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It was an ok performance, I don't think he turned people off..but I thought he was a little too serious..

Utterly cringeworthy.I can understand why DC went on this show but he didn't do himself any favours by taking it all too seriously.The only guests that do well on these shows are those who take the piss out of themselves and/or Jonathan Ross,DC did neither.

I think it was a mistake going on this show. Politicians, of any age, just make themselves look like fools. They take the thing too seriously by trying to get their message to the younger audience, and just come accross as stuffed suits. DC did no different.

The only exception is if the politician is funny - a perfect example is Boris. DC is no comedian.

Interesting comments. I too cringed at the thought of him on the show, and tend to dislike any serious politician prostituting themselves in this way.

However, my partner (not Conservative but not hostile) and his visiting parents (haven't voted Conservative since 1992) all thought he came across very well.

Perhaps another example of DC appealing to a non Conservative constituency.

I thought he was fine - The most important thing was that Ross gave him a sort of personal thumbs up when he said - (i'm paraphrasing) i think you are a genuine guy.

Going on Jonathon Ross was a brave thing for DC to do and it will help break down the barriers with voters who don't engage with politics normally.

I really do think it was a great idea to get him onto the show! Not only was he the first politician to go on the show but he was the only politician invited to attend the Beckham party before the boys left for the world cup. As a young person involved in the Conservatives, I'm really pleased that Cameron is (or seems to be) very in touch with modern Britain!! Although it needs to be said - he could have used the opportunity on the JR program to lighten up a bit!! But overall, very pleased!

It is definitely a good thing to be the first politician on the show, one thing worth emulating Blair was his way of garnering popular appeal in the early days. DC did look quite nervous/uncomfortable to me though.

I thought he handled the drugs question quite well by creating "a third way" between Ross' naive legalisation argument and the stigmatised War on Drugs. I also noted that he supported equal prize money in Wimbledon.

One cause for concern is the continued separation in the public mind between Dave "the decent, break from the past, nice guy" Cameron, and the "unreconstructed, out-of-step, nasty" Tories. DC did make some effort to bridge this gap between the public perception of him and the party by emphasising that the members had voted for him - and therefore change. However, Ross' praise and any positive publicity will be reserved for DC alone.

Ross was disgusting - all that totally unecessary sexual stuff about Lady T was utterly duff. Was i meant to laugh?
Why the Hell does the Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition have to come third in a chat show with three guests. He is far more important to the viewers lives than either Bruce Willis ( can't vote for him) of Martina Navratilova( can't vote for her either.) So their getting the star treatment while he is wheeled on at the end to be lobbed degrading questions by Ross about , of all things his adolescent fantasies. not a word about his interesting family or his vision for Britain, his green convictions etc DC did his best to slot stuff in about changes but could hardly get a word in edge ways before ross was off about the war. And how partisan was the audience. Normally all they care about is the latest gay icon or Jordan's latest boob job. tonight there cheering ross when he makes some half assed point against cameron.
On a lighter note he got to mention the Mayoral elections in between ross's leers -he explained all about the nomination process and i suddenly thought... sounds like a job for Adam Rickett.

David, they usually put their top guest on last in this type of show, it keeps the television audience tuned in. Blair was last (out of two? I can't remember) on Parky.

Oh sorry, i am ignorant!

Ross is well past his best, and cheesy these days. I had gone off him before the Cameron show, and would have advised steering well clear. Sad to see David Cameron being exposed to it.

The characteristics that made Ross funny in his youth, make him tawdry in middle age. He still thinks he's nineteen, and it grates. Why not either find someone who is young, or someone who knows how to be interesting. Ross is neither. Keep away.

Clearly I've got a warped mind because I thought the masturbation question was mildy amusing (in a schoolboy smutty sniggering way). I also think that whilst DC did look a little uncomfortable he also handled it very well.

Real people - that is to say people who don't post about politics on the Internet at 6.40am on a Saturday - will have liked the fact he sat there and took it.

as an 8.16 am saturday poster I found the interview amusing and positive for DC.

Nowhere near as funny as the guinea pig routine though

This was a bad mistake. He made us look desperate for any publicity we can get. He made himself look a fool. And his appearance brought the Conservative Party into disrepute. When is someone going to have a quiet word in his advisor's ear?

Oh come on, Ross asked one smutty question (shock horror! people are smutty!), and then the rest of it was standard sofa interview stuff. Let's not blow it out of all proportion.

Well done David Cameron. He came across well to a non-political audience. As for the tommy tank questions - that's what Ross is about. Every one of his guests got taken to the bedroom, so to speak.

Didn't see it, wouldn't want to.

