There is considerable frustration in the Tory ranks about the way the Prime Minister is handling the TV debates. Both those who think David Cameron should be doing the debates and those who think he should be doing everything in his power to avoid them are frustrated that the issue is beginning to take up the time that the Tories should be using to talk endlessly about the economy. They point out that they’ve been told not to talk about immigration or Europe – or indeed the NHS, if they fancy it – and focus relentlessly on the economy but are ending up having to contort themselves into strange positions that involve them talking about the value of the Green party or the importance of the SNP in order to defend their leader’s reluctance to sign up to the debates.
A number of MPs who oppose Cameron taking part in the debates on the grounds they would only damage him still think that he will end up caving in and doing them anyway. They think the Prime Minister is suffering from a classic case of procrastination, which is part of the essay crisis complex that leads him to pull things out of hats at the last minute, but which in this case is not benefitting him as it is merely drawing out debate about the debates when the Tories should be trying to debate the economy at every twist and turn.
The current grumpiness in the party has not been helped by a number of rather clumsy acts on the part of Number 10 and the whips this week. The first was the decision to hold a parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday, the day before the 1922 Committee met. The second was that on Wednesday, about half an hour before that 1922 Committee meeting started, the Conservative whips sat in the lobbies as MPs voted telling their charges that they should now go to CCHQ for a session of phone canvassing. This was taken by some as evidence that the party machine is trying to deprive the 1922 of oxygen. It was also rather clumsy, given the person addressing the meeting was Grant Shapps, who would have been walking out of CCHQ to join colleagues in the Commons as those colleagues were being shepherded over to CCHQ.
Both of these errors are down to clunky machinery, but they are the sort of thing that unnecessarily upset MPs who are now expected to be on their best behaviour between now and 7 May.
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