Monday, March 01, 2010

Desperate Dave

Call me Dave sound increasingly desperate as he tries to bolster public support for the Tory party - and fails.

Ever since the Tories elected Cameron as leader we've been subjected to a sustained media campaign to get him elected as Prime Minister - even though we don't elect Prime Ministers in this country. We elect MPs and it is they who choose who will be PM - with the ruling party usually having the say so and choosing their esteemed leader.

Nevertheless, the media have been telling us for years that Cam's the man to lead us. They don't like Brown, the media. I don't either, but I have more respect for him than I do Cameron - not a great deal more, but you don't need much to beat absolutely none whatsoever.

Despite their best efforts - and the fact that Brown's tenure as PM has been one disaster after another - the media's love affair with Cameron has failed to catch on with the voting public if the latest polls are anything to go by.

The latest polls suggest - according to the experts - a hung parliament with Labour being the largest party. I disagree. Thanks to the distribution and makeup of constituencies, a Tory poll lead of a couple of percentage points won't be enough for them to overturn a Labour majority. If we went to the polls tomorrow and the result matched the latest opinion poll I would expect Labour to retain a slim majority in parliament - not much, but enough to enable them to form a government.

To force a hung parliament, the Tories need to be rating around 45% in the opinion polls. To win a majority this will need to be 50% or over - anything less will leave parliament hung or, at the very best, a Tory majority so slender that they would have to horse trade with minor parties to get anything done.

So why is it that the voting public remain unconvinced by Cameron despite the best efforts of the media? That's hard to say - whatever can it be about a man who has no firm political principles, flip flops from one point of view to another, promises one thing one minute then something else the next and hasn't yet managed to put forward a single coherent, solid policy on any subject whatsoever.

Beats me.

6 comments:

Quiet_Man said...

I suspect it's because he's not selling us anything really different to the current government.
He could easily get more votes by offering a referendum in/out on the EU. He could get more votes by sorting out the constitutional mess of the West Lothian question as well as the Barnet formula.
What he has done is go to the Celts and do down the majority nation in Britain and he wonders why the English wont vote for him.

Stan said...

That's all very true, Quiet Man - but it still doesn't explain why the voters aren't keen on Cameron. After all, he's more personable and presentable than Brown, doesn't have the record of failure that Brown has and hasn't had the media ripping him to shreds over every little thing ... and yet Cameron is barely doing any better at the polls than Howard, Hague or IDS (who were up against media favourite Blair and never had anything like the advantages Cameron has).

Jeremy said...

I think I probably agree with you, Stan, as on most things.

I have some suggestions on the Tory dip over here ...

Where is the Conservative Future?

bernard said...

Apart from having a face like a painted egg, Cameron doesn't understand statistics either.
Over 85% of the electorate are white/ethnically British, yet this mutton-headed nincompoop continues to court the minority & ethnic vote to the exclusion of everyone else.

I expect any day now to see him in a reversed, over-sized baseball cap, and waddling round in trousers half way down his arse.

Give me strength.

JuliaM said...

"...but it still doesn't explain why the voters aren't keen on Cameron."

They probably realise he's not a Conservative, as they understand it.

Letters From A Tory said...

Yer, I'm stumped too. I mean, who doesn't love a politician who flip-flops a few weeks before a general election?