I presume it appeals to an apolitical younger generation and is just what Blair would have beeb doing 12 years ago in opposition, except it's hard to think of a sexual innuendo for Mr Ross about any old figure of the left.

This is getting as bit predictable. What next? Keepyuppy with Frank Lampard or Becks?

Now that would be good!
OK, Dizzy , i take your point that Ross was doing his standard 'look at me , i'm cheeky' routine when banging on about Lady T. Thought it fell a bit flat for both of them.
Well, i suppose he's blooded himself TV wise. Maybe next week he could be the host of 'Have i got news for you' or present a Newsnight special on Recycling, Cycling and Eco -diversity.



I thought Cameron came across well, although it would be interesting to know how no-aligned voters felt.

It was also interesting to note Ross' reasons for inviting Cameron on to his show. He quite openly said he'd never wanted a politician on the show before but was intrigued about Cameron and wanted to know more. I suspect here he speaks for a lot of people. He reflected public attitudes again by saying he was attracted to Cameron but felt uneasy about the rest of the party.

Cameron was at his best when he sounded reasonable, concerned with doing the right thing for Britain.

The drugs section was completely hijacked by Ross and Cameron didn't get a chance to air his very sensible views.

Ultimately, it would be hard to imagine any of our last three leaders performing anywhere near as well on such a show. All credit to DC.

Yes your right, although i think william hague would have been a good ross interviewee. he can be very amusing. But as you say all credit to DC , particularly for not slapping Ross during all that 'lets legalize drugs' stuff.

I thought DC handled it very well, well done.

It was picked up by someone else earlier in this thread, but I agree that the most important thing was Ross' line about "you seem like a genuine bloke".

I doubt that much of his normal Friday night audience takes a close interest in politics, so for DC to have a successful interview on this show and receive genuine praise of this nature from a fairly high-profile presenter can only be good.

Thought it was a good performance myself, came off well.

Such things add to Mr Cameron's experience, which can never be a bad thing. I think it was a brave thing to do on his part given it was an "entertainment" programme, from which I sense he thankfully emerged unscathed.

I thought it was a great performance, Dave wasn't too serious at all. He needs to have a certain level of professionalism and he balanced the interview very well indeed. Ross did ask some rather lewd questions but thats to be expected on his show, and Dave handled them well. Maybe Bruce Willis gave him some advice on how to tackle Blair at PMQ's. Imagine Cameron shouting "Yippee-ki-yay....." over the despatch box.
All in all a good performance, even by Jonathan Ross himself (as I thought it would just be lots of anti-Tory rhetoric all the way through).

I didn't watch it, as I don't usually watchWoss now.

Several of the posters above are young and approved of DC's performance, and I am sure that was the main reason for his appearance on the programme.

Has nobody thought that there was probably at least one or two labour 'plants' in the audience? The BBC, come on they couldn't afford to be seen to approve of DC, without some digs.

Forget Ross as London Major, he should be doing Camerons job. He at least took a far more convincing position on drugs and iraq than Cameron. While not quite as boring as Bruce Willis, Cameron certainly gave him a run for his money. Came across as completely witless imo.

All these people who can't stand Jonathan Ross! He is filthy-minded and self-obsessed but he is a useful refuge on Saturday mornings if you can't bear Sandy Toxic on Radio 4 & imo very, very funny. More Jonathan Ross and less Michael Parkinson (and no Sandy Toxic whatsover) - that's what this country needs! Yessir! Harrumph!

By the way I think that is a very unflattering picture of David Cameron - above!!

Another thought!, I think someone mentioned in a post above, reference made to the 'nasty party', was it on Woss. Anyway I am afriad I think that phrase will not go away until Theresa May 'disappears'!!! She was in the media again a few days ago, frankly I felt she came across as just trying (unsuccessfully) to be clever. Couldn't she be elevated (fairly soon) out of sight into the HoL's!


It's the stuff of modern politics that politicians frequently have to appear on entertainment inclined shows like Jonathan Ross, Richard & Judy as a way of "reaching out". It would be interesting to see research on how effective appearances on these shows compared to more traditional programmes like Question Time.

I can understand why some people didn't approve, but DC did the job required of him which was to come across as a leader genuinely in touch with the 21st century. This kind of working the media matters these days whether we lie it or not.

Like others, I can't imagine Major/IDS/Howard appearing, or, if they did, coping nearly as well.

It could have been much worse.

I've always been slightly bewildered as to why, when then are other obvious faults to pick up on, the media always seem to make a point of refering to Maggie's sex.

I'm not neccesarily going to call it sexist but it it's close as you will get these days. Other sexism is totally frowned upon but asking people if they masterbated at the thought of an old lady is fine.

