Cameron takes on the "headless chickens" of government

Tiberius

Whether they're headless or not, they're certainly brainless.

As Fraser observed, they have now stolen the Tories' govt guarantee scheme for bank loans to business, and Balls' latest wheeze to improve secondary education makes you want to bang your head against a wall. That's before we get to Harridan's latest insanity disclosed below.

Chuck Unsworth

It's not a question of 'possibly, beyond' 2009. This recesssion is going to last for many more years than that and get a hell of a lot worse. But Brown will do anything he can to distract from the realities - hence 'initiatives'. What he's not yet understood is that everyone else has different priorities - like keeping a roof over their heads and bread on the table. They know that these 'initiatives' are mere sideshows.

Bread and circuses, eh?

Laughing Larry

Peter,

Wakey, wakey. This is a depression! Did you see the trade figures today? Drag on? You are living in la la land! Have you caught the bug from Mr Darling? Are the delusions catching. We truly are being run by a bunch of clowns who are not be fit to run a chain of chip shops. Are you good at peeling potatoes. A lot of Journos are going to get fired in this catastrophe. Hopefully the Journos at the Times of London will feel Rupert's knife, they are a real bunch of economic clowns.

jon dee

Another day,another gimmick.
Brown's daily dose of hyper-activity still does nothing to open credit lines for business.
"Headless chickens" is tragically accurate.

TGF UKIP

"I now see just how unaffordable Labour's spending plans are, perhaps we could have seen that earlier" hardly squares with being "pretty fast out of the box" especially when The Coffee House, Conservative Home and numerous hacks had been yelling at him for two years that Labour's spending plands were unaffordable.

What a plonker Dave is, was and always will be.

Neil Turner

"Doing more things faster is no substitute for doing the right things"

Stephen Covey

Slim Jim

All hail to the Great Clucking Fist!

Ian C

What's more this rings true, if you've been paying attention and unless all you listen to are the little soundbites that so many keep calling for.

The 10 point poll lead indicates that he has got it pretty much right - in spite of Osborne's general below par quality on the front line.

oldtimer

The phrase that comes to mind is "You cannot buck the market". That is why government measures will have little or no impact on the decisions of consumers and businesses to batten down the hatches on their spending habits.

All reports suggest it is at least as bad as the early 1980s, when demand last suddenly fell off a cliff. Then about a quarter of the UKs manufacturing industry disappeared for good. This time it looks as though there will be similar carnage, but affecting retail and financial services as well. The near term outlook is bleak indeed.

Outer Circle

Can we now officially rename Gordon Brown as Gordon Clown.

Verity

Ian C - I don't agree that a 10 per cent lead indicates that he has got it pretty much right. It is more indicative, in my opinion, of a growing loathing of Brown in particular and the Labourites in general. In other words, I think it's not positive approval of Cameron, which is not surprising because Cameron has come to the election party very late indeed.

Paul B

As I commented yesterday DC has upped his game. Hes now got a grip of his brief and is wounding Brown,, nigh on daily basis. Despite TGF`s pessimism I believe DC is doing a good job as opposition leader.

Im not sure if Brown will last to the end of the year at the current rate. The country is turning against him,save for a few diehards. He has the bunker mentality about him, with yes men and women telling him what he wants to hear. However in the real world, the tanks are rolling, the CBI, Chambers of Commerce , (for different reasons) the Unions, financial service industry are all turning against him. I shouldn`t think the forces like him, likewise the police. This could be lead up to a nightmarish historical moment.If he loses his own dressing room to use a football parlance, then there is an outside chance in my books, especially if things turn nasty on the streets- rioting, which the British have long honourable tradition of- then the Queen may, just may ,call time on him (Brown) I would have to take constitutional advise if that were possible. I just cannot see him (Brown) resigning, hes just too far gone. Brown really is a meglomaniac, wrapped up in delusions of his own grandeur and omnipotence. He is psychologically flawed. Its as plain as the beak on my boat.

This may seem totally insane and probably is, but from where I am sitting and from the discussions I have with friends and aquaintances, the situation is grim beyond all description at present and people are angry.
May only be a 10point lead at present, buts polls generally don`t truly reflect Tory support. People, for some reason, are shy to admit to voting Tory,but come polling day they put the tick in the blue box. I predict we will shortly be seeing a 15pc Tory lead and then a herd mentality will kick in. Tory support will snowball rapidly come summer/early autumn and we will see 20pc + lead, maybe even 30pc and thats when Brown will be forced on his way, one way or t`other onto the great scrapheap of history. He will not be missed.

Ivy Eileen

When the name of the game is to confuse action with progress, it can last for only so long. Hopefully, it is now all beginning to unravel - but there will be one hell of a mess to clear up afterwards.

DC needs the other Oppo frontbenchers to join in and speak as if they mean it too. Its not to his advantage for it to appear to be too personal, which could happen if it is him all the time ... the Tories must show they have a Team fighting and meaning/believing what they say.

Tiberius

It's a gas being anti-Cameron isn't it.

