EVASIVE AS EVER

By RAY FLEMING IT was a classic dialogue of the deaf at Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons yesterday. The leader of the opposition, David Cameron, asked several pointed questions on the short–term issue of Charles Clarke's incumbency of the Home Office and Mr Blair answered with long–term solutions to the system of deportation of criminal foreigners at the heart of the current crisis which, he said, Labour inherited from the Conservatives in 1997. The prime minister's refusal to answer the quite proper questions put to him was blatant even by his own evasive standards, going so far as to mention that Mr Cameron had been an advisor at the Home Office in the 1990s when, apparently, the seeds of the present trouble were sown. The choicest moment of the half–hour came when Mr Blair said: “I notice the Rt Honorable gentleman hasn't come back to me on any of the points I have put to him.” Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! And, of course, as the Speaker has occasionally told the Prime Minister, he is in the Commons to answer questions, not to pose them. The nearest that the Prime Minister came to dropping a hint on Mr Clarke's future came when he said: “This is not a problem created by this Home Secretary and for the first time it's being solved.” That may have fallen a bit short of the customary “full support” but it may be enough to keep Charles Clarke in office however awful Thursday's local elections turn out to be for Labour.