By Charlie Whelan
The one good thing about watching Andrew Marr on Sunday mornings when most sane people are still fast asleep is that you can tune into the Match of the Day repeat first.
Dave Cameron certainly wasn't watching the footie though and not just because he doesn't like the people's game. He was busy learning his lines.
The trouble with learning a complete set of slick sound bites is that when things don't quite go to plan there is little else to say and for Cameron this was cruelly exposed, as the signal from the show coming live from his house kept going down. Every time we returned, the Tory leader didn't know when he had been cut off so he just repeated the last sound bite delivered. The end result was that it looked like he had nothing new to say. Indeed he actually didn't, leaving hacks with little to report except the Tory leader's reaction to the racist royal.
We did learn, though, what a poor spin operation Dave has. Andy Coulson must have thought he was very clever in insisting that as Gordon Brown had appeared from Downing Street last week, Dave was entitled to have the programme live from his home. The smart AM editor Barney Jones would no doubt have preferred the interview to take place in the safe haven of the studio. He will have been furious that the signal kept going down but I bet he was secretly delighted that the Tories' insistence that Dave gets the same treatment as the PM so spectacularly backfired.
UPDATE:
Here's the full transcript of Cameron's interview with Marr if you can possibly bear it, or you can watch the performance in full here.
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And I've been in Labour a long long time.
Why do one in five primary school kids leave illiterate &/or innumerate?
Why does Imperial College London have to offer a one year remedial education course for many of its incoming students
As for the NHS, the return for the money put in is very poor. Productivity down year on year, 3 administrators to every one health professional, and a report in this morning's papers notes that the beds to population ratio is nearly the worst in Europe.
As for huge drops in crime - well, that depends on whether you believe the likes of Jacqui Smith or not. Remember the recent "apology" with regard to putting out misleading statistics - even after she had been asked not to more than once?
As for crime, well, there are now 3500 more criminal offensives than when NL came to power, but many of these are crimes against the state (Such as not closing your dustbin lid). Many people don;t bother reporting burglary any more as the police will rarely come out (too busy filling in paperwork - read the policemen's blogs, I highly recommend Nightjack).
BTW, Blair's staple "chumminess" was bulit around "I mean (guys)" and "you know". Nice try though.
There is nothing in this blog that mentions economics at all, and nor is that rant particually good anyway. Even if the blog was on what you claim its about (personally I see it more as a comment on Camerons PR group) it would still be inappropriate.
Tough on crime tough on the causes of crime - don't label it as crime - ha ha ha
Education education education - lower the pass mark - ha ha ha
24hrs to save the NHS - dirty and infection ridden mixed wards and an NHS full of pen oushers is King - ha ha ha
An end to boom and bust !!!!!!!!!!!!!
I could go on.......
He's against people getting killed in Gaza and is in favour of it being solved. The gap in his budget proposals is 5bn, not 3.7 and this will be funded by a combination of scrapping id cards and looking down the back of the sofa (I paraphrase slightly). How on earth are we still 5 points behind this dimwit?
Sounds just like the problem dear Gordon is facing with his failed bank bailout to me. Just sayin' Charlie...
Can't we just accept that our two main parties are obviously divided on issues. All this mud-slinging from both sides doesn't solve a damn thing.
This sort of article, for instance, is pointless. "Poor spin from slippery Dave". Come on. Of course that would start a row. This is a brand new site. Let's have some policy discussion, some genuine intellectual debate over issues.
Just throwing insults at one another is simply childish. You may think DC wasn't at his best today (I haven't seen it yet to comment). I often think the Prime Minister is hardly the most outstanding performer. But if we just play "My Dad Is Bigger Than Your Dad" all day, we don't get much done.
I am really looking forward to some actual policy articles. As I've already said, Im a Tory. But I respect the fact that anybody interested or involved in politics must be trying to do the right thing and make the country better.
I really think the two sides can learn from one another if we stop acting like spoiled brats. I'm talking to my fellow Conservatives here just as much as the Labour Supporters for whom this site is intended.
As a quick idea, might I suggest a 'preview comment' button as well as a post comment. I really like that on other discussion sites as it makes is possible to have a quick rethink before posting. It might even cut down on inflammatory comments giving a few seconds to consider the implication of your words.
It is quite obvious that Mr Cameron has little to set himself out as a potential leader on the British people.
The reason that is easy to say is because a great leader has presence and does need endless briefings just before he speaks to understand the issues or even identify with them.
Mr Cameron has little to offer the British people except excuses to the issues he dose not understand.
The public have seen this again and again since he became leader of the Conservative Party. An endless stream of announcements but announced with the feeling that he was fed the news release just before.
It leaves many wondering if he could even remember any of his announcements without being briefed first.
His inability to think on his feat on the Andrew Marr show is not something new but a standard pattern. This is a clear weakness for a potential leader of the country and shows how much indecision he would operate by.
He appears to rely on briefings and not of his own concerns or convictions. The question is would the British public really want somebody to lead them who fails to grasp a basic understanding for the issues he announces.
As we head towards the next general election it is quite clear the more focus that is given to David Cameron and the likelihood of him being seen as a good alternative for PM, diminishes rapidly.
His complete failure to show concern over people's lives and homes in the downturn only gives example of what he would be like as a Conservative Prime Minister.
