Liberal Burblings

Archive for the ‘Con’ Category

Only on Saturday night, Iain Dale wrote:

Brown to Spotlight Immigration in Bid to Woo Back Middle England

A reader tips me off that according to a government minister he spoke to tonight, Gordon Brown sees immigration as the issue which will set him back on the straight and narrow. He will be making a big speech on it in the next couple of weeks. Apparently he’s been on the phone to Michael Howard tonight asking to borrow his dog whistle.

It seems that David Cameron beat him to the dog whistle.

The Guardian:

David Cameron’s alleged off-the-cuff remarks about “one-legged Lithuanian lesbians” at a recent arts funding lunch have caused outrage in Lithuania, and a complaint from the country’s ambassador to the UK asking the Conservative leader to explain himself.

George Jones in the Telegraph says that Cameron’s summer wobble is in danger of turning into a winter of discontent. He also says that Cameron is in danger of using up all his ammo (all these commission policy announcements) too early.

The latter point was one that has occurred to me in the last few days. Gordon Brown’s middle name is “devious” and one has been searching for a motive, other than the obvious, for all this October election speculation.

It could be that Brown has a cunning plan. Speculate about an October election. Get Cameron firing off all his salvoes in the form of his various policy initiatives. Then don’t call an autumn election and pick and choose the best of Cameron’s initiatives and implement them as government policy before the actual election next spring, or whenever.

Clever that.

It is also possible, of course, that Brown is just as confused as the rest of us. But I doubt it.

Oh dear. Oh dear.

There could be a snap, crackle, pop election in thirty days time, but dear old David Cameron is under fire from Tory heavyweight Michael Ancram.

David Cameron ‘is trashing Thatcher legacy’ is the headline in the Telegraph.

It seems that Cameron has missed a trick in not putting Ancram in charge of one of his commissions to keep him busy. Instead, Ancram has put together a document of 30 pages describing how he thinks the Tory party has lost its “soul”, publishing it on the very day that Cameron wants the spotlight to be on the latest report from his commissions.

Having said that, the things which Ancram wants Cameron to focus on – tax cuts, law and order, Europe – have indeed been key elements in the “Cameron rightward lurch” programme during the last couple of weeks.

It really is extraordinary that a heavyweight loyal Tory feels so strongly as to fire a shot at Cameron below the water line, so near to a potential election date.

George Jones in the Telegraph says that Cameron’s summer wobble is in danger of turning into a winter of discontent. He also says that Cameron is in danger of using up all his ammo (all these commission policy announcements) too early.

The latter point was one that has occurred to me in the last few days. Gordon Brown’s middle name is “devious” and one has been searching for a motive, other than the obvious, for all this October election speculation.

It could be that Brown has a cunning plan. Speculate about an October election. Get Cameron firing off all his salvoes in the form of his various policy initiatives. Then don’t call an autumn election and pick and choose the best of Cameron’s initiatives and implement them as government policy before the actual election next spring, or whenever.

Clever that.

It is also possible, of course, that Brown is just as confused as the rest of us. But I doubt it.