Politics need not be brutal

Peter Oborne issues a warning to David Cameron in his Daily Mail column: Don't over do the personal attacks on Gordon Brown at PMQs or in private briefings.  It may have a positive political effect in the short-run, suggests Oborne, but it may ultimately lead the British people to conclude that David Cameron lacks the basic decency that they want in politicians.

For the record: we don't think that David Cameron has gone too far but the warning is wise nonetheless.  As long as Cameron's anger is always on behalf of the British people he is doing his job as Leader of the Opposition.

Peter Oborne ends his piece with this:

"Politics need not be brutal. Indeed, I witnessed another fascinating insight into how it can be conducted on Thursday night when my wife and I went to a reception at Lambeth Palace, the historic home of the Archbishop of Canterbury.  Among the guests were many priests, bishops, charity workers and some politicians, including Gordon Brown and the backbench Labour MP Frank Field, who had spent all week spearheading a successful backbench revolt against the Prime Minister over his decision to abolish the 10p tax band.  At a late stage of the evening, under the benign gaze of the Archbishop, Frank Field stepped forward and embraced Gordon Brown, who responded in kind.  It was a moving and blessed moment between two honourable men who have been bitterly at odds for more than a decade and yet proved they could forget their differences."

Politics needs more of that.

Related link: Watch highlights of David Cameron's latest PMQs exchange with Gordon Brown

Comments

[Richard]

"Peter Oborne issues a warning to David Cameron in his Daily Mail column: Don't over do the personal attacks on Gordon Brown at PMQs or in private briefings."

Agreed, leave that to Guido and co, they're far better at it and can get away with saying what Cameron wouldn't be allowed to say or might look strange saying. Such as the tendency for everything Jonah Brown touches to crumble.

[Vince]

If we win on Thursday/ Friday it's important we don't appear triumphalist. This isn't about us but about delivering for Britain

[John F Aberdeen]

"a moving and blessed moment between two HONOURABLE men"
I,m wondering how much of this is tongue is tongue in cheek.
Perhaps Oborne can set out what he finds honourable about Bottler Brown. Mind you that will be a hard task because personally I can,t find a shred of honour about him.
Whats is honourable about stealth taxes, increasing taxes on the low paid, spinning and lying plus selling out our country to the EU through ratifying the Lisbon treaty without a (promised in the labour manifesto he helped to draw up) referendum, ruining and helping to kill members of our armed forces by sending them into wars without the proper equipment, frankly the list of "dishonourable" things the sub-prime minister has done are endless.
As for the embrace between Frank Field and Brown, that reminds me of the Mafia movies when the likes of Al Capone and Don Corleona embraced their allies,, then masssacred them and, judging by the fudged U turn it looks like Field has been massacred because many labour MP,s who backed him are now treating his quick retreat with contempt.
The dishonourable behaviour of Bottler, Blair etal, the whole Nulab moob, including their allies in the BBC (see todays Daily Mail "Dimbleby accused of Question Time bullying and bias against Boris") over the past 11 years have made a conservative like me not just a political opponent but and enemy, so, having a great leader like David Cameron hammering Bottler at PMQ,s, treating him with disdain and contempt is speaking for me. Well done Dave.

[Tony Makara]

I don't like to see malice in politics but there are times when fire has to be fought with fire. The way Labour have attacked David Cameron and Boris Johnson on nothing more than their background has been disgusting. All the toffisms have nothing to do with politics whatsoever but are an attempt at character assaination. However when Brown is dithering its only right that David Cameron calls him a ditherer, that isn't so much character assaination as fact. If Labour and the Liberals want to bring civility back into politics they need to cut out the class-prejudice, Nick Clegg was at it at PMQs this very week. Imagine if Conservatives turned on an MP from a working-class background and started calling him a 'Prole' or a 'Peasant', there would be uproar! So a good starting point would be an end to the class-hate, which in my opinion is just as bad as racism or sexism.

[For the Union]

He needs to adopt the McCain strategy. Present yourself as a decent fair politician, but allow the surrogates to attack and destroy your opponent (linked to Hamas, that NC RNC ad etc..), to save him the hassle and the press.

Cameron needs to turn the media against Brown...it does appear to be happening however.

It ALL rests on the mayor election and the local elections. You must win them to continue the anti-labour narrative and put severe pressure on brown....but if labour hold, it will reset the agenda.

