George Osborne can shout as much as he likes Budget Fails

Op-ed: Did you watch the House of Commons debate early Tuesday afternoon? The one when Chancellor George Osborne finally put in an appearance?

Monday Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell had tabled an urgent question regarding last week's budget but Osborne was a no show.

The budget was flawed from the start but the nail in its coffin came Friday when Tory DWP boss Iain Duncan Smith resigned over what he claimed to see was welfare cuts a step too far as the Tories handed out cash to the wealthy.

Whether IDS had truly seen the light or it was a political stunt with the EU referendum at its heart is not clear but it was a deadly attack.

IDS spent the weekend trawling news studios to put his case and Osborne vanished from the radar.

But wherever he got too there was no doubt Monday he was working on his response.

Political pundits surmised that he was holed up in Number 11 Downing Street along with his highly paid advisers, spin doctors and script writers trying to dig himself out of a hole.

Tuesday after shoring up his budget with wild facts and figures George was good to go and address the House.

The Tory benches had a fair few empty seats Tuesday probably due to the terrible terrorist attacks in Brussels today. Cameron and people like Hammond and May were tied up with Cobra meetings and more.

So did George manage to wriggle of the budget hook?

The answer may depend on your political persuasions but for me he did not.

As his temper rose so did his voice and the volume of it. In the end he was screaming almost like a fishwife as he wagged his finger at the Labour Party across the House.

He played the same tired old card blaming the deficit on the last Labour government which left office in 2010 after being downed by the 2008 global economic recession and banking crisis. George even tried the old lie that it was all Labour's fault ignoring the global situation.

But the only deficit and mismanaged budgets Osborne inherited was from hiself in 2015.

John Bercow was one success today as he finally managed to keep order even telling off one Tory MP a Mr Cleverly for being rude.

The other big success was Labour's Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell.

In a calm, measured and professional manner he addressed the House.

He did not raise his voice though its tone strengthened under silly unrelated Tory attacks.

The Tory backbenchers had obviously been primed to verbally attack Mr McDonnell on past alleged support for Irish dissidents.

But he dealt with them swiftly and they just looked silly and sounded like petulant school kids.

It is worth remembering their hero Margaret Thatcher who said when they threw insults at her and personal attacks it was because they had lost the argument and had nothing better to offer.

So John McDonnell won the day although there were no apologies from the Tory benches or hints at resignations to follow.

As Mr McDonnell finished speaking veteran Tory Kenneth Clarke got to his feet in what looked like an effort to diffuse the situation and detract from Osborne's failings. In the end he too looked silly but from the moment he got his feet he appeared as if he had spent too long in the Commons' bar.

MPs now face the tough challenge of voting on a budget that has been ripped apart and is incomplete. That will be later today.

As usual this writer tweeted her way through the debate and her tweets may tell you all you need to know if you can find them.

Looking for them to post below they appear to have vanished; still so did this post twice previously leaving an empty page. Re-writes are never as good but I must hit the publish button now before this one floats off too.

You may find the tweets @NEWTEKWORLDNEWS on Twitter.

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