Ever since David Cameron arrived on the political scene the Labour Party has struggled to agree on a way of opposing him...
- The Brownites and Blairites differed from the beginning - one camp thinking that he should be portrayed as the smiling frontman for an extreme agenda and the other thinking he should be portrayed as a lightweight;
- John Prescott attacked Cameron for 'opportunism and triviality';
- Then there was the chameleon attack;
- That didn't work so Labour insulted Britain's 134,000 estate agents by saying that the Tory leader was like as "slippery" as all of them...
In this week's Spectator, David Miliband has had another go. Britain's most boring political blogger has attempted to offer an intellectual critique of Cameronism. I've read the article three times and still don't understand it. His only consistently transparent trick is to misrepresent conservatism and then to attack it. If this is the best Labour can do then it's very unimpressive.
Hear hear Tim or was it Sam? Millibands attack was extremely convoluted and I suspect that this attack will be even less successful than that of the 'Chameleon'. Poor Milliband is hamstrung by the fact that he's a member of a party who have obviously run out of ideas and are led by a corrupt man who has been far more dishonest than Cameron ever will be (I hope).
Posted by: malcolm | October 12, 2006 at 15:28
Meanwhile, Sian Simon's U-tube offering is really scraping the barrel.
Posted by: Richard Weatherill | October 12, 2006 at 15:34
How did you manage to read it three times?
I fell asleep half way through.
Posted by: aristeides | October 12, 2006 at 15:36
Not being a subscriber to the Spectator I didn't read the whole article, however, it starts off by making a comparison between DC's conference speech and Blair's conference speech in 95. However, there is a difference in the situations in that the Major government between 92-97 had a paper thin majority which meant that it could not possibly introduce any legislative or policy changes which were controversial for fear of defeat (a situation which ironically led to a very weak government gently coasting to the end of its term handing over the country in a fit state to put a sheen on anything NuLab wanted to do).
Although Blair's Lobster Quadrille is hugely entertaining for us and destabilising his party, the reality is that when the serious business of trying to get legislation through for the remainder of the Parliament is recommenced, they can still, if they want to, be as bold as they like. They are in a position to take any of our policies that they like. Now they wouldn't do that if we were further to the right, but they wouldn't have to as doing that would give them confidence that we still weren't a realistic challenge in the public eye.
In 95-97, even if the Major government had wanted to implement the entirety of the concrete policies set out by Blair in 95 it could not have done so as it would have been voted down by the opposition and even a small number of its own rebels. In 07-10 the Brown government could easily do so and has already shown signs that it would be tempted.
Posted by: Angelo Basu | October 12, 2006 at 15:39
Sorry - that should, of course, have been YouTube. (It's good to have one's finger on the pulse. I think mine's just stopped.)
Anyway, here's a link to the Beeb's take on it:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6044222.stm
Come to think of it, YouBend might be a more appropriate location for this piece.
Posted by: Richard Weatherill | October 12, 2006 at 15:51
I'm sure Bremner or one of the Dead Ringers team could do an excellent parody of WebCameron, but Simon's version is unfunny, cringeworthy and deeply embarrassing, and the "sleep with my wife" bit was digging under the barrel never mind scraping it. If I was Sion Simon I'd be hiding under my bed now.
Posted by: Cllr Iain Lindley | October 12, 2006 at 15:55
Labour are getting desperate to provide a diversion to the problems of their two long-running super-heros, Brown and Blair - one a spent force and the other a dead duck. These two latest attempts by Milliband and Simon, are exactly as you would expect - desperado. Neither of them works.
Posted by: Tapestry | October 12, 2006 at 16:16
To be fair to Milliband, its quite a challenge to intellectually critique Dave.
Posted by: TaxCutter | October 12, 2006 at 16:20
"Britain's most boring political blogger has attempted to offer an intellectual critique of Cameronism."
Must make a change from attacking Iain Dale, Richard Suchorzewski and Anthony Butcher.
Posted by: Charred Knobble | October 12, 2006 at 16:27
"Not being a subscriber to the Spectator I didn't read the whole article"
Read it in Smith's like I do. Yes, I'm a cheapskate.
Wasn't Milliband suggested as a potential Labour leader? I find it hard to understand why, he is immensely irritating.
When I get round to reading the article I may actually make an attempt to critique the substance of it.
Posted by: Richard | October 12, 2006 at 16:42
The leadership focus group Newsnight did during the Labour conference thought Milliband (I keep on wanting to call him Milliways, but that's what too much Douglas Adams can do) looked like Harry Enfield's Tory Boy character.
Does anyone at WHSmith's actually buy the magazines?!
Posted by: Angelo Basu | October 12, 2006 at 17:04
"In the end any Conservative party worth its salt has to dispute the core propositions of social justice. The reason is simple. As Friedrich Hayek explained very clearly 50 years ago, once you admit that social justice is the central purpose of political and moral life, then you are damned to a slippery slope of collective action that is contrary to a world view based on personal freedom."
Miliband quoting Hayek to attack Cameron. How ideologically convoluted is that? Hayek is right by the way.
"Social justice" is not compatible with absolute liberty. Do you want equality or freedom?
Posted by: Guido Fawkes | October 12, 2006 at 17:48
a transparent attempt by Milliband to ferment division in the Conservative party
it won't work
Posted by: Tory Solicitor | October 12, 2006 at 18:06
Labour still haven't worked out what to do have they? Blair's attempt at pinning a Tory record on crime when he was a advisor to Howard was further barrel scrapping at PMQ's.
I've had 2 apolitical people say to me, who was that pathetic Labour MP on Youtube. He needs to sort his hair out.
Still I'm sure Sion Simon think he's funny in his own mind.
