Cameron “does” punters very well. When I’ve followed him on the campaign trail, I’ve been struck by how he has a gift whereby he can click with pretty much anyone. For those who didn’t see his interview on Newsnight last night, you can watch it again here. It was arranged by Radio One’s Rajini Vaidyanathan, who has a deadly knack of catching politicians off guard (as Gordon Brown found out).
She had assembled what should, for Cameron, have been a troublesome mix of Radio One listeners. A working single mother from Gravesend who wanted to know why she should be discriminated against under the Tories, and thought Cameron as “borderline smug”. A Welsh 14-year-old who wants somewhere safe for her friends to go underage drinking and thought (initially) that Cameron needs to “open his eyes more”. A London primary school teacher, who is worried about gangs and knife crime. A woman who wonders if Cameron is being smug. This audience is so difficult because their bullshit detectors are so strong.
He says he’s called David, not Dave and doesn’t know where Dave comes from. He should ask George Osborne, who introduced him as “Dave” when launching his leadership platform. It was a little exercise in rebranding, methinks, dumped early on. And a flame that will be kept blazing by Richard Littlejohn, to whom Cameron will forever be “call me Dave”.
What jumped out at me was a question from Ross McKay who described himself as “civil engineer – groundwork – dig holes” and he’s “basically I’m worried about the amount of Polish that are undercutting everyone”. At first Cameron doesn’t seem to understand, saying “because we have a minimum wage in Britain I don’t think you should see too much undercutting”. D’oh. As Ross pointed out, a roofer can get £10 an hour, and faces competition from Poles who will do it at the minimum wage. Cameron said he wanted “limited migration” but Rajini was on him in a second, saying he that was a non-answer in this case – this is Poles. He said he had wanted controls on Poles, saying ”if you give a country a little bit more time to get up to our income levels, there will be less migration”. That sounded suspicious to me – seven years won’t close the gap between Poland and Britain. Seven decades, maybe. Cameron in the end said there was absolutely nothing he can do about Poles. The brutal truth for those (like myself) who believe immigration’s a net benefit – that the winners outweigh the losers – is that there are losers nonetheless. And it is exceptionally tough to meet one of those losers, like Ross McKay, as there is nothing politicians can possibly say to him.
The single mother asked Cameron about the tax breaks for married couples and asked “does that mean I’m not worth as much?” “We’re not suggesting we’ll reduce in any way the benefits single mums get,” Cameron said. There are a million people together, who pretend to be apart because the benefit system pays them to do so. “I’m saying lets get rid of this couple penalty, so if people come together they don’t lose out. It’s a simple as that.” “Just because people come together doesn’t mean they are going to be better off. “There are some relationships that ought to break down,” he said – like if one partner is violent.
At the end, Cameron got a universal thumbs up from them. Ross McKay was impressed with Cameron’s honesty – “He seemed all right, actually, I was quite surprised”. The single mother said he didn’t give a direct answer to her question “that said, he did give me advice on what I should be doing and for that point of view I respect him. He came over very well.” The 14-year-old was also sold on him (and his idea of letting kids drink at home) even though “he understood what I was talking about, he told me what his honest opinion was, even though he said my own idea was crap”. The teacher said she’d switch for Labour, even though she’d like his youth crime policies to be harder.
My point: when the election comes, remember Cameron’s secret weapon. He is just a superb campaigner. He would beat anyone Labour has to throw at him – in debates, in Q&A, in any forum you want to name.
Comments