Prime Minister’s Question Time (PMQT) this week kicked off with the Prime Minister offering condolences to families of soldiers who have been killed in Afghanistan this week. A quick question from Labour backbencher Jamie Reed about banker’s bonuses enabled the Prime Minister to reel off measures taken by his government to moderate the behaviour of banks and reimburse the tax payer.

The real business began though as David Cameron asked a string of probing questions relating to the failings of the Mid-Staffordshire Hospital and why a public enquiry will not be held. Gordon Brown was typically robust in his reply, stating that the Health Secretary will report on the matter following PMQs, acknowledging that the failings were unacceptable, gave reassurances that those responsible will be not be let off lightly and went over what has already been achieved in terms of transparency and good health practice. This initial exchange perhaps looked better for Mr Brown than it did for Mr Cameron, because the tough minded nature of his response demonstrated not only that his understood the issue, but that action was being taken to ensure that there would be no repeat. However, Mr Cameron seemed only to use the issue of Mid-Staffordshire Hospital to move the debate on to a strong suit of his, transparency in government. As a party in opposition for thirteen years, the Conservative’s have the luxury of being able to look in on government and criticise practice. The subsequent question related to the story that Mr Brown had instructed his aides to brief against his Chancellor, Alastair Darling. In two swift sentences, Mr Brown both denied the story and expertly shifted the debate towards the economy with the slick, “This is the nearest he has ever got to talking about the economy in the last few months”. Worryingly perhaps for Mr Brown this brought laughter from both sides of the House, demonstrating that Conservative MPs were incredulous at the thought that Mr. Brown still believes he is winning the economy debate. This very same point was then picked up on by Mr Cameron who listed how Labour has “brought the country to its knees” before reverting back to asking why “The Prime Minister and the Chancellor [are] at war with each other?”. Doing all they could to portray a friendly relationship between the two, Brown and Darling got so close Mr Cameron accused them nearly kissing, perhaps the soundbite of the day. The Prime Minister’s response was once again robust, flatly denying that he had instructed briefings against the Chancellor and going back once more to his line of economic attack. Amid mass barracking, derision and heckling the Speaker, John Bercow weighed into the debate with a snide remark about the allegations that members of staff in No. 10 had called a bullying helpline. The neutrality of the Speaker failed in this respect and he is obviously keen to keep in Mr Cameron’s good books for whatever reason. After one more back and forth about the relationship between No. 10 and the Treasury questions moved away from the Leader of the Opposition to other members. In all the questions asked by Mr Cameron went little deeper than populist appeals to media headlines, but were nevertheless effective in making Mr Brown look like he was on the defensive and avoiding answering straight questions. On the contrary Mr Brown’s tough, robust responses fed the image he is trying to create of a man of sense and reason, who is responsible to run the country as opposed to the politically naїve gunslinger across the dispatch box. The problem Labour will face is that this ‘politically naїve gunslinger’ could well ride into No. 10 on the back of anti-Brownite sentiment without having to express any real opinions.

In all  PMQs this week was won by Mr Cameron. Although it was a close run thing, the soundbites and quick thinking quips by the Leaderof the Opposition made him seem more personable than the sombre Mr Brown.