The week in politics: Peeved politicians have been far too snappish
It’s been an oddly fractious week in British politics. For some reason, our nation’s leaders simply haven’t been able to get along.
Topping the bill is the spat between Lib Dem energy secretary Chris Huhne and Sayeed Warsi, the Conservatives’ party chairman. Huhne may have taken it a bit far by comparing Baroness Warsi to Nazi propaganda chief Josef Goebbels – but then feelings always do run high when it comes to the Lib Dems and electoral reform.
Huhne compares Warsi to Goebbels
Huhne isn’t the only member of the Cabinet to lose his cool this week. After nearly half an hour of constant heckling by Ed Balls in PMQs, David Cameron finally turned his ire on the shadow chancellor by calling him “the most annoying person in modern politics”. Balls looked utterly taken aback by the sudden attack, while the Tory benches loved it.
Cameron brands Balls ‘most annoying person in politics’
A rather more passive aggressive kind of feud rumbled on this week at Ed Miliband’s AV launch. He lined up with the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Greens – but where was deputy prime minister Nick Clegg? Seeing as Miliband refused to share a stage with him, it turned out he had scarpered off to Mexico. In a fit of pique, perhaps, he delivered one of his more inspiring foreign policy speeches.
Clegg proclaims ‘axis of openness’ in Mexico
A rather odd footnote to all this came in the Commons this week, when Sir Gerald Kaufman apologised after saying “here we are, the Jews again”. Sir Gerald is himself Jewish, but expressed his regret “if any remarks I made in the chamber caused offence”.
Labour MP apologises for ‘Jew’ remark
In happier news, Ed Miliband announced his wedding on Wednesday morning, prompting the predictable slew of jokes in prime minister’s questions. Protests on Saturday against the cuts brought central London, briefly, into anarchy. Just a few days later, order was restored for a major diplomatic conference on Libya taking place in the capital. Thankfully, in public at least, there weren’t any arguments there.
Wedding season: Miliband sets the date
