Star comment: Following Boris Johnson a tough act for David Cameron
David Cameron says it is the hour of reckoning for the United Kingdom. It is also the hour of reckoning for David Cameron.
The wild enthusiasm shown for Boris Johnson is not just part of a cult of personality for the blond-mopped London Mayor.
It is also implicitly an overt demonstration of a belief that there may be somebody who would do a better job at leading the Conservative Party than the man currently at the top.
Mr Cameron can laugh along with the great entertainer but the way things are going could find that the joke is on him.
His problem is one that has dogged him from the start – that nobody, not even in his own party, is really sure what he stands for.
The consequence of not really believing anything that strongly that he will stick to his guns no matter what is that he is prone to doing U-turns. An occasional U-turn in the face of changing circumstances is not a bad thing. Making it a habit leaves his followers unsure what direction they are headed.
Maybe he should take a leaf out of the book of Jimmy Savile’s family. Removing the entertainer’s headstone must have been painful for them, but they could see the public mood and responded with a hard decision.
Mr Cameron has talked about the possibility of stripping Sir Jimmy of his knighthood. If banker Sir Fred Goodwin can be stripped of his knighthood, then it is surely not beyond the powers of Mr Cameron to ensure that Sir Jimmy has his taken away as well.
Mr Cameron is slick, clever, good with words. It has taken him far. But that time of reckoning has arrived in which he has to show he is a man of substance.
Comments for: "Star comment: Following Boris Johnson a tough act for David Cameron"
James
This seems to be case of 'how can we shoehorn Jimmy Savile into an editorial, even when he is utterly irrelevant to the issue at hand?'
Savile's family was absolutely right to have his headstone removed, public mood or no public mood. I don't for the life of me see the connection between that decision and David Cameron's (in)ability to stick to his principles. There are two aspects to Cameron's 'leadership' :
1. The weather-vane aspect. He allows himself to be blown along by public opinion and circumstance, rather than actually leading. If anything, 'seeing the public mood' is the problem here, not the solution.
2. (worse than 1) The venal aspect. One principle Cameron, Osborne et al have devoted themselves to is that of protecting the rich and the greedy at the expense of the vulnerable. They will never be swayed from this.