David Cameron's speech - did anyone think he could just have turned the polls round?

[TheDullWitch]

That striding about without notes business was quite impressive. I did get bored though.

someone told me dp looked like Brian Ferry yesterday!!!

You can't make an argument from silence - the Tories weren't in power, so it's all academic. Personally, I didn't think we should have gone in when we did, but I support our soldiers 100% because my family on my mums side is a military one, so I know full well what they're risking. And I also know that there are some very under-reported good things happening.

That's not the issue. The issue is that there's this rosy little honeymoon period for someone who was only a little less in power a couple of years ago than he is now. I just don't get it.

Will Cameron's speech make me vote for him? It's quite unlikely at the moment. But the spectre of Thatcher was raised by Brown a few weeks ago anyway.

Lazyline - I could give it a go, I'm quite wiry, me.

Did anyone hear Joh Major yesterday.
He sounded so cross with GB re troops promise/electioneering crap and TB for what he said in parliament about ir?aq.
He sounded upstanding and trustworthy, I haven't heard a politician sound like that for years

John Major actually is very good on radio - he's intelligent and can answer hard questions under pressure in a good humoured way. I have a lot of respect for him, even though I don't agree necessarily with everything he says.

LOL Sue...

I'd pay to watch that.

Just wondering how it can be deemed acceptable to mock Cameron Osbourne etc for their Eton education,but would be completely unacceptable to mock someone for their state education/poor upbringing/nationality etc etc?
Have never been Tory but this does puzzle me......

DH has just finished reading Major's cricket book. It's bloody big!

Because one is a choice only available to the extremely wealthy and well-connected, and the others aren't?

(And because it means they are entirely unaware of how most of the other 99.9999999% of the population live)

There's an interview with Armando Iannucci in the G2 today, in which he describes meeting DC in a lift.... he describes him as having an assistant called Lucinda or Daisy, extraordinary cuffs, and a vague scent of pomade or perfume, altogether like meeting Prince Charles.

No matter WHAT DC says - and I think the 1 million quid IHT thing was vile and cynical -oh look, all that caring sharing hoodies and green stuff didn't work, so now let's appeal to everyone's BASEST instincts - he will still be a thin-lipped Tory and I will never never never vote for him.

Tony Blair went to an elite school didn't he? I think the argument that where you go to school affects your entire perception of the world around you is over stated. Of course it has an impact - but only so far. Most of us only experience one area of life personally, but we are all capable of finding out about other people's lives.

And I resent being accused of being base by agreeing with the new tory tax policy. Actually it will make no difference to me as I would not qualify for inheritance tax, either on mine or my parents property. I still think that it is a good idea. Why should the super rich get away with paying so much less, while the middle classes are stung again and again?

Let's not forget the sneaky Labour indirect taxation policy which costs the poor a greater percentage of their earnings on so many things.

There's elite and elite though, cr. And yes of course anybody can find out about other people's lives, but there's mixing and then there's observing. It might just be spin, but the appearance is that TB mixes while DC and his ilk just observe (cf GO's classic quote about what people's mothers do; and yes I know he didn't go to Eton!)

What I don't understand is how a lot of people seem to have "fallen" for David Cameron. Much in the same way that they did for Blair when he was new and fresh and young. Does no-one realise that it's all marketing and spin and it has cost a fracking fortune to make him appear as he does?

Now little William Hague is a real person - maybe they should look at getting him back in!

ponders the idea of David Cameron smelling nice

I'm sort of disgusted with myself, but that actually appeals to me...

"There's elite and elite though"
What does that mean? I agree with one and not the other?

The argument that you have to experience something in order to have any understanding of it is silly.

No, it means that all public schools are not the same.

Except for the fact that TB went to Fettes, otherwise know as the Eton of Scotland.

DC's profoubdly disabled son means that I think he's has had a fair dose of the 'real world'.

I do agree that William Hague is very good.
But chocolatedot is right.

I hate this idea of only being real if you come from a certain section of society or have experience of living in a certain social class. It does not stand up to any scrutiny. If you follow it through logically you wouldn't let a doctor treat you for any illness unless they had suffered that very illness themselves. I could go on...

Whether you think DC is an idiot or not (lets face it, most people here seem to think he is one) should depend on what you think of his policies and understanding, not your instinctive dislike of his social background.

Oh for goodness sake when will people realise that all the labour mp's send their children to private schools and they all have private health insurance and have flash cars and do everything that overpaid nobodies do whilst claiming everything on expenses

And you're all paying for all of it

pmsl cammelia

Wendy,wasn't which school he attended David Cameron's parent's choice though,as much if not more so than his?
SoI agree with attacking politicians over policies,but not over things like upbringing and education.

not ALL, Cammelia.