Star Comment: Last chance for Cameron as head boy
Back to school today for the fractious bunch at the Westminster academy, with lots of stinging reports ringing in the ears of head boy David Cameron who is really going to have to try harder this term.
His record so far has been one of underachievement. Could do better - a lot better.
There has been bickering and dissent in the common room.
Such are the challenges for Mr Cameron in what may turn out to be the crucial period for his administration.
Having used up all the credit from winning the last election – a most unsatisfactory “win” from the Tories’ point of view as they have become locked in a chalk-and-cheese marriage of convenience with the Lib Dems – he now has to impose his leadership and clarify the direction he is heading as the next general election looms large on the horizon.
His vow to cut down on “dithering” has no real meaning. Cynics will sneer that it means he will cut down on the time it takes him to make his next U-turn on policy.
His Cabinet reshuffle could be his last chance to reinvigorate and revitalise the administration. But dilemmas abound. What is he to do with Nick Clegg, his deputy, who was briefly the golden boy and his trusted sidekick, and is beginning to look, at best, an irrelevance, and at worst, a laughing stock?
What about that other permanent rebel in the heart of government, Vince Cable?
And, with many of the senior figures like George Osborne expected to remain in their present posts, can changes on the fringes make any difference anyway?
The coming months will be the critical test of Mr Cameron’s leadership.
Comments for: "Star Comment: Last chance for Cameron as head boy"
Ken Adams
That is the point isn’t it Cameron did not win the last election, he failed to offer believable understandable policies in order to convince enough of us to vote for him, even against an open goal. Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
John Howard
It seems to me the the British public no longer votes a particular party into government, rather we vote to get rid of the last one. There is no longer any ideology in politics and whatever party gets in they ignore mass public opinion and just do whatever their donors / lobbyists want. "No matter who we vote for the government always gets back in".
Roger
Reshuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic.
It's the policies that need to change, not the ministers. I think it is far too late for this lot to pull back the damage they have done, within this parliament. There was no much pain for nothing achieved. They were wrong and they will be out at the first possible opportunity.
The Tories have walked all over the Lib Dem’s and the Lib Dem’s have let them, so that means the end of the Lib Dem’s and the concept that coalition governments will moderate extreme policies. It just did not work.