What happens when you are down

When you are ten points down in the polls everything you do is seen through that prism. So whenever the Tories announce a policy or talk about a topic, the media examine it for evidence of whether or not David Cameron is trying to shore up his right-wing or not. Everyone is looking to see if Cameron will follow Hague and Howard and tack back to the right if the polls continue to go against him.  

So, news-reports—and Labour’s response–to the Redwood led economic competitiveness policy group report have concentrated not on its substance, the best analysis of which comes in the Sunday Telegraph, but on the extent to which it is designed to reassure traditionalists.

This same problem bedevils Cameron when he tries to talk about the treaty formerly known as the EU constitution. Labour