Hardly a ringing endorsement and one the British people could do without.
I'm sure the non Labour supporters posting on here will not agree or should it be that they know but are unwilling to accept the conclusion many have already made.
On a site which is filled with only the most anodyne, party-political, "ya-boo-sucks" claptrap, you actually dare to talk about "proper political discourse".
The irony is amazing.
Ah I see. So calling this abysmal and corrupt government's cheerleaders to account makes you either a Tory or a "pathetically hollow individual"? And you're interested in "proper political discourse"?
OK Mohammed mate, try this? Without resorting to the pathetically hollow tactic of citing terrorists, paedophiles or East European gangsters (which you know is a shoddy smokescreen), please justify the need to collect details of every phone call, text and email.
I've thought long and hard about this and, other than authoritarian paranoia, I'm stumped for a motive. Incidentally, Charlie ,why wasn't Jackie Smith given a blog? Or, failing that, her husband or one of her mates?
It reads quite well for DC, so maybe it was how he said it.
His point about the total waste of money in the VAT cut comes across particularly well. What do you say about that, Mr Whelan?
How very New Labour of you.
1) Tony Blair: 1997 Conference Speech "I want this to be the New Labour Government that ended Tory boom and bust forever." 2) Gordon Brown: July 1997 "Today, the Bank of England has agreed with me that, if we are to prevent the cycle of boom and bust, inflationary pressures in the economy, which the previous Government negligently failed to tackle, must be brought under control " 3) Gordon Brown: November 1997 "I am satisfied that the new monetary policy arrangements will deliver long-term price stability, and prevent a return to the cycle of boom and bust." 4) Gordon Brown: April 1998 "We will not return to the stop-go, boom-bust years which we saw under the Conservatives. " 5) Gordon Brown: May 1998 "The Government have put in place policies to deliver that objective and are determined to avoid a return to boom and bust." 6) Gordon Brown: June 1998 "rigorous financial discipline that, together with monetary stability, ends once and for all the boom and bust that for 30 years has undermined stability " 7) Tony Blair: February 1999 "Moreover, for decades we have been prone to far greater swings in the economic cycle than our continental counterparts. It has been boom and bust....Under this Government, there is an entirely new framework for economic management in place " 8) Ruth Kelly: November 1999 "The Government have rejected the boom and bust of the Conservative party " 9) Tony Blair: November 1999 "We have the best chance of ending boom and bust in years." 10) Gordon Brown: November 1999 "Indeed, Britain was set to repeat the old, familiar cycle of boom and bust. Since then, we have created and rigorously adhered to a new framework of modern economic management " 10) Alistair Darling: January 2000 "On top of that, we have a healthy and stable economy and an end to the boom and bust that characterised the Tory years." 11) Alan Johnson: February 2000 "The Government's first priority on coming to office was to secure long-term economic stability and put an end to the damaging cycle of boom and bust." 12) Gordon Brown: March 2000 "Britain does not want a return to boom and bust. " 13) Tony Blair: 2000 Conference Speech "The first big choice: a government with the strength to deliver stability, or a government that takes the country back to boom and bust." 14) Gordon Brown: November 2000 "Our approach is to reject the old vicious circle of the '80s--rising debt, higher long-term interest rates, higher debt repayment costs, lower growth, higher unemployment, then enforced cuts in public spending. That was the old boom and bust." 15) Gordon Brown: March 2001 "We will not return to boom and bust." 16) Ruth Kelly: May 2002 "We must avoid a return to the days of boom and bust that manufacturers had to endure for a long time under the Conservatives." 17) Yvette Cooper: May 2004 "We know that they want to turn the clock back, but it would be foolish to turn it back to a policy of boom and bust." 18) John Prescott : January 2005 "Labour economic stability has replaced Tory boom and bust " 19) Tony Blair: 2005 Conference Speech "In the first two terms we corrected the weaknesses of the Tory years: boom-and-bust economics " 20) Alistair Darling: March 2005 "As I said, there are two approaches—first, a strong economy, stability and helping families or, secondly, the Tory cuts, the undermining of stability, and a return to the boom and bust of the 1990s." 21) Gordon Brown: March 2006 "I have said before: no return to boom and bust." 22) Gordon Brown: December 2006 "Boom and bust is a term that applied to the Conservative years and two of the worst recessions in history" 23) Gordon Brown: March 2007 "We will not return to the old boom and bust." 24) Alistair Darling: June 2007 "...acknowledges the outstanding performance of the economy under this Government with the longest unbroken economic expansion on record, in contrast to the boom and bust of the previous Government " Well, that's all right then. The Penguin
In the end his tantrum and getting his own way backfired on him. He was made to look a complete fool, although technical difficulties are not usually the reason behind him looking foolish, the mere opening of his laughing gear is usually enough.
Didn't watch the show, but not surprised to hear that Dave was dire. He's no different to the tired and inept bunglers who currently lord it over us.
Oh stop bragging Charlie. Just because you've got Dolly. How can the Tories hope to compete with a renaissance polymath with the looks of a matinee idol? The more I find out about the man, the more convinced I am that Labour will romp home next time around.
I see from his profile that he was Jeremy Kyle's resident psychologist:a bit like health and safety officer on the Titanic. That paranoid fantasist Palast has much to answer for.