This morning saw
Andrew Marr enter in to what should have ended up being a rather uneventful
exchange of words to the weeks general election campaigning. However, ‘call me
Dave's’ admission that he did indeed enjoy a good old frolic in the country
atop a horse whilst his hounds sought the blood of a fox (not a direct quote) was
to end in a look of terror for our ‘call me Dave.’ If only the general public
or indeed his own parliamentary party were sympathetic to the idea of repealing
the ban on hunting as our PM had so calamitously dangled in front of the
journos (if you could describe them as such) at the Countryside Alliance
magazine. In 2000 only 137 conservative MPs voted against the bill
suggesting that if, as the PM said he would do so, Dave offered the countryside
alliance the possibility of a chance of repeal he is most likely doing so in
vein and as Michael Portillo made clear on Andrew Neil’s ‘This Week,’ our Dave
is unpopular amongst large parts of his own party.
I'm
just like all you hard working families, says 'call me Dave,' only I hunt and
fish and love a good scrum with the old boys of the Bullingdon. I'm not quite
sure it rings true no matter how many giveaways the conservative party throw in
for good measure including those of prospective fox slaughter. So you're a
health worker? Here have 8 billion and you are a wealthy pensioner have an inheritance
tax cut. An aspiring member of the new bourgeoisie? Have some discounted shares
they are kind of yours any way.
As
I watched our PM speak this morning I couldn't help but feel like his campaign
has lost its way.