Miliband's Snowdrop PMQs - WalesOnline (blog)

The spectacle of an Oxfordshire Etonian Prime Minister reciting Robert Burns on the floor of the House of Commons might have been a wild attempt to charm the Scots out of any notion of independence.

But hearing David Cameron mock the SNP as a "wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie" could be enough to send tartan dragoons rushing south to rebuild Hadrian's Wall.

This should have been the most rotten of days to take Prime Minister's Questions with the economy contracting even faster than expected, the ghoulish spectre of a true recession looming across Britain, and the defeat of welfare proposals in the Lords a very recent memory. Mr Cameron's performance was well below par.

But, just as any tennis pro is capable of playing a lousy game which would still be better than anything the rest of us can ever muster, he was able to deflect Labour volleys and avoid serious bruising.

Llanelli MP Nia Griffith was first to take a shot and did so with gusto, asking why his Government's youth contract scheme had not started.

Her UK leader, Ed Miliband, then laid into the coalition's record on the economy, accusing the PM of "total arrogance" and "complacency".

Mr Cameron claimed Labour's strategy was "to deal with a debt crisis by borrowing more and adding to debt" - a line uses in various forms weekly.

The problem for Mr Miliband, who genuinely believes his sparring partner is arrogant and complacent, is that it is an attack-line which sticks and may be one reason why his own polling figures are disappointing verging on calamitous.

Mr Cameron is more vulnerable on his health reforms for England. While Mr Miliband was able to claim that "98% of GPs want the Bill withdrawn", Mr Cameron insisted that one in Doncaster was quite upbeat about the proposals.

"Let us be frank," Mr Miliband said. "This is a Bill that nobody wants. "It is opposed by doctors, nurses and patients. Before the election the Prime Minister said, 'No more top-down reorganisation.' Is it not time he kept at least one promise, put aside his pride and arrogance, and dropped this unnecessary and unwanted Bill?"

Snowdrops are already abloom in Britain, and in the House of Commons today there was a sense of seasons changing.

Mr Miliband claims the public are "fed up" with his "excuses" about the economy'; just as there came a point, fairly or not, when President Obama could no longer parcel the blame for America's economic woes on his predecessor, Mr Cameron may find the reek of recession no longer clings to Labour but has been transferred to his own side of this very rowdy house.