Matthew Parris applauds David Davis but endorses David Cameron

Matthew Parris uses his Saturday column in The Times to endorse David Cameron.

Painting the Tory contest as a two horse race between David Cameron and David Davis he appears content for either to become leader but prefers the younger of the two.

Mr Parris likes the fact that David Davis is a tax-cutter and pays tribute to his ability to improve his performance. He writes:

”David Davis is quick-thinking, tough-minded, modern, plain-speaking, direct and brave. He also has an ability often overlooked but never unimportant in politics, a talent Margaret Thatcher hardly advertised but depended on until it finally deserted her, whereupon she sunk. I mean the ability to learn. I’ve watched Davis grow into jobs. I’ve written some of the rudest things that have been said about his skills in public speaking. He was dreadful when he started. Now he is never less than solid as an orator, and impressive as an interviewee.”

Mr Parris writes that all the leadership contenders are wary of big government, over-regulation and excessive public spending. He admits that his reasons for preferring David Cameron are almost “wispy”. He believes that a 21st century British electorate will warm to “one of the most natural [performances] to emerge from a leading Conservative in decades”. Of Mr Cameron, he writes:

“He is completely without swagger yet never without command. He has the courtesy of a leader. He treads softly. He does not rush to judgment yet leaves you in no doubt he exercises judgment. He is the most well-judged potential Tory leader we have seen in years. He is not a hater. He is not a plotter.”

The David Davis camp’s alleged problem with ‘hating and plotting’ is addressed in today’s Telegraph. Interviewed by Alice Thompson and Rachel Sylvester Mr Davis is asked about suggestions that he is a “divisive bruiser, who will be unable to unite the party behind him”. DD insists that suggestions that some of his allies are bullying backbenchers into supporting him are "patently untrue”. "This is going to be a velvet revolution,” he says, “We want everybody on-side. We want everybody to go with us, to enjoy the thing; there will be no retaliations." The Telegraph (like Atticus earlier in the week) encourages us to notice the tense and DD’s clear expectation of victory.

Comments

[buxtehude]

The more I hear of Cameron's good qualities, the more fervently I hope for DD to win. Never having met Cameron myself, I cannot doubt what others say - that he is decent and courteous, two very important qualities. They serve him so well in masking the real problem: that his group is a vacuous, self-regarding clique of urban posers who will make the Conservative Party socially acceptable yet still doomed to electoral failure.

All the little arguments of the last few days mustn't obscure the central issue: we need DD's grit and determination, his ability to turn the Conservatives into the champion of the ordinary guy.

[buxtehude]

Don't forget - it was Cameron and Whetstone, Vaizey and Gove, who were the tight little team around Howard's disastrous election strategy, his speeches, his appearances - a sour campaign that saw its final twisted hurrah in Cheadle.

It is to strengthen Cameron and Whetstone, Vaizey, Gove and their ilk that Howard is taking the leadership selection from the members and back to the Westminster insider. (Yes, I know Gove has now opposed it, but I have the disctinct feeling tactical. I'm prepared to accept that it might be unfair of me to suggest it.)

[Steven Patrick]

I'd rather be surrounded by Vaizey, Gove and Osborne than Conway and Forth.

Did David Davis make it to Cheadle David Cameron and Liam Fox made the effort

[Jack Stone]

Matthew Parris is one of this countrys best political columinists and Conservative commentators. His views about David Cameron are in my opinion well judged and I am sure they will bring yet more people over to the Cameron camp.
It says a lot about the quality of David Cameron that he is attracting most of the party`s strongest and best thinkers.

[buxtehude]

Yes, I think I'd rather be surrounded by them too. That's really what I'm saying - these are pleasant chaps. Just wrong.

[Wat Tyler]

Yes, Parris is almost always an excellent read. Well informed, thoughtful, entertaining, and a great turn of phrase.

But one of his charms is that he sometimes gets a bit...I don't know, a bit dreamy. Like that time a few years ago when he announced he'd found out modern shampoos were destroying his scalp's ozone layer (or something), so he'd given up washing his hair. Rivetting stuff, and I've often wondered if he kept it up.

I love his candour, and here he's honest enough to admit that his reasons for preferring Cameron are 'wispy'.

Fair enough. But then, I didn't give up shampooing my hair either.

[Steven Patrick]

Didn't David Davis come cross as completely absurb in that Daily Telegraph article. Most bizzare.

[Editor]

Why do you think he came over as absurd, Steven? I thought it was a perfectly straightforward interview.

[Steven Patrick]

I dunno, he comes across to me as totally some sort of Alan Partridge or David Brent parody figure. Actually I could see Alan Partridge being a member of the Territorial SAS.

“I'm very forthright with people and that can be a vice. If I think I'm right, I'll argue the case very hard, whomever I'm arguing with. "That isn't always comfortable. But the Roman emperors always had somebody behind them whispering in their ear, 'You're only mortal.' "

“I make all the important decisions about World War Three, she makes the unimportant ones about where we're going to live”

"I pick very spiky friends - Alan Clark, Alastair Campbell, Derek Conway," he says. "They're completely unswerving in telling me [when] I'm useless. I like people who are really quite tough."

"It doesn't stack up, but maybe it's a compliment," he says. "I've made my way to what I do now from a reasonably lowly background and didn't break a sweat. Fantastic."

Fan-tas-tic!

[James Hellyer]

Oh look! A newspaper telling us it's between Cameron and Davis! And it's the Times!

After this week's meeting of socially conservative MPs, a retread of the 1922 vote in the offing, and months to go, I think I'll take that with rather more than a pinch of salt.

Despite what Parris implies, by only talking about two candidates, it's clear neither of his two picks has decisively broken away from the pack.

In any case, I'd rather not have the press make the choice for me!

[John T]

As a supporter of Davis, I didn't like his telegraph interview - he appeared too confident and a little strange.

I'd like to know more about Cameron's opinions, besides more support of Blair's policies what does he actually want to do if he forms a government.

[Tory Reaction]

I've already made this point over at the Davis fansite, before the person Who is NOT Iain Dale, censored a few of my posts*, but ....... it's all shaping up to be 2001 over again. The press had told us who's going to win, and a b*llsh*tt*ng candidate has done likewise. But this time again, neither the "Portillo" [DD], nor the "Clarke" [Cameron - loved by the left wing press ie The Times, BBC etc], is going to win.

Let's just hope that Fox is rather more able than Duncan Smith was. He certainly seems to be running as duff a campaign as Duncan Smith did. So the total coincidence thus far is Spooky.

*I think the specific post that most got NOT Iain Dale's goat was when I pointed out, sadly, the attitude of the lobby to Iain Dale, which is that he's a gossipy figure of fun. He's also *much* closer to the opinions of the Mods than he is to the sort of stuff Davis currently claims to stand for.