Character assassination
- 10 Oct 07, 02:21 PM
Character assassination. That, in two words, was David Cameron's approach to Gordon Brown at Prime Minister's Questions.
So far, at least, opinion polling suggests quite a gulf between public perceptions of the last week and those in the political village where there is still open-mouthed disbelief at the prime minister's self-inflicted wounds. The Tories want to close that gap - to convince voters, in Cameron's words that "never have the British people been treated with such contempt… that he has lost political authority and moral authority".
If the Conservatives succeed, then what?
Gordon Brown is going to have to find a way to flesh out that "vision" he has spoken of so often. If I were in Downing Street I would be very worried that this is now a common theme of respected and sympathetic commentators from the FT's Philip Stephens to the Guardian's Jonathan Freedland and The Times's Alice Miles.
The Tories now need to work out what to do for an encore. Labour will portray their commitments to spend a billion on lifting inheritance tax from some of the richest in the land and to force benefit claimants back to work as "lurches to the right". The Tory press will say that success came when their demands for "red meat" were listened to. This is, curiously, a moment of maximum danger for Tory modernisers.
And the Lib Dems must work out what to do about Ming. They had good reason to believe that the exposure of an election campaign would remind people of their leader's virtues. Without it, what will they do?
The election that never was is now at an end. It's time for all to think again - hard.
