All had changed in the House of Commons yesterday as Cameron lambasted Labour
QUEEN ELIZABETH II, surrounded by all of the pageantry of the monarch, spoke for eight minutes yesterday as she laid out “my government’s” agenda for the next 18 months.
And they will need every day of it: a referendum on a new voting system, the roll-back of some of the personally intrusive legislation of the Labour years and welfare reforms are but the start of Conservative/Liberal Democrat ambitions.
Prime minister David Cameron, still coming to terms with his new role, ignored parliamentary etiquette on occasions as he addressed MPs; calling some of them “you”, rather than “he”, or “she”, as is laid down.
However, he did not forget the core rule for an incoming government: blame everything on one’s predecessor and keep doing it for as long as one can get away with it. Cameron lambasted Labour’s performance.
Referring to Labour’s acting leader Harriet Harman’s contribution, Cameron declared: “Not one word of apology for the appalling mess that has been left in this country. Nothing to say about leaving Britain with a deficit that is bigger than Greece’s.
“Not a single idea for getting to grips with it. Until they learn what they got so badly wrong I’m not sure people are going to listen to them again,” he said. Labour MPs put up a token resistance, but their heart was not in it.
Labour is in introspective mood as it decides who will take over from Gordon Brown and how it will refashion itself as the opposition after 13 years in power. And it is not yet quite sure of the answer it will find.
Pointing to the Conservative and Liberal Democrat backbenchers behind Cameron and Liberal Democrat deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, Harman scored some points of her own.
“While the happy couple are enjoying the thrill of the rose garden, the in-laws are saying they’re just not right for each other,” she said, adding that the coalition agreement had all the signs of “a political pre-nup”.
And those same Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, who have been enemies for far longer than they have been allies, are still coming to terms with their new-found alliance.
Former Conservative minister Peter Lilley amusingly wondered whether he should refer to a Liberal Democrat MP as “my honourable friend” or “my honourable partner”, but there was a barb behind the humour.
Partner, he said, implied an intimacy that surpassed even that of friendship, said Lilley, who was included by John Major as one of “the bastards” in the Tory ranks who made his life hell over the European Union.
In the end, Lilley settled for “my honourable ally”. However, Lilley made it clear – in feelings shared by most of his colleagues – that the time for friendships and alliances will end when it comes to voting reform.
Cameron has promised a referendum on the introduction of the Alternative Vote.
For the Liberal Democrats, it is the first step towards proportional representation.
For the Conservatives, it is already a step too far.