Three endorsements boost ‘young, charming and telegenic’ David Cameron

This blog identified Oliver Letwin as a supporter of David Cameron in last Thursday’s Who’s Backing Who?’ feature.

But this morning, writing in Sunday’s Telegraph, in the most important public endorsement since Damian Green endorsed David Davis, the Conservative Environment spokesman goes public with his support for Mr Cameron:

”The phrases which form Cameron's leitmotif - "We are all in this together", "a decent society", "a government which is aware of its own limitations rather than a government which is limited in its aspirations" - are phrases that will stick. They express the instincts that will enable us to win elections and to provide Britain with the government she needs.

To judge by my experience of working with David, he is someone who lives the message, someone who actually believes in free markets, a stronger society, a more civilised Britain and a more civilised politics. I hope that he will stand. If he does, despite my admiration for other colleagues, I shall back him.”

A David Cameron leadership also generates some enthusiasm from Suzanne Moore in the Mail on Sunday. Dismissing David Davis as someone who can only appeal to other Tories she describes Mr Cameron as “young, charming, telegenic and altogether less macho than Davis.”

Ms Moore pays particular tribute to his emphasis on “there is such a thing as society”. She writes:

”This is the crucial territory the Tories have to make their own. What are the responsibilities of the State as well as its limits? Conservatives have always promised a smaller State but they have never delivered it… Cameron says he wants a party that is ‘forward-looking, inclusive and generous’. Generous? When did a Conservative last talk like that? Right now, I guess he is too good for them and the party will pick someone far meaner. But his time will surely come.”

Also an admirer is India Knight in The Sunday Times. Admitting to never having voted Tory in her life she writes:

"In my lifetime there hasn’t been a single Conservative leader, actual or prospective, that hasn’t seemed like a creature from another planet (Ken Clarke is the exception, being like a jolly pass-the-portish friend of your dad’s) I mean, God bless them, but John Major? William Hague? Michael Howard? Or the shadow home secretary David Davis, who makes rather an enormous deal of having been raised on a council estate? Charming people, I’m sure, but the idea of them appealing to the left-leaning middle class was and remains sort of hilariously absurd. They weren’t just from another planet — they were from a spooky planet that seemed mean and cold and bigoted, and which nobody in their right mind would want anything to do with. And then along comes Cameron..."

Comments

[GZulfar]

David Cameron does come across very well, especially with the women (I know this!).

[Cllr Francis Lankester]

I have not met David Cameron, but his education comments have generally been seen as lightweight.

I'm not clear how it's possibleto win over the "left-leaning middle class" since their world view is statist and self-comforting, usually including uncritical support of Live8 while going along with the CAP,abolishing which would do more for Africa than debt cancellation allowing corrupt governments to borrow and waste more.

What we need is a consistent and coherent approach that is argued in the country in every forum available month in month out, not just in the run up to an election.

Endorsement of any candidate by Oliver Letwin is hardly a recommendation.

[Wat Tyler]

Heh, Ed- you expunged my comments. What's going on? Meanwhile, even though we all like Ollie 'another fine mass' Letters, it's difficult to disagree with Cllr Lancaster.

[GZulfar]

http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/page.cfm?objectid=15693253&method=full&siteid=106694

[Blimpish]

"Charming people, I’m sure, but the idea of them appealing to the left-leaning middle class was and remains sort of hilariously absurd."

And if that's the criterion by which we're to judge the best candidate, I'm emigrating.

[Wat Tyler]

I love the Daily Mirror piece..."matinee idol looks"..."swooning Tory women"...makes DD sound like...I dunno...Alan Clarke.

So how come all these non-Tory women apparently don't go for him?

[Bruce]

If "India Knight" thinks John Major, Michael Howard, William Hague et al "seem like a creature from another planet", a "spooky planet" at that, I would suggest that Ms. Knight's circle of acquaintances is, to say the least, limited, though I won't go so far as to say which planet she and her acquaintances live on. Obviously, however much she may say kind words about potential Tory leaders, she will never vote for an actual Tory.

[D&D]

There si ansolutely nothing wrong with Cameron and Davis should, when he wins, becuase he will, give him a prominent cabinet position.
However we will need a macho leader, because Brown isnt exactly as subtle as Blair. And his face is nearly as beat up as Davis However leftist Cameron appears at the very mention of his priveliged upbringing all his left leaning policies will look like a bunch of lies to any intelligent person, left leaning middle class or not.
Finally, there was nothing wrong with Live8, i doubt it caused you any personal bother

[Jack Stone]

I am afraid its macho, in your face politics that have lost the party the last two elections so I think the last thing the party needs is a macho leader.
I am afriad people really need to grow up and realise the party needs to attract people who wouldn`t normally vote for it and stop worrying so much about the core vote who will frankly vote Tory if we had a frog as leader.
David Davis will simply not attract floating voters to vote for the party, David Cameron would!

