Cameron on Brown (part 2)

BBC 5-Live faithfully carried all of Gordon Brown's speech before leaving the Chamber before David Cameron spoke; after all why allow the plebs to hear anyone question the "Dear Leader"? So for the record Conservative Home carry what David Cameron said, here's a few excerpts:

"The Prime Minister talks about Building Britain's Future. But isn't it time the British people were asked whether they want him to be part of it? No recognition in that statement that they've been in office for 12 years; No recognition of the catastrophic state of the public finances. The Prime Minister is living in a dream world in which spending is going up, investment is going up, infrastructure is being boosted. When is someone going to tell him that he's run out of money? He talks for instance about housing. Let me just give him one figure. Housebuilding today is at the lowest level since 1947. People are entitled to ask simply what world he is living in. Mr Speaker, I expect, like me, you will be thinking you have heard a lot of that statement before. And that's not just because the Prime Minister ignored your injunction and leaked most of it in advance. It's because we have heard most of it before. How many times has the country been told to expect the Prime Minister's vision? How many times has it been told to expect a string of policy announcements that was going to be bold reform?

Every single re-launch collapses. And today didn't it happen more quickly than usual? At 7.50am, Peter Mandelson took to the airwaves and promptly sunk the whole thing by cancelling the Government's spending review. So isn't what we have today a package without a price tag? It is just a combination of rehashed initiatives, ideas taken from the Opposition, and some timid and bureaucratic top-down tinkering."

"Much of the rest of this programme is just rehashed from previous years. The simplification of our immigration rules. That was announced in last year's programme. The Floods Bill. That was recommended in 2007, announced in 2008, and re-announced again this morning in 2009. One-to-one tuition. The NHS check-ups. Both announced last year. The Constitutional Renewal Bill. That is back for the third time in a row. This time apparently it's going to include Lords reform. But the Prime Minister hasn't been reforming the Lords; he's been stuffing it with his cronies. It's the one area of employment in Britain that's rising."

"To listen to his statement you would think the Treasury was rolling in money. When is someone going to tell him it has run out? Let me read out what the OECD said just this morning. They say the Government has got to be more 'ambitious' and more 'explicit' about the need for spending cuts. The OECD is joining a growing list - from the IFS to the Governor of the Bank of England and frankly half his Cabinet in private - who admit he has got to be straight with people on spending.

So let me just ask the Prime Minister this very simple question. Will there be a spending review before the General Election? This morning the First Secretary said there wouldn't, and then the Treasury said there might be. Who speaks for the Government? Any household or company faced with this level of debt would start to get it under control. Isn't it essential to start reviewing spending now?

If the first big failure of today's announcement is the lack of honesty on spending, the second failure is surely a lack of real reform of our public services. I suppose we should be grateful for one thing. Year after year this Government and this Prime Minister has promoted and defended its targets culture. Today, they have finally admitted they were wrong all along. But make no mistake: these proposals are about top-down bureaucratic tinkering, not real freedom."

Coruscating stuff and not surprisingly not mentioned on the BBC website where the Politics page's top story and follow-ups are:

"Housing tops Brown's policy plans
Gordon Brown proposes rules to let councils give more priority to local people, as he sets out his programme for the next year.
At-a-glance: Draft programme
Nick Robinson: A manifesto?
Watch Brown unveil plans"

The BBC supporting Gordon Brown and keeping David Cameron out of the headlights except when he can be attacked. Why do we have to pay for this bias?