The very flawed David Cameron….

Don’t worry about Ed, people say to me, look at David Cameron – he had a slow start and came good. The major problem with this is that Cameron hasn’t come that good at all. Look at the election, he was facing a Labour government which had been in office a long time and it showed – neither it, nor its leader, Gordon Brown were as actively despised and John Major’s Conservatives were in 1997 but enough latent bad feeling existed to surely guaranteed the Conservatives a small, workable majority.

Instead, however, of sweeping all before him, Cameron limped into Number 10 Downing Street with the assistance of their neither Liberal nor Democratic crutch. He won just 36% of the vote which is almost exactly what Tony Blair achieved at the absolute nadir of his popularity in 2005. In government, Cameron initially benefited from the added luster of not being Gordon Brown. However, his judgment was soon rapidly called into question by the Andy Coulson affair. During the riots he displayed a shocking aloofness and insensitivity by refusing to return and instead posing for a picture with a Tuscan waitress while London burnt.

Now, it looks likely he will be forced to sack Dr Liam Fox in Defence. If this happens on Monday when he is now demanding the interim report into Fox’s conduct it will come barely 48 hours after he gave him the dreaded ‘vote of confidence’. Although performance at Prime Ministers Question’s doesn’t really matter to anybody but politico’s – it’s worth noting that Cameron’s performance there is often flakey as well – he shows a poor grasp of the details and is frequently provoked into obviously agitated remarks which make him look arrogant. It’s probably a good thing for him not many watch because if they did his approval ratings would probably be even lower.

In short, to say Cameron is over-rated is an understatement to say the least. He has been fortunate in the people who have opposed him (and, in the case of a stumbling Ed Miliband and a tainted Nick Clegg remains so) but has hardly swept all before him. So, before you say David Cameron is an example of how Ed Miliband can turn it around – I suggest you think again.