David Cameron: Get Her!

1209: Mr Cameron takes a swipe at Mr Miliband's macho credentials, accusing of him not standing up to Ed Balls, saying he has to bring the shadow chancellor his coffee every morning. "That's how assertive and butch" he is. Labour seem to enjoy this as much as the coalition benches.

Today's Prime Minister's Questions, from BBC News Online live blog.  

First PMQ of the new term and Dave loses it again already - Calm down, dear!

PS The "Coffee time!" anecdote originated with Andrew Pierce in the Mail.

Update: 'Are you butch enough to have Ed Balls fetch you coffee? Cameron's 'butch' jibe at Ed Miliband made prime minister's questions sound like a squabble among the Village People', Ally Fogg, Guardian online.

"I don't know about the language old Etonians use by habit, but in my experience the word "butch" is now almost exclusively used by either homophobes when discussing lesbians, or gay men when discussing each other. It is either "butch v femme" or "butch v camp". Consequently, and ironically, Cameron saying "not very butch, is it?" came across as really quite camp – one could easily imagine it tumbling from the lips of Alan Carr or Julian Clary. That is not in itself a problem of course, but I very much doubt it was the intended effect..."