Eddie Barnes - Brown falls into the trap again

The exchanges at PMQs today perfectly highlighted the Conservative trap which Brown obligingly keeps falling into. Cameron repeatedly asked Brown to correct his assertion last week that capital spending will increase until the Olympics in 2012 (the figures, from the 2009 budget, are actually as follows: 2009: £44bn; 2010, £36 billion; 2011, £29 billion; 2012, £26bn).

Pretty bang to rights you might think. But Brown wouldn't admit it. Instead he laboured on about the increase in spending between 2007-08 and 2009-10. OK, but unless the Olympics is being moved forward by two years, this doesn't explain his claim from last week.

The actual numbers game here is a side show. The Conservatives' real aim is to expose Brown's evasive behaviour. The tactic is simple. The Tories know that Brown will never ever concede anything to them, so deep is his hatred for them. So they simply ask him to do something reasonable - like admitting to his little porkie over spending last week - and then sit back, happy in the knowledge that, once he has turned down their request, his unreasonableness will have been exposed for all to see.

Imagine if Brown had just admitting to his mistake about spending going up right until the Olympics in 2012. He might have said something like "you know what, I'm glad you raised that because the truth is I got that bit wrong. I'd like to apologise to the House about that. But I'd also like to point out that at least we've brought forward capital spending until 2010."

Yes, he would have had 160 Tory MPs screeching at him. But so what? The sound of Tory MPs screeching is guaranteed to turn off swing voters. And the public watching the exchanges on the telly would have admired Brown for his honesty. But it's not Brown's style, is it? Keep digging......