Parity in the polls, and Dave is rubbish. A 10 point lead, and it's because Brown is useless. Cameron spends 3 years neutralizing the issues that kept the Tories out of office for 10 years, and when he comes off the ropes with growing success, he's a johnny-come-lately.

;)

chris

My guess is that we are 2 years into a 8 year (minimum)recession which is now gaining downward momentum.

All the spending effort needs to go towards a future economy where we manufacture real goods and non- financial services for export as well as home consumption. This spending should be co-ordinated, including being spent on suitable education and traning from an early age.

Financial services and retail are very important, but have become of grotesque importance to our economy.

The old something for nothing greed system has ended, hopefully.

Verity

Paul B - I would rather the Labourites win the next election and then totally implode. Meanwhile, Cameron would have been sacked by the Tories and a Conservative put in.

Liz Brown

I wold fa prefer if the Govt was to do nothing, as opposed to a daily bombardment of incoherent "nishtivs" which are putting us deeper and deeper into the mire. The only bright ideas are ones that they have copied from the Conservatives - which they pooh poohed then and now say that these ar totally different and ahhhhhhbsoooloootely mahvelous, dahling. GENERAL ELECTION NOW

Verity

Tiberius - this is a myth. There were no "issues that kept the Tories out of office for 10 years". There were socialist smoke and mirrors and promises, promises, promises and show biz and glitter and the ego of Tony Blair sending out rays of sunshine to the little people.

This "neutralising issues" of a party that had been out of power for so long that no one had any memory of those "issues" that are just all part of the myth.

What is more, Cameron "decontaminated" - to use marketing term that sounds savvy and means diddly - issues of a decade or 12 years ago, none of which were applicable in a country the Gramscis had changed so dramatically and decisively.

Dr Blue

Paul B
You are right about Brown losing supporters. The GPs are sick of Mr Brown. Have a look at GP magazine http://www.healthcarerepublic.com/news/GP/871516/Exclusive---GPs-desert-Labour-droves this week where a poll shows only about 15% of GPs will vote Labour as against 50% for the Tories.

It's largely a (entirely justified) anti-Brown feeling- but in past elections GPs have tended to vote similarly to rest of the country.

Tiberius

Verity; the tale of Theseus and the Minotaur is a myth. That the Tories were out of office for 10 years and were going nowhere before Cameron became leader, er, isn't.

Verity

Tiberius, the Tories have been out of office for 10 ghastly, thought-fascist, unpatriotic (kill British traditions to accommodate primitive immigrants who were surprised to receive such unasked for cultural largesse, but what the hell) and impose tractor production projections on further accommodations to Islamic immigrants and EU laws. The British did not vote for any this.

They were lied to by song-and-dance man Tony Blair, currently playing The Palace in Ridaydh.

One Worlder (twinked up as "New" Labour) aggression against our country has continued, even after Blair and thug Alastair Campbell (who I sense will shortly return for another Judy Garland farewell tour), took their bows and left the stage. Yet they're still at it under the guise of a leader who is a dour Scot - traditionally a password for caution - but is actually bonkers with more rings round his head than Saturn.

Pete, Scotland

Evidence of activity is not evidence of achievement.

Jim

I think that that Cameron will win, but that he will get swept away quickly by what is coming.
This economic crisis is different from any in most people's memory, because of Britain's debt position. There also isn't enough industry to create real wealth, even if their were customers to sell it to.
At the moment Brown's plan is to try to inflate it away, hence the Bank of England has stopped reporting money printing figures. But our debts are so large that they will have to be defaulted on.
DC seems reactive, his grasp of economics is limited, we know this because he didn't see this crisis coming. Many Austrian economists did, but they are a fringe group.
All DC's initiatives show he seems to be catching up with the reality of the crisis, but at the end of the day government can't rebuild the country, only the people can do that.
We are looking at government being unable to pay salaries or benefits, abandonment of social programmes etc. The Argentina collapse of 1999 is probably a good guide for what we can expect. The turnover of Presidents got very rapid at one stage.

Alex

Verity - change the record please. It's getting boring

Paul B

Thanks Dr Blue, I will look ot the link. Its interesting GPs turning against him, because it generally held they have done well, very well, financially out of this administration. In some ways it goes to disprove the notion of a client state and public sector workers voting on mass for NuLab.

Ian C

Verity

Oppositions don't win elections.

Dr Blue

Some of the most visceral opposition to Brown comes from front line public sector workers. We tend to have single word job titles like doctor, nurse, policeman, teacher, soldier, cleaner, porter, social worker. You will have some idea what we do. Our jobs have their joys and their tribulations...but usually our biggest problem is not our clientele but the useless interfering management cadre which has got ever more bloated, demanding and less effective under Labour.

There is scope for about 30% direct cut across the public sector as we lose "diversity advisors" "primary care improvement managers" "care pathway navigators" "five a day fruit and veg coordinators" and a whole host of others who talk about facilitation, change management, liasion, process mapping and other vague activities. The whole lot could be lost with no loss of function and no harm to services.

Verity

Jim makes an excellent point that I hadn't thought of before: David Cameron is reactive. That is quite an indictment.

Ian C - Fair point.