On the day Westminster became transfixed by the coarseness of Jared O’Mara (Lab, Sheffield Hallam), Philip Hammond and John McDonnell traded platitudes at Treasury questions.
They proved less exciting than Comrade O’Mara and his peculiar eructations. I wonder if there is something to be learned from that.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Hammond was possibly more animated than he usually is. At one point he criticised people who talk down the British economy. Which is, er, just what he has been accused of doing in recent weeks.
Has revolutionary Marxism ever been more boring than when presented at the dispatch box by John McDonnell, who somehow manages to be even duller than spreadsheet Phil
‘The UK economy is fundamentally sound,’ he said. ‘This country has a bright long-term future.’ There was more of it but that is probably sufficient to give you an idea of the, er, ground-breaking novelty and bombast with which he expressed himself.
Mr Hammond did not exactly twirl an umbrella as he said this, or whistle ‘Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah’, but at least he delivered it with a modicum of energy and managed to sound more upbeat than he has done in recent weeks. Maybe he realises how fed-up Downing Street has become with his morose hand-wringing?
His Labour shadow, Mr McDonnell, was if anything the more downbeat of the two yesterday. Sepulchral half-light descended on the Chamber when Mr McDonnell approached the despatch box and said how ‘crushingly disappointing’ it was that Mr Hammond had indicated that the Government was preparing for all outcomes on its Brexit talks with the EU.
More from Quentin Letts for the Daily Mail…
‘Expressions of hope of a deal are just not good enough,’ said Mr McDonnell, almost in a funereal whisper.
Has revolutionary Marxism ever been more boring? Has the gospel of radical socialism ever found a more plodding preacher? Here was John McDonnell, the man who as a backbencher once seized the Commons mace to make plain his fury at an Establishment stitch-up on Heathrow.
Yet now that he is Shadow Chancellor, he has become even more stultifyingly untheatrical than the circus’s great Stupendo of Tedium himself, Spreadsheet Phil.
Perhaps Mr McDonnell has taken the view that the way to win power in this country is to sound dull. It worked for Theresa May, he could argue.
Two other things to note from Treasury Questions. First, the Speaker interrupted proceedings to let everyone know that it was the 50th birthday of Esther McVey (Con, Tatton). It is a bold man who makes such things public.
Miss McVey smiled gamely and said ‘I am older and, I hope, wiser, and like all ladies who are at my age, I am just hitting my stride and coming of age’. I tip her for a ministerial comeback.
Second, we saw something of Liz Truss, newish Treasury Chief Secretary.
Hammond was possibly more animated in the House yesterday than he has been in recent weeks. Perhaps he sees how fed up we’ve all been getting?
Rachael Maskell (Lab/Co-Op, York C) had just honked about ‘the pay cap’ for state employees such as teachers. Miss Truss replied that last year teachers received, on average, a pay rise of 4.6 per cent. What a failure of Government communications that this figure, if true, is not trumpeted more.
Of Mr O’Mara there was no sign. Since toppling Nick Clegg in the election, the new Sheffield Hallam MP has made little impact in the House.
He has put down a handful of written questions, added his name to some early-day motions and done his party’s bidding in the voting divisions but I do not recall him uttering a word yet in the Chamber. Hansard offers no record of a maiden speech.
Will his first spoken word in the Commons be an apology? That would make Mr O’Mara a future quiz question, if nothing else.
Without wishing to embrace him as a brother in arms – I am not sure our Jared is a natural Mail reader – I wonder if it is entirely sensible to demand his resignation, as some did yesterday. He was elected only four months ago.
Although his comments are pretty dreadful, is it not possible that one reason he was elected was that he came across at the election as a more authentic personality than the Establishment’s sainted Cleggy?