[Northernhousewife]

If Boris wins, it may well be at least in part because of the negativity of the campaign against him.
I think the Editor has this right.
Its about the measure of it and the reason behind it.
Notice it was Frank that made the first move. It takes courage, Frank has it...

[Sam Tarran]

"It was a moving and blessed moment between two honourable men ..."

Although I find many admirable and honourable qualities about Frank Field, I find nothing that deserves merit about Gordon Brown, except perhaps how he has set his face like flint against an almost constant storm of abuse. Yet, even that is crumbling.

Oborne doesn't seem to get that Cameron has to attack at Prime Minister's Questions and out in public because, despite how much the advocates of PR may hate it, our political system is built on confrontation. If Cameron doesn't attack, he is, rightly, seen as weak, and when plenty of people are criticising him for not being different enough policy-wise from the incumbent, he needs to keep on the offensive.

[CCHQ Spy]

There are different ways of attacking though Sam.

On Wednesday David Cameron chose to attack Brown as "a loser not a leader".

That was deeply personal. He could have chosen to attack Labour's taxation of the poor. An attack that would be much more deadly in the long term to Labour's reputation.

David Cameron is still on the right side of acceptability but he does need to watch it.

[Alan S]

David Cameron has to be personal because he doesn't have much substance to offer. He has no plan to help the low paid. If he did he could raise the tone.

[voreas]

Oborne just sounds silly claiming Brown is honourable. The man is a constant stream of lies and half truths. Cameron should relentlessly attack these and I find it difficult to reconcile Oborne writings about the political class with his sudden love of Gordon Brown. Meanwhile Frank Field has come out of this looking a gullable fool. He really should know better.
I agree with the editor that Cameron should ask himself honestly if he is attacking from a voter's perspective or a tory leader perspective if it is the latter then best to desist. If the former then he should be witty and effective.

[David Belchamber]

I think a change in tone is necessary, partly because Brown has shot himself in the foot and the fallout from the botched 10p abolition will continue on its own for some while yet.

David Cameron should now be presenting a calmer image and showing that he is strong, thoughtful and a leader. To do that he needs to start saying something more specific about policies that matter to the less well off in society who are suffering at the moment.

The well off will probably do rather well, as they generally do when Labour is in power, because they might not have mortgages but will have cash with which to buy shares and properties when the time is right. It's OK for them but those who face 6%/7% inflation and a loss in their paypacket, life is really tough just now.

If an election is called in the next six to twelve months, the economy will, as usual, be a major issue.

Leave it to George Osborne and his shadow team to show at long last if they can rip Brown's economic legacy to shreds. Ian Cowie, Jeff Randall and other financial journalists do it on a daily basis and very effective too. Why can't Osborne?

[Deborah]

"if he is attacking from a voter's perspective or a tory leader perspective if it is the latter then best to desist.

Absolutely. Particularly because I think the tory leader perspective is very male orientated. I think most women would be switched off by the "loser not leader" approach - but "you chose to tax the poor" scores with everyone.

[Umbrella man]

The Tory PMQs team need to spend more time thinking about policy and less about personality.

Bush once said I will never balance the budget on the backs of the poor.

Cameron needs similar phrases that become associated with him.

"Sharing the proceeds of growth" is the only memorable one so far.

[dirty european socialist]

I wish nastiness did not win in politics. But it does seem to win. The PM can only win if he insults back with more devastating insults, or deliberately make a play for the we are both nice guys vote.

[Yet Another Anon]

Bush once said I will never balance the budget on the backs of the poor.
And under his presidency which otherwise has many fine features, public spending as a proportion of GDP has risen and the National Debt has reached new heights.

However cutting Income Tax for the poor is reasonable, balanced budgets have to take priority, I do think though that there were other ways that the government could have balanced the budget such as through extending VAT, scaling back many of their new spending programmes, extending charging for services - cutting spending on the poor as well as the rich though cannot be ruled out and I don't think there is any merit in government attempting to reduce relative poverty, as Jesus said "The poor will always be with us" and differentials are an important part of an enterprise economy.

[Malcolm Dunn]

Rather suprised at Oborne for his comment about Brown being honourable. I had thought after reading his book 'Triumph Of the Political Class' that Peter was able to take a totally dispassionate view about politics and politicians.
There is now a huge amount of material in the public domain recording dishonourable behaviour from Gordon Brown and as as far as I'm aware virtually nothing to suggest otherwise. So unless Peter Oborne is aware of something hidden from the rest of the world I struggle to think of a single reason as to why he's written this article.