It sounds like he turned the question to his advantage by pointing out that he was young; therefore distancing himself from her.

The Iraq answer was terribly misjudged.

He showed how so out of touch the tories still are with the rest of the country on this one. Interviewers will now ask him this question over and over again.

Far better to say we were lied to and duped. Much more in tune with what the vast majority of the population believe.

This one won't go away - matter how much he wants it too!

I agree - the ony weak spot in DC's armour. Blair lied , albeit sincerely, and people should say so. Wheres the WMD? What about the 45 mins claim..etc

I watched Woss for the first and last time last night, to see how DC coped. Wary, guarded, managed to avoid the Elephant traps Wossy was leading him towards, He couldnt avoid the w....r one, but said he was about 12 years old at the time, which was a reasonable response. I think Woss is an absolute Berk, but feel that DC had to do this to prove his street cred. And I think he did just that. Woss tried to bulldoze DC towards a bad statement on drugs, which he side stepped OK. Not only a Berk, but a Bully too. My judgement, DC won on points.

Of course , my distaste at Ross's line of questioning re Lady T may just be cos i'm a prude who doesn't really want to know what DC used to think about with the onset of puberty.
I thought martina Navratilova did very well, maybe they should have interviewed her and DC together , got a bit of chatty rapport going on rather than Ross's laboured points and partisan audience applause.

Glad to see the Mail on Sunday's response.

More on the MoS' response is on the homepage.

Good piece on homepage from the Observer about Ross's use of the word w**k.
As it rightly comments, such remarks however light hearted coarsen the nature of public discourse. Did that sound pompous? Tough.
It also has something to do with ross's heterosexuality and the way he likes to share this verbally with his audience / guests. For instance it would be hard to imagine him asking Matthew Parris on and then wondering about whether he found senior male members of the party attractive. That would spoil the 'all hetero boys together phwoarr lets pretend the girls cant hear, aren't we naughty!' ethos ross seems to be giving out.

As a 2:28am Sunday morning poster, I've just seen the repeat.

Thought he did very well. A brave move, that shouldn't do him too much harm.

As a young conservative supporter I'm rather surprised that anyone could think appearing on the show was a bad idea. Apart from the coarse attempt at humour Ross was actually a reasonably respectful interviewer, and didn't ask tough policy questions. Cameron was able to reach an audience he doesn't normally reach, and seeing him chatting with Ross will help break down their prejudices about the Tory party.

On the Iraq thing, he seized an oppurtunity to try and score points as an idealist (which he doesn't get to do convincingly very often) on an issue where he really has no room to tack towards more populist policies anyway, given the hawkish and atlanticist views which prevail pretty much throughout the party.

(In any case he probably genuinely believes the war was justified given the information available at the time, let's remember that although the dossier was "sexed up" pretty much everyone in a position of power across the world thought Saddam had an advanced WMD project - the questions were over how far he had got and how much of a threat he represented. "No WMD were found => Bush + Blair lied" is such an overwheleming theme in the more leftish parts of the media that the idea that they were simply mistaken doesn't get much play.)

Just because the left is wrong on virtually everything else doesn't mean that on this one issue they may have got their ducks in a row.. Anyway lets not go off onto a tangent about Iraq , that is SO 2003

At the end of the day I suppose it was publicity. If that was the objective of appearing on Woss then there are plenty of other tawdry opportunities out there.

I just wish that we had a few people in senior positions who 'got it'. When DC appears on a show like Woss he does absolutely sweet F.A. in making progress on the trustworthiness of politicians issue. Sceptical swing voters watching that are likely to conclude that Cameron's just the same as the rest.

For gods sake, we need less showmanship and more statesmanship.

Unfortunatly the only difference between a showman and a statesman is that the former wears a tie, which the latter eschews it to show that he is 'one of the people'.

He was good, he done well. Hes not an entertainment show personality but hey, everyone knows this.
And trust Tebbit to moan abour Ross's choice of humour... has he never seen Ross in ation before? I imagine not!

As an old and cynical ex-tory I thought DC did just the right thing. It might not appeal to my generation or the Lord Crabbits(Scottish word meaning generally not pleased) of this world but it showed him as a normal guy who is thinking intelligently about the real problems. An appearance on the Ross show was a good idea. He showed the host to be his usual dim self obessed self. He would reach out to the people who would never think of voting Tory but would benefit from it. Remember in 2009 when he approaches the Fife Fumbler there is going to a lot of new voters who are teenagers. Who are they going to want someone who talks sense and understands their problems or some dour Scot who just wants their money to waste. If you heard him being interviewed by Andrew Marr on Sunday AM then he gave a performance which we would please the anoraks. DC is only one guy and the leader he needs a good team round him. We need more revolutionary thinking. If you want to know what years of corrupt Labour misrule does come to live in Scotland. £5 per head spent for every £4 in the rest of the country, more than 50% are paid by the public sector, queue for the 'free' personal care. High council tax and no services. We need the Tories back and DC is our best hope, if that appearance got us a few votes then good. He paxoed Paxman so Ross was an easy target.

