The most interesting question in politics right now is, to my mind, what does David Cameron really think about how his premiership is going? Does he subscribe to the view that the coalition is getting the big things right and that the numerous u-turns that Fraser referred to in his post really don’t matter that much. Or does he worry that the government is failing to communicate a message and that his defining political project—the big society—is coming under rapidly increasing fire.
My own view is that the truth rests somewhere between these two statements. But my feeling has been that Cameron is too blasé about how Downing Street is functioning. So it is encouraging to see that The Times is reporting that Cameron is planning to appoint a strategy director to his operation, someone to hone the message and check on what is happening across Whitehall.
I suspect that many people will roll their eyes at this and say that Cameron should just get on with governing. But this internal wiring stuff really does matter. For a Prime Minister to be effective, there needs to be a good strong team in place to offer support and ensure that the PM’s writ runs across government.
The Times says that the frontrunner for the job is Andrew Cooper, the director of Populus the Tory modernisers pollsters of choice. Given Cooper’s relationship with the paper, he polls for them and he worked with Danny Finkelstein during the Hague era, one can be close to certain that this is right.
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