idiot, that it evened up the score.

[Gromit]

// Conservative MPs are being sent weekly memos urging them to shout down Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, every time he rises to his feet to question David Cameron.
The emails, sent by one of the Prime Minister’s senior aides, ask them to provide a “protective wall of sound” against Opposition criticism. //

http://www.telegraph....eckling-campaign.html