Editing William Hague (section)

====Skill in debate====
Hague's critics assiduously monitored his performance at [[Prime Minister's Questions]] each Wednesday in Parliament, having difficulty to find fault.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1908959.ece | title=Back in the Tory fold, while they're a winning team | work=[[The Times]] | location=London | date=10 June 2007 | access-date=27 March 2010 | first=Martin | last=Ivens | archive-date=29 April 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429085429/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1908959.ece | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/jun/24/politics.houseofcommons | work=The Guardian | title=Wit, oratory&nbsp;– and evasion. A master debater at work | location=London | first=Alastair | last=Campbell | date=24 June 2007 | access-date=27 March 2010 | archive-date=31 August 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130831115413/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/jun/24/politics.houseofcommons | url-status=live }}</ref> During one particular exchange, while responding to the [[Queen's Speech]] of 2000, Hague attacked [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[Tony Blair]]'s record:

{{blockquote|In more than 20 years in politics, he has betrayed every cause he believed in, contradicted every statement he has made, broken every promise he has given and breached every agreement that he has entered into.... There is a lifetime of U-turns, errors and sell-outs. All those Honourable Members who sit behind the Prime Minister and wonder whether they stand for anything any longer, or whether they defend any point of principle, know who has led them to that sorry state.<ref name=Queen>{{cite web |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmhansrd/vo001206/debtext/01206-06.htm#01206-06_spnew3 |title=House of Commons Hansard Debates for 6&nbsp;Dec 2000 (pt 6) |work=Hansard |access-date=13 July 2008 |archive-date=27 June 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080627115305/http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmhansrd/vo001206/debtext/01206-06.htm#01206-06_spnew3 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

Blair responded by criticising what he saw as Hague's "[[bandwagon effect|bandwagon politics]]":

{{blockquote|... he started the [[fuel protest]] bandwagon, then the floods bandwagon; on defence it became armour-plated, then on [[NATS Holdings|air traffic control]] it became airborne.... Yes, the Right Honourable gentleman made a very witty, funny speech, but it summed up his leadership: good jokes, lousy judgment. I am afraid that in the end, if the Right Honourable gentleman really aspires to stand at this [[despatch box]], he will have to get his policies sorted out and his party sorted out, and offer a vision for the country's future, not a vision that would take us backwards.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmhansrd/vo001206/debtext/01206-08.htm#01206-08_spmin2|title=House of Commons Hansard Debates for 6&nbsp;Dec 2000 (pt 8)|work=Hansard|access-date=18 September 2017|archive-date=18 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018062230/https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmhansrd/vo001206/debtext/01206-08.htm#01206-08_spmin2|url-status=live}}</ref>}}