Despite not being a fan of David Cameron I thought he handled himself well under pressure in an unfamiliar environment.

He also managed to skilfully sidestep Jonathon Ross's comments on legalising drugs which should keep the tabloids happy.

Although having said that, as the audience reaction helped show, Jonathon Ross is bang on the nail on this one. The "War on Drugs" has failed miserably when measured against any yardstick you care to choose. Most young people know this instinctively. Drugs are as readily available as alcohol was under Prohibition. A sensible attitude to a policy on drugs would seriously look at legalising drugs, taxing them, and using those taxes to undo the damage and campaign against their use - just as happens with tobacco.

The government cannot make drugs legal like alcohol for example because it taxes alcohol. Whereas distilling equipment is needed to make alcohol, drugs such as marijuana can be grown from a seed under a hydroponic system that can be installed in an attic, warehouse etc. As the government would not be able to regulate the distribution of seeds it would be unable to know how much was being produced and therefore would be unable to collect tax on it properly i.e. through volume. Therefore the government has to keep it illegal as were it legal it would be unable to calculate or regulate the tax required due to the ease with which marijuana , for example, can be produced privately.

I didn't see it but it seems DC got thypical Ross treatment. I like Ross, it is immature, but i still find it amusing. Bear in mind it is immensely popular and is the BBC's flagship friday night show.

Now if DC went on Have I Got News... that would be something.

DC did fine. I am a fan of Ross, and he was not hard on Dave at all. I would imagine that most politicians would be a little uncomfortable on such a show.

Dear me, aside from whether or not he should have gone on the show, why do we have to constantly refer to Mr. Ross's difficulty with the letter 'R'? Constant references to 'Woss', reminds me of the way we used to mock 'Woy' Jenkins for the same reason. Infantile and totally pointless. If we mocked anyone else with a 'disability' we would be pilloried, but just because the (sometimes brilliant in my view) Mr. Ross has a very small speech impediment, that's all right then.

As for the Mrs. T question: Rank out of order.

The point is though, Jon, Jonathan 'Woss' can actually speak normally, and can easily pronounce Ross as Ross (rather than Woss) but he chooses not to because it adds to his character (or so he thinks.) Therefore, there is nothing wrong with mocking his choice.

As for Jonathan Ross, he is sick and twisted and should be sacked - but of course won't be, because this is the BBC we're talking about, and the anger he has created will help fuel him and the Corporation in the future.

Lord Tebbit sounds a bit of touch "scolding" DC for being on the show in the first place.

I actually think he's very amusing and I guess an awful lot of people agree with me which is why both his radio and TV shows have such high listening/viewing figures.
DC must have known what sort of show he was going on and probably thinks he did well.I didn't,I thought he was stiff and uncomfortable but Ross was mild (if tasteless) and DC came away relatively unscathed.I hope he thinks twice about going on shows like this in the future.
As for Jonathan Ross I hope he continues with his very successful career but I hope he also tones down the very tasteless remarks about former leaders!

Chris, I don't know where you got the info that Ross can pronounce his 'R's, it's the first time I've heard it. Can't disagree with you if you know it to be correct.

"Sick and twisted"? Well, all great comics sail close to the wind. (not saying Ross is a 'great comic'). Bit of a value judgement on your part, surely? I have always found his Saturday morning Radio 2 show very funny, but feel he's better on Radio than TV. I don't go out of my way to watch his Friday night show.

I find 'Little Britain' sick and twisted, but apparently I am in a minority of one in this respect. It's about taste, which is personal, and should not be a reason for exclusion from a publicly funded broadcasting organisation. I agree, however, that to ask a question to DC like he did was in very poor taste.

Actually Jon, i hate Little Britain too..but i've always been a bit scared to mention it in polite circles.
I don't think Ross is sick and twisted , just disrespectful and unnecessarily coarse. God, i sound like my father. If he was an old prude.

To be fair, it was no worse than you would expect from him. Being on the Jonathon Ross show chimes perfectly with Dave's nauseating attempts to be one of the people. I look forward to his special guest appearance on the Tweenies to tell all those future voters just how bad and nasty tax cuts are.

If Mr Cameron thinks life is better in Iraq without Saddam he's misinformed. And if he thinks his message of 'if you want to do it but it's illegal, ignore the law and use violence' is intelligent he's more of an idiot than I thought.

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