Posted by: Andrew Woodman | October 12, 2006 at 18:52
Maybe The Speaker ought to tell Sion Simon that it demeans Parliament each time a runt tries to diminish another MP in front of the voting public.
Maybe they should have a training course and be tested quarterly on behaviour. I cannot stand the prospect of more of this infantilism from politicians who have the mental age of demented toddlers
Posted by: TomTom | October 12, 2006 at 19:11
Simon's thing is quite odd in the way Labour supporters seem to think it is hilarious and nobody else seems to.
Labour seem to be convincing themselves that Cameron is some sort of fraud. Until they realise that he is what he says he is they are in real trouble.
I can't belive after nearly a year they are still underestimating Cameron.
Posted by: wasp | October 12, 2006 at 20:07
Sion Simon, whatever his public protestations, will regret his foray into YouTube. A very funny spoof of webcameron wil no doubt be made but the 'sleep with my wife' and 'take my kids' pieces went beyond a joke and I hope MPs from all sides will have a word with him about how his performance is totally inappropriate for somebody who then wishes to be taken seriously. It's not insulting Cameron I object to, but making such comments about someone's wife or their children should be a step too far for any reasonable human being.
Chances are he'll lose his seat at the next election anyway; the downside of that is that he might reappear at the Telegraph.
Posted by: kingbongo | October 12, 2006 at 20:13
re my post at 20:13, that should read
"despite this odd and sad behaviour of an ambitious but totally inept plotter it is likely he will be comfortably re-elected; the good news is that this means he won't reappear at the Telegraph"
I misremembered his seat and for some reason thought it was a marginal.
With incoherence spluttering from all sides of the Labour party, Blunkett's madness, Blair's awful PMQs, Cambells fake depression, Millboys disasterous effort at crtiquing conservatism (which he mistakes for anarcho-capitalism), Brown's confusion over whether he should be smiling or not, is the whole Labour movement having a collective breakdown?
Nothing they do seems to touch DC as young women up and down the land flock to support him (at least according to some magazine poll or another; which is probably still more reliable than a MORI poll)
Posted by: kingbongo | October 12, 2006 at 20:54
I first came across Sion Simon at a fringe do in Bournemouth six or eight years ago and he struck me as a pathetic opinionated little Pxxxk then.
What does it say about the standard of Labour MPs ???
Posted by: chippo | October 12, 2006 at 22:37
A few months ago a few of us York Tories went on a trip to the House of Commons. We saw about half an hour of the debate on health, and Sion Simon spoke.
We all felt embarrassed for him, he stuttered his way through his speech, spoke in a way that suggested he saw himself as a big statesman and at the end the Labour front bench weren't sure whether they should say "we agree" or "we disagree".
The second time I noticed him was on Prime Ministers Questions, where he appeared to make a seriously racist remark that we should be defending "our people" ie white people.
Take these two into account, along with the quite pathetic coup with the fat curry lover a few weeks ago and now this, I've come to the conclusion that not only is Sion Simon a serious lightweight, he is also one of the most stupid MPs ever to grace the House of Commons.
I felt embarrassed for his attempted parody of Cameron. Labour just don't know how to attack Cameron, it's brilliant.
Posted by: Michael Rutherford | October 12, 2006 at 22:50
Sion Simon should be expecting the Chief Whip shortly...I hope he has a spare pair of pants!
Interesting point about the fake depression. Its low when you have to make up an excuse like mental health problems because you screwed up.
Posted by: James Maskell | October 12, 2006 at 23:17
I really cannot make up my mind as to whether Sion Simon looked stupider dressed up as DC, or in his suit and weird hairstyle. In any case, it will be as good for us as the blue chameleon. "Bring it on"
Nice spot on Andrew Neil about the Dinosaur getting to TB. He is starting to be almost approving of us is he not.
Posted by: Annabel Herriott | October 13, 2006 at 01:11
I really cannot make up my mind as to whether Sion Simon looked stupider dressed up as DC, or in his suit and weird hairstyle. In any case, it will be as good for us as the blue chameleon. "Bring it on"
Nice spot on Andrew Neil about the Dinosaur getting to TB. He is starting to be almost approving of us is he not.
Posted by: Annabel Herriott | October 13, 2006 at 01:11
"a transparent attempt by Milliband to ferment division in the Conservative party
it won't work"
It doesn't NEED to work: division appears, unfortunately, to be the Party's natural state.
Posted by: Dave J | October 13, 2006 at 02:18
Sion Simon's performance was deeply sad and I do hope he is feeling embarrassed about it now - sadly I suspect he think he was terribly amusing and clever!
Posted by: Sally Roberts | October 13, 2006 at 07:25
Misrepresenting something and then attacking that misrepresentation is a bog standard NuLabour tactic. Listen to Blair at PMQs to hear it in action. Sometimes I think that the only argument he knows is "straw man". The dodgy Lawyers and Barristers that make up so much of the NuLabour cabal were taught about fallacies in argument during their training; they were taught to avoid them. It soon dawned on them, however, that as tools for misrepresention and obfuscation in political debate they could be very useful. Since then they have used little else.
Posted by: The Laughing Cavalier | October 13, 2006 at 09:20
This phase of labour's degradation and dilapidation will be good for Cameron. NuLab try everything to get back the lead PR but they's always one step wrong, from Gordon Brown and down. They're all me-too Tonies, and they don't get it. Blair was the master. They're all chaff in comparison - including and especially Gordon Brown.
Once Labour have finally self-destructed, Cameron's real challenge will begin. How will he stack up against real world troubles like the Islamist threat? This is like a phoney phase, where a million NuLab windbags are letting out gasps of incredulity that they are now yesterday's men.
Posted by: Tapestry | October 13, 2006 at 12:27