Michael Portillo finally admits Cameron's flaws

The attack and backtrack, for that is what this truly seems, is in Portillo's column in today's Sunday Times, linked here.

Former Daily Telegraph editor, Charles Moor, clearly also has growing doubts according to his Spectator Notes column this week, linked here, which leaves only the present editor of that magazine among Tory journalistic heavyweights who heavily backed Vapid during his Sunday Telegraph days to desert the lightweight fop.

How accomplished David Davis appeared on Sunday's Sky News this morning. But can the party ever now be salvaged given the wider membership elected such a disaster. Even Portillo is beginning to wonder as may be seen in this quote from the conclusion of his column:

Cameron’s handling of the Dyke incident was clumsy. But it was more than just an ill-thought-out wheeze. The Tory leadership has been reflecting deeply on the shifting tectonic plates of United Kingdom politics.

While the party talks about winning an outright victory, other gloomier scenarios are at least as likely. In one, the Conservatives urgently have to find new ways to do business with other parties in local government as a prelude to doing a deal at national level. In another scenario the electoral system changes and the Tories have to woo new partners because otherwise they will be in opposition for ever.

Part time politics, partitioned party

I hinted at Cameron's disconnected attitude to politics in the posting below. My thoughts were prompted by his recording of an interview for the supposed flagship BBC political programme Sunday AM. As Master Marr stated on the now available transcript, linked here:

But next month's elections are a big test for him too, and of how far the Cameron effect has spread.

Well I met David Cameron during a break in canvassing at a hospital in his Oxfordshire constituency.

Big test maybe, but hanged if Vapid will give up his Sunday for a live interview regardless of what news might break!

Recalling that Cameron when previously interviewed by the slimy Scot Marr in Henley , Vapid claimed Scottish blood running thick through his veins and absolutely refused to contemplate an adjustment to the Barnett formula whereby scrounging Scots live off English largesse, and have so for decades. Now we get this exchange:

ANDREW MARR: Let's talk about Scotland where the Conservatives are not in a particularly strong position, to put it gently. It has been suggested that you might hive off the party in Scotland, and Scottish Conservatives might effectively organise themselves to give them a new chance.

DAVID CAMERON: Well I don't have a plan to do that. I think it's important though that we do emphasise that the Scottish Conservatives are a Scottish party - they elect their own leader, they write their own policies, they're responsible for their own manifesto.

It's devolution at work, so they are able to come up with the right policies for Scotland, not always the same policies that we might have in England, that's right. And we need to emphasise that. And I think that's important, but I don't have plans to...

ANDREW MARR: Would you be against them choosing a new name, for instance?

DAVID CAMERON: Well it would be up to them to make that suggestion if they wanted to. I think actually they are very much running under the banner of being Scottish Conservatives and I think it's important that they emphasise that they are a party for Scotland.

ANDREW MARR: If, as a result of these elections, Scottish National Party are forming an administration in Edinburgh and calling for there to be a referendum, what will your response be? Don't they have a right to have a referendum if people in Scotland want a referendum and they say they do, they've got a right to that haven't they?

DAVID CAMERON: If there is a referendum I will campaign as actively as I can for a no vote because I want to keep England and Scotland together. But we've always said if that there was a referendum, and if the result went from my point of view the wrong way we would have to honour that. I think that's that the only way to be open and frank with people in Scotland about this, but I desperately, you know, hope that it doesn't happen.

So what happened to the Union. How can the British opposition party in Parliament have different policies to its own party in Scotland. If so, who is the leader where? Is it me or has the world gone mad?

I am beginning to believe Jack Straw or Ming Campbell might be the last hopes for Britain. At least they have seen life, albeit just from the Westminster/(Edinburgh) bubble.

A "modern and caring" father of young children cannot run a Nation

Think about my headline. Then watch the first posting on WebCameron linked from my sidebar.

A Prime Minister in this uncertain age must devote 24/24 hours and 7/7 days to his responsibilities. The RN Iranian fiasco proves that point!

Just look at this latest entry on the WebCameron site:

an eventful few days

17 April 2007

A long gap since the last blog. Apologies – this is another casualty of moving house. The best brains of BT and our IT department cannot get me a broadband connection, so I’ve been completely disc ..

Thus speaks a cipher!

Cameron failed again last weekend - recording an interview on Saturday afternoon with the sycophantic fellow-Scot Marr for Sunday AM and thereby missing immediacy to gain a "Family Day"....... during the last stages of the local election campaign..... in the middle of a crisis for Britain's armed forces????? When the country is crying out for mature governance!

David Cameron is a family man with a disabled eldest son who requires constant care. David Cameron should be given the time to provide such care and indulge his other children as he so obviously feels is necessary to ensure that they mature to be the kind of self-centred adults that would be equally unsuited to running a country as himself.

One or other of the Cameron generations could perhaps later run an independent Scotland.

A Tory vote on 3rd May will only continue the present farce.