Cameron needs to keep throwing curveballs at Brown

One of the things that struck me in some of the analysis yesterday of Brown's first PMQs was in the sketch for the Evening Standard. It noted that Brown had the sudden realisation that PMQs, unlike questions for other ministerial briefs, is a time when you can be asked absolutely anything, not just the things you've revised in a calculation of what you might be asked.

Were I in the position of being able to stand up and ask the PM questions every week (and that will never happen of course but lets pretend for a moment), I would be thinking right now that the key tactic, at least in the short term, is to continually throw Brown curveballs.

Cameron does of course have the advantage of 18 months experience at the game against someone who was, let’s be fair, bloody good at it. Brown will I'm sure get better as time passes, but, in the meantime, the approach should be to lead him onto things he cannot answer because of lack of knowledge.

Its true to say that few people, other than political obsessives, really watch PMQs in full. The closest they come is a brief glance in a TV or radio report. The moments that get chosen are usually the ones that give the talking point, and clearly, if yesterday is assumed to be the state of things to come in the near future (or at least until next week), then showing Brown to be not in charge of his position is the way to go.

Brown has certainly found himself in an odd position it seems. His desire to rise above the charges of control-freakery led him to go to the Commons yesterday and act consensual. It failed frankly because he was caught off-guard. He will learn, but whilst the process is going on, the questions from left field should come thick and fast.