David Cameron’s appearance on Andrew Marr has not made much news but it was, to my mind, one of Cameron’s most impressive performances to date. Two of the most common criticisms you hear of Cameron in Tory circles is that he doesn’t show enough passion and that he doesn’t offer voters enough concrete reasons to vote for the party. This morning, Cameron passed both of these tests—just take a look at this part of the transcript:
I think something did change last week which is I think people on low pay, families who struggle often to make ends meet, who are seeing the cost of living rising and they’re seeing their tax bill go up from Labour, I think those people who often thought you know the Labour Party’s for me, I think they feel desperately let down. And what I want to say to people like that is that you know we are there for you. I will try and keep your taxes down. I’ll, if you do the right thing and save I will try and help you. I’ll make sure the benefits system you know pays couples to stay together rather than to separate. We’ll try and give you the good school that you ought to have. I think those people have been let down by Labour and ..
ANDREW MARR: Yeah ..
DAVID CAMERON: .. those are the people actually I want to stand up for. Now, this might be longer than the sentence that Fraser thought that the Tories were missing last summer but it does the job. (On both benefits and education the policy is in place to make these changes real, on tax their remains much worked to be done.) The Tories are positioning themselves to fully capitalise on Labour’s problems.
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