She's been in charge of the Labour party for 10 weeks, but with just 10 days until summer recess, Harriet Harman's stint is nearly over. So how has she done?
Her style at PMQs has been marked by a comedic surrealist thrust to questions – aide Ayesha Hazarika has worked as a standup comic. Here's one: "May I congratulate the prime minister on, instead of listening to his new partner, listening to his mother?" Cameron's mum – a magistrate – was, Harman believed, more sound on short prison sentences than Clegg.
She has also brought a new specificity to her questioning of David Cameron. In the very first PMQs between them, Harman's questioning saw Cameron admit what he had tried not to admit for months – that they believed the marriage tax cut would ultimately lead to lower state spending. Next she unpicked coalition plans for men accused of rape to get anonymity until conviction. Cameron found this almost impossible to deal with and gave ground.
The two pieces of structural work she has allowed herself to perform are getting Diane Abbott on the ballot (regarded by even Abbott's critics as good leadership), and then announcing women should equal men in a 50:50 gender split in the first Labour cabinet of the new era (though she later suggested that should be reached over the course of a few years). So how would her report card look?
PMQs:
Effort 10
Attendance 10
Performance 9
Running the party
Effort 8
Attendance 9
Performance 8 (Occasional flashes of brilliance tempered only by dropping the ball occasionally)
Summary
Job well done. In PMQs, she was specific and detailed, although sticking to pre-election policy made her sound stuck in a time warp and she could have shown more humour. She made principled decisions in her leadership and showed occasional flashes of brilliance, but sometimes the behind-the-scenes running of the party seemed shambolic.
