David Cameron's aides found themselves performing an unusual damage-limitation exercise when they were forced to deny claims that the Conservative leader's wife, Samantha Cameron, might be voting Labour.The unlikely allegation came from Ed Vaizey, the Tory arts spokesman and - at least until yesterday - a trusted member of the Cameron inner circle.One insider said last night that Vaizey was "in the doghouse".Vaizey made his comment in a Channel 4 programme about Cameron being broadcast tomorrow night which also identifies Samantha as the person who coined the phrase used frequently by Cameron: "There is such a thing as society, it's just not the same thing as the state."
David Cameron's aides found themselves performing an unusual damage-limitation exercise when they were forced to deny claims that the Conservative leader's wife, Samantha Cameron, might be voting Labour.
The unlikely allegation came from Ed Vaizey, the Tory arts spokesman and - at least until yesterday - a trusted member of the Cameron inner circle.
One insider said last night that Vaizey was "in the doghouse".
Vaizey made his comment in a Channel 4 programme about Cameron being broadcast tomorrow night which also identifies Samantha as the person who coined the phrase used frequently by Cameron: "There is such a thing as society, it's just not the same thing as the state."
But anything that keeps the Tories from controlling the message in this election campaign is good news. En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
I ask since, from this side of the pond, the whole thing has gotten ridiculous.
The problem for them is that for 18 months or so they've gotten away with selling that nice Mr Cameron with the sweet wife and adorable kids (plus unmentioned grief over baby death).
now they've entered the bit where the political bit about what they really believe and what they intend to do comes to the fore. And suddenly all of the vague wishy washy stuff they've been getting away with for the last 18 months isn't working, in fact becomes counter-productive. It's becoming quite obvious that they didn't do their policy homework during this time. They really thought they could just breeze in to the election without giving anything away about their plans and it would be alright.
More fool them. Good. Much as I hate NuLab, the tories are far worse. keep to the Fen Causeway
It's almost as if, when it comes right down to it, the Tories can't help revealing they are bastards and the voters know they really would be a disaster for ordinary people. En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
why, oh why is the brit electorate so hooked on the tory/lab binary?
when i think of how hard it is in america to fly a decent, electorally credible third party, and i see in the UK the work has been done, why don't more vote more for it, if for no other reason than it's not the tweedle dyad.
it's not like they don't have better ideas, they just have a 'fail' aura about them, like it's a foregone conclusion they'll always be stuck at the symbolic, politically powerless level. ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
Because the Brits haven't got a proportional system. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
The original Libs were the party of Jeremy Thorpe, who remains the only significant British pol in recent history to be put on trial for attempting to murder a lover. (Did he also fiddle his expenses?)
So the fail is strong with them.
It's not that they're disreputable - it's that currently they're not nearly disreputable enough.
