Earlier today I noted The Telegraph's negative interpretation of its latest YouGov poll. Other ConservativeHome readers have pointed out Jeff Randall's piece in the newspaper's Business section. It doesn't pull its punches. Comparing the Conservative Party to a company, Randall concludes:
"A company that's rapidly losing touch with its heartlands. It's akin to Waitrose suddenly abandoning its regulars in favour of those who prefer groceries from Kwik Save. Lightweight management. Underweight investment."
Great line although it's the Kwik Save customers that Project Cameron can most accurately be accused of neglecting. Click on the graphic above to enlarge a section of the piece.
But if Project Cameron is losing friends at The Telegraph it is winning them at The Economist.
The Bagehot column, within its end-of-term report, describes the Tory leader as a "confident Commons performer", "an accomplished interviewee"* and a "disciplined strategist who has ruthlessly set about re-branding his party". The column concludes:
"To that end Mr Cameron's speeches, while short on specifics, send out the signal that every day and in every way the Tories are becoming kinder, gentler and more at ease with modern Britain. So far his MPs, normally a mutinous lot, have done little more than mutter to themselves about the rumness of some of his sayings. It probably helps that for the first time since 1992 the Tories have a consistent, if modest, lead in opinion polls. But whether Mr Cameron's bold marketing strategy can be reconciled with the beliefs and instincts of the party—beliefs and instincts that have lost it three elections on the trot—will only become apparent when he emerges from his self-imposed policy purdah next year."
* Few would disagree that Mr Cameron is an "accomplished interviewee" after he bested Jeremy Paxman during last year's leadership election. There have been complaints, however, that he is now dodging the tougher interviews. The Diary column of Tuesday's London Evening Standard carried a report that he has consistently been turning down Channel Four News requests. I can't remember him returning to the Newsnight hotseat either.
Bearing in mind that the Economist has degenerated into a Blairite rag, I'm not sure that Bagehot's musings merit much serious consideration.
Posted by: Michael McGowan | July 28, 2006 at 14:52
Bagehot has been consistantly sympathetic line to Labour and hostile to the Tory's for as long as I can remember. However, he is one journalist and there are many others who take more objective views and still make the magazine worth reading.
Posted by: Conservative-man | July 28, 2006 at 15:01
I stopped reading The Economist during its support of Britain's joining the ERM.
Posted by: Esbonio | July 28, 2006 at 15:47
...every day and in every way the Tories are becoming kinder, gentler and more at ease with modern Britain...
This sounds more like a description of a party and leadership that is falling asleep, rather than challenging for power.
Posted by: Michael Tombs | July 28, 2006 at 15:53
As long as Murdoch says he doesn't think much of Cameron (FT Saturday last week), there's still hope that Cameron's not an EU sell-out.
If he's avoiding C4 and Newsnight, that shows intelligence. He's also avoiding meetings with Merkel and Sarkozy.
If Cameron's confusing the media as much as he's confusing his own supporters, at least he will get some positive press.
Posted by: william | July 28, 2006 at 16:09
>>>If Cameron's confusing the media as much as he's confusing his own supporters, at least he will get some positive press.<<<
What a lovely quote!
Posted by: aristeides | July 28, 2006 at 16:14
Ah, so that's the secret of Cameronism - it's really Couéism ...
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9026549
Émile Coué
French pharmacist who in 1920 at his clinic at Nancy introduced a method of psychotherapy characterized by frequent repetition of the formula,
“Every day, and in every way, I am becoming better and better.”
This method of autosuggestion came to be called Couéism.
Posted by: Denis Cooper | July 28, 2006 at 18:21
The Bagehot column.................isn't that dear old Emma Duncan............I should have thought Cameron suited her just fine...........
Posted by: ToMtom | July 28, 2006 at 18:35
Blair is a confident Commons performer, acomplished interviewee and, diciplined strategist.
We've done all that. Where is the principled leader? An English leader, not a paid up member of the Scotch Raj.
Posted by: Wessex | July 28, 2006 at 19:03
The most famous patient encouraged to chant the Coue mantra
"Every day, and in every way, I am becoming better and better.”
was none other than Insp Drefus in the Pink Panther sequel, trying to escape from the loony bin.
And even Clouseau got the better of him.
I do believe that Dave and Francis mutter "faster, deeper, wider" as they go to sleep at night. Change for change's sake is the stuff of those pseuds who charged millions to slope the letters BP and create a "new" image for the company. All a load of guff.
Posted by: Og | July 28, 2006 at 19:55
Bagehot is written by Matthew Symonds.
Posted by: Iain Dale | July 28, 2006 at 21:29
He's a competent interviewee, but in the Paxman interview, Paxman asked completely the wrong questions. I do think Cameron can be ruffled, and all it takes is a couple of unpredictable questions. You saw this in one of the Sky interviews, where Cameron actually got challenged from "the right" (very unusual). The result was that Cameron got totally miffed, asked why he was being asked these questions, and acted rather truculent.
Posted by: John Hustings | July 29, 2006 at 10:27
"Bagehot is written by Matthew Symonds"
I could have sworn it was written by Tony Blair.
Posted by: Sean Fear | July 30, 2006 at 09:56