THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Prime Minister is doing most things right, but he just can't capture the public's imagination, says Janet Daley.David Cameron has succeeded in what has always seemed to be his chief political objective: he is not actively disliked by the majority of the population. In spite of being a Tory – and an Old Etonian – relatively few people hate him. Maybe this is as good as it gets.
But the great campaign to make Mr Cameron (and, by inference, his party) likeable – unthreatening, inoffensive, un-nasty – has an obverse side, which is now becoming clear. While almost none of the electorate violently detests him, nobody much loves him either. He is not repugnant – but neither is he inspirational. He is not malignant – but neither is he magnetic.
All of which may go some way to explain why, although many of his policies are getting a good press and some of them, such as welfare reform, are extremely popular, his party is still just level-pegging in the polls with Labour, whose state of disarray has reached embarrassing proportions. Even when the Cameron leadership is perceived to be going largely in the right direction, and doing quite brave things, it does not – as the saying goes – capture the public imagination. Listening to the Prime Minister speak arouses no passion in the collective breast of the nation. Why not? Read on and comment >>> Janet Daley | Saturday, November 27, 2010
Why don’t we love Cameron? That’s simple. He comes over as vain and conceited. He also comes over as weak and fawning. I detect no courage in this man. The country is in dire need of a real leader, one who is courageous and committed to maintaining freedom and true democracy. In Cameron, I fear we have someone who doesn’t seem to understand what is at stake; and someone who, even if he does, has no courage to stand up against that which is threatening our very survival. Cameron prefers to fiddle while Rome burns. The happiness index is more important to him. How banal! Further, he and Cleggover are turning their backs on Israel and sucking up to the Gulf Arabs. They have no principles. Mammon is their god. – © Mark
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