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An innocent at Home

James Forsyth

Wednesday, 18th June 2008

Dominic Grieve, the new shadow home secretary, tells James Forsyth that he won’t ‘resort to soundbites’. But is this a sensible approach for a modern-day politician?

No one can doubt that Grieve is smart and principled. But doubts about whether he is cut out for frontline politics are growing. Grieve bridles at the idea that he needs to become a more careful speaker. ‘I wouldn’t be doing my job if I just resorted to soundbites,’ he sniffs. But Labour has already made tabloid hay out of an old quote from him about the 7/7 bombings being ‘totally explicable’. Grieve can expect to be on the receiving end of a lot of this kind of Labour fire in the coming months. An attempt to paint the Tories as soft on terror and crime might be Labour’s last and best chance to slow the Cameron bandwagon and with Grieve as shadow home secretary, Labour will feel it has its opportunity.

Grieve is already comfortable talking about the legacy he wants to leave as home secretary; he clearly does not regard himself as a stopgap. But if he wants to succeed in this way he will have to accept that it is sometimes necessary to talk in soundbites.

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Speccie was my favourite magazine

June 20th, 2008 2:50pm

I see the word has come down from on high that Grieve is to be briefed against. I have met him. He is - as this article reluctantly accepts - bright and articulate. He also seemed deeply principled in that real way Cameron's little Etonian clique find so distasteful. So, tell us James, is this coming from CCO or from d'Ancona? Sadly, you may be right: poltiicans of first-rate ability and intelligence probably are a bit of a liability. You would, however, hope that it might be appreciated by a Spectator jounalist.

Fergus Pickering

June 24th, 2008 7:42am

Well of course James, if you are a journalist then you want the chaps to talk in soundbites? But I think (and I hope) that you are wrong again. You are wrong about Davis - what he did was GOOD. And you are wrong about Grieve - he will do very well. course it doesn't matter if a journalist is wrong. In fact it seems halpful if you want a job on the DT for example. But we'd rather our politicians were right at least some of the time. These guys a right.Trust meon this.

John Strafford

June 25th, 2008 11:23am

Another miserable article attacking Dominic Grieve. Are you going through a mid life crisis James, or is being negative your normal behaviour?>

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