Cameron's bullshit on "new politics"

David Cameron was in the Guardian yesterday banging on about embracing new politics by proposing that the Tories and LibDems stand Greg Dyke as a joint candidate for London Mayor. (You can read it here complete with a stackload of comments).

This typifies the shallowness of Cameron.

Firstly, it is only after exhausting a long list of hoped-for big names such as John Bird and Mike Read (yes, a really big name for us Seventies pop aficionados, trust me) that he has now given up and tried this wheeze. There was even a rumour at one point that the Tories might actually hold an internal election to find a candidate from amongst their members but this was put on ice.

Secondly, is Greg Dyke really a Martin Bell figure? We stood down, as did Labour, in favour of Martin Bell when he won against Neil Hamilton. But Martin Bell had a lot more credibility as a serious candidate and it was just a parliamentary seat, not one of the most powerful directly elected posts in the world. While Greg Dyke is quite a substantial figure in media management, why on earth is Cameron now saying that he is a sort of knight in shining armour, for whom the LibDems should have immediately stood down in order to show that we embrace "new politics"? Why in short, should we say to our members what Cameron is saying to his members in London: "Sorry, none of you are good enough to be our candidate, we are going to choose Roland Rat's Dad instead"?

Why this fascination with celebrities or big names from fields other than politics? Ken Livingstone's success is surely built on the fact that he has been plodding away at London local government for donkey's years, not plucked from the ranks of some other field all of sudden to be a "flavour of the month".

In the case of Dyke, Cameron seems to have fallen for him in the space of a meeting:

He told me how he'd run London well and stop Ken Livingstone's endless council-tax rises.

Oh well, that's all right then. Job Done. Forget about people who have actually got some first hand knowledge of how the capital is run. A man who is used to making telly programmes is bound to be able to do it better than them. And he talks in a sort of Cockneyish accent so he must be a natch for London Mayor. He'll look good in a Pearly King suit. End of Mayor search. Look no further. Sod the Conservative and LibDem members who actually work in local government politics - why consult them? This is "new politics", after all. The party leaders choose the candidate.

It doesn't make any sense at all and is typical of the shallow rubbish which Cameron spouts.

The Tories proudly described past leaders' backgrounds- so why not Dave's?

If you look back at past Conservative leaders, we were told a lot about their backgrounds. Ted Heath - son of a carpenter, Grammar School boy. Maggie Thatcher - helped her Dad keep the books at his Grantham Grocer shop. John Major - his humble beginnings in Brixton which loomed large in his memoirs. We even got to hear about soldier Iain, Beer-delivering Willie and humble-beginnings Michael.

But our Dave Cameron says that his past before he went into politics should not concern us - he was a private person then.

So why did the Tories bleat about the young Ted, Maggie, John, Iain, Willie and Michael then?

Of course, the answer is obvious. You only have to look back at the last Conservative leader whose background caused him some difficulty. Sir Alec Douglas-Home. The phrase "grouse moor" hung around his neck like an Albatross.

So I agree with Jonathan Calder and Peter on Liberal Review. The "revelations" in the Mail on Sunday are pretty pathetic and unlikely to frighten any horses this side of Norman Tebbit.

But reminding people that Dave went to Eton will hurt him. Sooner or later his silence about his past will become deafening.

While I am at it, anyone want to look at some posh family furniture?

Only 42-carat plonkers won't laugh at this Mail on Sunday story

The Mail on Sunday. "David Owen, Ming's top men, even Mandy - all are welcome in Dave's big tent".

"David Owen"? Pass the oxygen, I am going to expire through hyperventilatory laughter!

"Mandy"? Here is my last will and testament. I may die of laughter shortly.

Last autumn, George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, invited himself into the office of a leading figure in the LibDem Party. Then, without so much as a preamble, he got down to business and presented him with a dramatic proposition, which he made clear had been sanctioned by David Cameron.

Osborne suggested to David Laws, LibDem work and pensions spokesman, that he should consider defecting to the Conservative Party. In return, he would be offered a shadow cabinet job. At this point, Laws politely and thoughtfully explained that he was not a Tory.

What? Little Georgie Osbourne?! "Without preamble"! Did his feet touch the ground as he pulled himself up to his full height in the chair? Oh, go on then, here's another gratuitous laughter photo.