The House of Commons was suspended from 2.30 this afternoon as King Charles attended the unveiling of a new plaque commemorating Queen Elizabeth II lying in state. He could have arrived at midday and saved us all the trouble of a fairly dire PMQs.
The session began with brief acknowledgements from both party leaders following the death of what is now at least four people in the freezing Channel, after a small boat capsized in the early hours of this morning.
Sure, there was a statement by the home secretary to follow, but it seemed very much like the House was geared up to talk about strikes and a tragedy involving people who can’t vote in this country wasn’t going to change that. As if migration had been covered yesterday and asylum seekers should show a greater awareness of both parties’ media grids.
Even on the subjects that were discussed, the level of debate was practically subterranean. Keir Starmer asked why Rishi Sunak won’t choose nurses over non-doms. The prime minister suggested that Britain *in December 2022* would still be in lockdown had the leader of the opposition gotten his way. Good grief.
It was notable, I suppose, in an inside baseball sort of way, that Starmer chose for his sixth and final question to go on Ukraine, depriving Sunak of the advantage afforded to all prime ministers in PMQs which is to have the final word on a partisan subject. But that’s about it.
The news outside of the chamber wasn’t much brighter. Number 10 has revealed that the justice secretary and deputy prime minister is now facing five further complaints of bullying, taking the total to eight. On the Labour side, Clive Lewis has been slapped down by his party for comparing the use of holiday camps to house asylum seekers to a “concentration camp”.
If Britain’s politicians appeared capable of addressing our economic woes (inflation, falling living standards, public service decay) or failing that engaging with them, that would be one thing. But it wasn’t clear, at least from today’s evidence, that anyone was up for much of either.
Elsewhere in the paper, the headline rate of inflation fell to 10.7 per cent last month, down from a 42-year high of 11.1 per cent in October. That drop is likely to be deemed sufficient to allow interest rates to only rise by 50 basis points when the Monetary Policy Committee meets tomorrow, rather than a more aggressive 75.
But this overall figure masks some pretty extraordinary individual rises. Food and drink prices continue to soar, up 16.5 per cent, the highest since September 1977. Low fat milk — few people’s idea of a luxury good — is up 45.3 per cent. See here how everyday food items have risen in price in the past 12 months.
In the comment pages, Martha Gill says the Strep A nightmare shows we are sitting on an antibiotic time bomb. Ayesha Hazarika is allegedly turning 47, and has written a very funny piece about not growing older.
While Terry Ramsey pays tribute to Victor Lewis-Smith – “the most scathing, most dangerous and most insightful TV critic of his generation” – who died aged 65 on Saturday.
And finally, Metropolitan Police broke into Soho gallery Laz Emporium to help a woman slumped over a table – only to find it was a work of art.
