Another day, another panel. This time I was in attendance at the Royal Institute of British Architects for a discussion put on by the Daily Telegraph and Editorial Intelligence entitled - 'David Cameron, can he crack it?'. Chaired by Kirsty Lang, the panel consisted of Daily Telegraph columnist and would be BBC flogger, Simon Heffer; Peter Kellner, President of YouGov; Nick Clegg, Lib Dem MP; Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty and Ed Vaizey, Tory MP.
The debate was a lot of Cameron bashing and adoring, much playing for laughs, which still didn't discourage some sleepers at the back. The guest list was a long list of big players and it was significant that no-one really seemed sure who this Cameron character really was. He would be hard to draw from memory with no characteristic features for the eye to recognise. Does this represent ambivalence? Or have we just not seen him in all his glory yet?
Ms Chakrabarti was characteristically diplomatic and focused. She expressed her gratitude for Cameron's opposition to ID cards and the longer detention of terror suspects, while applauding attempts to encourage more women and diversities in the Conservative party. But she warned of his 'incoherent' trashing of the Human Rights Act. While the appeal for more diversity in the Tory party is clear box ticking, the Human Rights dismissal and the rejection of ID cards is clear Telegraph reader wooing, hope against hope that the old school of Tories won't jump ship. It put Ms Chakrabarti in an odd position, not unnoticed by her, being in agreement with Simon Heffer. 'Simon might not be happy about that' she impishly noted.
Her key point was that we need to know a bit more about Cameron's underpinning philosophy. 'I wish politics were a little bit more ideological. We need to know what Cameron believes' she said. She identified the big Cameron test as when Gordan Brown goes hard right on security to confound Cameron and woo the disillusioned hardcore Tory voters. The rival traditions in his party like Europhile/phobe, libertarian/authoritarian will only be united by the attraction of freedom of rule after ten years of seemingly authoritarian action from Blair.
A highlight of the Q&A session was when Peter Hitchins in the audience described the Tory party ads a ghost brand, 'like Woodbines or the Daily Express'.
Ed Vaizey retaliated by expressing sadness that, in a previous question, an old Kinnock crony had shown support for Cameron, but here was 'an old Marxist' knocking David.
'I'm not a Marxist anymore, Ed' Hitchins corrected.
'Yes, you move around - a true man of principle, Peter' cheeked Vaizey.
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My colleague David Heathfield has had a film he made using some of my shots of the military posted on Iain Dale's (one of the audience members at the above panel) Diary. Here's the link to the film standalone
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