Political

Something I’d not noticed before about David Cameron

I’m currently reading Back from the Brink (good read though I’m still recovering from the mental images of Michael Howard in a white dressing gown) and its account of the Conservative Party since 1997 has made me realise there’s a pattern to David Cameron’s political career which I had not noticed before.

In brief it is this – he frequently gets off to a bad start.

His campaign for the leadership of the Conservative Party started poorly over the summer of 2005 before the breakthroughs of his two speeches (his campaign launch and at party conference) without notes and the Newsnight focus group.

During the final round against David Davis, he again got off to a poor start in their joint TV appearances, being bested in the BBC1 Question Time debate.

Most recently, during the 2010 general election, his first TV debate appearance was his worst.

In each case after his poor start, he improved markedly.

A pattern worth bearing in mind when judging future slip-ups by Cameron, I suspect.

One response to “Something I’d not noticed before about David Cameron”

  1. I don’t think it’s possible to say that this will be the case in every situation – there is always something that ‘bucks the trend’. However, you have plenty of examples to show that this could happen most of the time.

    Let us hope that any initial slip ups in the future will not lead to big long-term problems.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

All comments and data you submit with them will be handled in line with the privacy and moderation policies.