[Mark O'Brien]

Am I the only one who is already fed up with sweet words like that? I'd be interested to know precisely what all of this means in practical ideas!

[Mark O'Brien]

Sweet words like 'forward-looking, inclusive and generous', just to make that clear!

[James Hellyer]

I'm afraid my admiration for Mister Letwin has been slightly tempered by some of his more ridiculous recent announcements.

Last week he told us of the necessity of NOT abolishing the CAP. This week he's told us that Cameron is our man, and has supported this argument by citing a speech Cameron delivered, but that this blog says Letwin co-wrote.

Hmmm. So David can read your scripts, Oliver. Is this really a reason to back him?

[James Hellyer]

"I am afraid its macho, in your face politics that have lost the party the last two elections so I think the last thing the party needs is a macho leader."

Huh? Macho politics? I'd hardly describe Michael Howard as "macho"... or William Hague for that matter!

The last thing wrong the two previous campaigns was that they were too "macho". I think the fact that they offered narrow grievance based platforms and offered no positve vision was rather more the problem.

We didn't offer a vision for government, but rather a platform for a one note opposition.

"I am afriad people really need to grow up and realise the party needs to attract people who wouldn`t normally vote for it and stop worrying so much about the core vote who will frankly vote Tory if we had a frog as leader."

The party needs to attractn the people who *used* to vote for it and more people like them. What it does not need to do is lurch to the left in the hope of appealing to "left-leaning middle class," who would never vote Conservative even if it did ape Labour (why vote Blue Labour when you can get the real thing?).

"David Davis will simply not attract floating voters to vote for the party, David Cameron would!"

Evidence for this other than... The Guardian article cited above?

For all his faults, Davis is an aspirational figure who has made something of himself when he started with nothing. That's a story that appeals to ordinary people (see the Telegraph's focus groups). In comparision, I'm not sure that being young and having a pleasant smile really creates that much appeal.

[James Hellyer]

"Finally, there was nothing wrong with Live8, i doubt it caused you any personal bother"

Dominating the airwaves and the media with its wrongheaded and countreproductive agenda was very bothersome!
http://www.civitas.org.uk/blog/archives/2005/05/make_self-indul.html

http://www.civitas.org.uk/pdf/debtRelief.pdf

[Edward]

You people really don't get it do you.

This is a party that has not won an election for 13 years. Many of the people that used to vote for us are in fact now dead. There is instead a new generation of voters that have only voted left.

The priority for this parliament has to be to win back the AB voters, the middle classes.

Cameron is a nice family man, and that matters, he talks the language of liberal middle classes whilst fitting their economic ambitions. He is also good on television and a very human communicator. By far the stand out choice to accomplish that aim.

[James Hellyer]

"You people really don't get it do you."

We do. and we even know when we're being patronised!

"Many of the people that used to vote for us are in fact now dead."

As you've put in no cut off point, you're probably right. The people who voted for Disraeli and Baldwin are certainly dead. Are the people who voted for Thatcher though? Most of them? Really?

"There is instead a new generation of voters that have only voted left."

Not entirely true. Younger voters are predominatly leftwards leaning, but are a small proportion of the electorate and not even terribly likely to vote.

"The priority for this parliament has to be to win back the AB voters, the middle classes."

And the best way to do this is by copying New Labour's language and focus? I think not.

The best way is to offer a positive view of what we can do for the country, that is distinctively Conservative.

We need speak to and for the people who have been let down by Labour. It's the poorest members of societ who suffer most from failing schools and hospitals - they can't buy their way out. We need to sell out solutions and show how we are dedicated to freeing people from that trap. That would show the Conservatives do care.

What we should not do is mimic Labour. Statist and centralised solutions come naturally to them, and therefore sound far more convinving tripping from their lips.

Cameron may well be a nice guy, but he is not differentiated enough from New Labour. Nobody is going to vote for an ersatz leftist party when there are at least two real ones out there!

The real problem of the last election campaigns was the absence of an overarching, positive Conservative vision.

Issues like immigration are ones that Conservative supporters rate the party more highly than Labour on, but play to the worst expectations of waverers.

It's hard not to be seen as a "nasty party" when candidates are circulating literature that says "send them back."

Instead we should make a strong, positive case for how we will improve provision of education and health services. That case should extend beyond the grievance based arguments that characterised the 2005 campaign (and far beyond Cameron's "we'll run it better" mantra).

It sounds to me like Cameron and his many of his supporters are keen to learn the wrong lessons from history.

"Last week he told us of the necessity of NOT abolishing the CAP"

In his constituency there're farmers who benefits from the CAP.

[James Hellyer]

"In his constituency there're farmers who benefits from the CAP."

Wow. So party policy is to be dictated by Oliver Letwin's majority? How impressive.