Nick Robinson's Newslog

The stakes are high

• Nick
• 30 Apr 08, 01:09 PM

Put aside the insults for a second - Cameron attacking Brown for putting political calculations ahead of the national interest and Brown attacking Cameron as a shallow salesman who never addresses the substance of issues - and today's Prime Minister's Questions generated a revealing preview of the great debate to come on extending detention without trial.

Gordon Brown's now boiled his case down to the precautionary argument - legislate at leisure now instead of in a panic during a terrorist emergency.

David Cameron's reply is that he agrees with the director of public prosecutions and the former attorney general and lord chancellor that there's no evidence of a need to extend detention without trial to 42 days.

Unlike on the 10p tax, the PM knows that the public is, largely, on his side on this one. He must hope that by being seen to press ahead in the face of possible defeat it will reinforce his message that he is doing what's right in the public interest rather than worrying about "headlines and gimmicks." David Cameron cannot, even if he wanted to, back off so the stakes are high - not just in terms of our national security but in the political positioning of these two men.

After tomorrow's elections and the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, the vote on 42 days is likely to be the next big defining moment in the struggle between these two men.

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Agony for the PM

• Nick
• 30 Apr 08, 09:48 AM

What, Nicky Campbell asked the prime minister, was the first thing you thought of this morning. Gordon Brown answered, as Nicky knew he would, with a list of the things he could do to protect us all from the credit crunch. The presenter of 5 Live's Breakfast programme quipped that listeners may have expected a more "human answer" before suggesting that people found "the lack of connection" difficult.

This exchange summed up the agony confronting the prime minister. He believes that he's taking "the right long term decision for Britain" but constantly finds himself quizzed as if he's in a psychiatrist's chair.

Gordon loathes talking about himself which seems merely to fuel the media's delight in doing just that. Whether you are on his or their side, the prime minister needs to find a way to move the national conversation away from himself to the things that he's doing in the job. Listening to questions - whether about the Olympic opening ceremony, or the 10p tax rate or what he does first thing in the morning - and answering them in fluent human is vital if he is to achieve that.

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