Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Camerons Problems - passing cloud or a change in the weather?

The big question I am being asked (mostly by journalists) is 'what about all of Cameron problems, is it all over for him?'.

This is the British media at their most predictable. The polls have switched and immediately the story editors want to dig out good stories on ‘it’s all gone wrong for Cameron’ as we knew and expected that they would.

Well given our party's taste for dumping leaders at the drop of a hat I suppose you can't blame people for imagining that - "Bloefeld style, any failure will not be tolerated" so the lines of reporters queuing up to interview the handful of public critics of Cameron is fair enough, I suppose.

Clearly Stanley Kalms and Lord Saatchi have been hostile to Cameron from the start (from before the start, actually) the difference is that now they are newsworthy.

What Cameron has needed to demonstrate is steel, to reassure supporters that he isn't going to retreat to a reactionary right-wing position when under pressure, as previous leaders did. The public (justifiably, given our decade of in-fighting) need to see that the Conservatives are stable and could be trusted to run the country; this is a test and we (the party) need to pass it.

Once he has faced down his critics and been seen to increase his authority over the party his personal ratings will improve even further; at just the time the Brown will be having his first serious challenges.

Even I am not cynical enough to imagine that Cameron's team dreamed up his 'difficulties' themselves, but I totally believe that this is one cloud that really does have a silver lining.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well having hitched your wagon to Cameron and to Mayor Bye locally you are in deep trouble. The flip-flopping on policy is undermining a positive first year for Cameron. He must mot given in to the right-wing ideologues !

Locally, Bye and the self-styled 'bluff northerner' Carroll will do you no good either.

Barrie Wood said...

I did push Marcus - and continue to do so - to publicly declare his support for Nick Bye - a great civic mayor but less impressive as an executive mayor. The Tories' Achilles heel ?

Anonymous said...

I think all credit to this candidate for being quite open about his leaders (and his own) difficulties.

I get fed up with political blogs that are just political grandstanding, this one is a bit more interesting and I do enjoy the comments from opposing people like Barry Wood (are you related? Not some bizarre sibling rivalry thing is it?).

The blogosphere is an important new way for people like me to read and learn about politics in our country and I think it is really an encouraging thing for democracy.

Sadly I can't vote for either Mr Woods' not being a local resident anymore.

Barrie Wood said...

Anon - not related to Marcus - as far as I know !!

If you want Lib Dems views either click on my name or for the blog of our Lib Dem MP go to : http://www.myspace.com/adriansandersmp

To be fair to Marcus, he is robust in argument but never personally abusive or antagonistic, although other Tories are less keen on opposing views on here. That he always publishes critical / opposing views is worthy of respect too.

The views I express are my own and not always necessarily those of the Liberal Democrats ! Keep reading, enjoying and challenging us both !

Anonymous said...

Interesting interview with Kevin Carroll in the 'Herald' this week. This builder and freemason seems overly keen on huge redevelopment of Paignton - surprise, surprise !