Prime minister's questions

Sketch
By Nick Assinder
Political Correspondent, BBC News website

Watch the clash

Now it really has got personal.

It was probably inevitable that the final prime minister's question time before the "historic" 2005 general election would turn into a high-octane election clash between the party leaders.

And they didn't hang about, each diving straight into the pit, setting out the main campaign themes which have already been rehearsed to the point of extinction during the phoney war.

But we were a little clearer on at least one issue after this event - the closest we will get to a televised election debate between the leaders.

And that is the determination of both the Tories and the Liberal Democrats to make the prime minister himself, and his record of broken promises, a central issue in the battle.

All three of them know Mr Blair is an issue amongst voters. Some Labour MPs even fear he has become a liability rather than an asset to them nowadays.

Broken pledges

So both Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy threw back at the prime minister a version of the words Chancellor Gordon Brown is said to have used to Mr Blair over his allegedly broken promise to hand over the party leadership.

Both listed promises he had broken - on tuition fees, pensions, national insurance - before declaring: "Why should people ever believe him again?"

Mr Kennedy attacked over pensions

But Mr Howard won the greatest cheer from his own side when he asked Labour MPs to raise their hands if they were putting pictures of Tony Blair on their election literature.

Oh dear. In the good old days of absolute control and loyalty, every single hand on the Labour benches would have shot up as if electrocuted by Peter Mandelson's cattle prod, otherwise known as the radio pager.

Not now. A dozen hands at most were offered.

The Tory benches, needless to say, were a forest of arms eagerly waving their enthusiasm at the prospect of reminding voters who would be back in No 10 if they vote Labour at the election.

Big choice

This, mind you, is also Labour's tactic - to remind voters of the past record of Michael Howard during his time as a Tory minister.

They include, said Mr Blair, the poll tax, unemployment, fewer police on the streets, recession and so on.

But was there just a note of pleading in his voce when he declared that, unless people came out and supported his manifesto, they would turn back the clock to those days?

He knows that the greatest threat to him is from disillusioned Labour voters staying at home.

That is why he is determined to cast this election as a "big choice" between two potential governments, not a referendum on the current Labour administration.

His opponents, however, have shown they are quite ready to play the man.