Results tagged “david cameron” from Liverpool Daily Post - Outside The Bubble

I think Tony Blair proved a long time ago that there's little point a politician pretending to be a football fan unless they are REALLY a fan of the beautiful game.

His odd support of Newcastle United stank of prawn sandwich all the way from Downing Street to St James's Park. It simply wasn't sincere. Gordon Brown, on the other hand, was much quieter about his support for Raith Rovers. He'd mention it if asked, but that was it.

So quite why David Cameron - so keen to keep reminding us that he has learnt the lessons of Labour's mistakes - insisted on that dreadful video message to the England team is beyond me.

He supports Aston Villa, apparently, although I suspect it's a long time since he stood in the Holte End on a Saturday afternoon.

Watching George Osborne and David Laws announce their first phase of slash and burn in the public sector, one thing surprised me more than anything else.

That thing was how little anger I felt toward George Osborne as he salivated over the cuts he was making. Bearing in mind that less than a month, the Tories were promising to be the party which listened to voters, it seemed a bit odd to now be lectured by a Tory chancellor who insisted on saying things like 'let me remind you.' Of course, in a Tory safe seat like Tatton and safe in the knowledge he's married into a huge fortune, Cyril Sneer probably doesn't feel too vulnerable about the electorate at large.

No, the thing which surprised me was just what the Lib Dems have done to themselves to get a hand on the levers of power. Make no mistake, while they might have a sweaty mit on the decision making process, the Tories are the ones still calling the shots. Much like the relationship between Mr Burns and Homer Simpson in The Simpsons, whiie Homer Simpson maybe the one who actually presses the button in the nuclear reactor, and therefore has a false sense of power, there's no mistaking who is really in charge.

Less than six weeks ago, Nick Clegg was facing down a minor party rebellion over the party's decision to shelve its commitment to free university education. It seemed the party was prepared to stomach the idea of scrapping its commitment to scrapping tuition fees for now. Quite how the Lib Dems have made the leap to being part of a coalition government which is now scrapping support for an extra 10,000 university places and may yet be part of a government which lifts the cap on university tuition fees is something yet to be answered.

It's been reported today that David Cameron has scaled down his personal security because he thinks that detail which surrounded Gordon Brown was a bit over the top.

Specifically, Cameron won't have a police outriders when he goes on trips in his car, something Brown did have.

While it's possible to understand why Cameron wants to key security as low key as possible, especially when you consider his desire to have as normal a family life as possible, but his gesture potentially does the country a massive disservice.

His car might be bomb proof, but what signal would the sight of an attack on Britain's prime minister in his own country send to the rest of the world? Regardless of the outcome of such an attack, it would be a massive PR coup for the terrorists.

One common theme seemed to dominate the morning press today - a sense of sneering at the new Con/Lib government - better known in Fleet Street as a 'love in.'

With the tents being taken down on College Green, Kay Burley back in the Sky News studio away from the chants about being sacked, and Adam Boulton perhaps dreaming of a sunshine break, the serious business of parliament is resuming.

To me, what we saw yesterday was the creation of the Westminister version of the Chuckle Brothers: Quite amusing as a double act in front of the Press, but how much can we, as the electorate, trust them to get things right?

In fact, how much trust can voters for each party place in their respective party to honour the manifesto commitments which, just seven days ago, 65% of the voting nation passed judgement on?

It's remarkable to imagine that, less than a year ago, today was meant to be the day when David Cameron marched into Number 10.

A year ago, the Tories had a 20-point plus lead in the polls. Election victory on that sort of margin isn't just assured, a massacre of the ruling party is a dead cert too.

So who has most to be ashamed of when Cameron finds himself telling Gordon Brown that Labour 'had lost its mandate to govern?'

On one hand, read the mid morning edition of the Daily Telegraph which was being sold on the streets of London today - mine came from a bloke who said 'It's only 100pence, which is probably only worth 80pence now - and the numbers suggest it's a disaster for Brown.