A One-man Band that's Playing Out of Tune

I'd never thought I'd see that judgement of David Cameron this far out from election day. I most certainly didn't expect to see it in the Torygraph after 13 years of Labour rule.

However, that is just what Simon Heffer has written in the Telegraph. Dave fired the starting pistol 3 weeks ago in Woodstock and he may as well have been Woodstock from the Peanuts cartoons as far as Heffer is concerned. Comments such as:

"Word is coming back that the poster campaign of an airbrushed, tieless, presidential Mr Cameron has not been quite the success the party's advertising agency had imagined it would be."

and

"Such an attitude suggests that Mr Cameron is himself a safe pair of hands, but that is not the case, and that has been a small part of the reason for the change of climate. His blunder a fortnight ago over the taxation of married couples continues to resonate."

Strike at the leader himself. But he is announcing everything himself Health, Education, we'll half expect him to be marrying any heterosexual couples he can find personally next, before reaching for George's cheque book (while he still can) to give them their allowance as a gift on the big day.

But as the Telegraph points out the Labour coup showed one thing (eventually) strength in depth. It is also something that the Lib Dems have been good on in recent years it isn't all Nick but Vince is the most trusted Tresuary Spokesman on any front bench, Chris Huhne, Simon Hughes, Norman Baker, etc are all hitting back hardballs and there are many, many more. But as the article point out:

"Were a wave of adversity to crash against the bows of its own vessel, what use would some of the hands be who might come on deck? Strength in depth is not something the [Tory] party obviously has."

It then list them:

• George Osborne - scared of him putting a foot wrong his deputy Philip Hammond deals with more intelligent media and arguing the case.
• Philip Hammond - clever but no crowd-pleaser.
• William Hague - crowd please yes, but bored with the parts of his Foreign policy brief that doesn't include the USA.
• Michael Gove - a top flight performed but landed with the policies of elitism from Cameron that he must find hard to be sincere with.
• Ken Clarke - experienced but rarely hitting the airwaves for fear of raking the ghosts of Toryism past.
• Which woman will spark the imagination Theresa May? Caroline Spelman? Theresa Villiers?

Also Heffer doesn't expect Cameronism to follow Reaganism or Thatcherism into the dictionary as a right wing philosophy. He points out:

"We know two things that he stands for, because his poster tells us. He stands for cutting the deficit; and for not cutting the NHS. Never mind that these two policies appear contradictory: the NHS accounts for about a seventh of total public spending, and therefore cutting the public sector without cutting that particular part is going to take a certain amount of prestidigitation.

"He has also let it be known that he stands for various things that either matter not a jot to many natural Conservative voters, or are way down their list of priorities, or to which they are viscerally opposed: such as spending large amounts of scarce public money on overseas aid, continuing to belong to the European Union, and regarding grammar schools as an embarrassment. None of this yet appears to be an election-winning cocktail."

So maybe I should stop calling the Telegraph the Torygraph. It appears that not even they are enamoured by the thought of Dave as Prime Minister. If even Lord Tebbit one of the most loyal of Thatcherites can say:

"I hate to say it, but only one party leader seems to have grasped that, if you construct a system where unskilled people are worse off by taking a job than by staying on welfare, they remain trapped in poverty - and that is Nick Clegg."

Things are not looking rosey for the Anthill Notting Hill Mob.