Why does lightweight Britain want a heavyweight?
Cameron’s Conservatives thought Britain would be turned off by ‘boring’ Brown – but who can blame them?
David Cameron has made a grievous mistake. Whatever the right-wing press might argue, it wasn’t the infamous ‘hug a hoody’ speech. And it certainly wasn’t ‘abandoning’ his Witney constituents during the July floods. The mistake – and one which Cameron may never recover from – was to underestimate Gordon Brown.
From his 2005 inception, Cameron focused firmly on the Prime-Minister-to-be. His tactic was to style himself as more accessible, more humorous and, ultimately, more normal than the number-crunching Chancellor. He, like the Tory strategists, was convinced that ‘heavyweight’ Gordon Brown would prove to be indigestible to the British public. If Cameron was to battle him on the centre ground, the solution was to leave all baggage behind.
But, in the light of the July polls, their predictions seem idiotic. Indeed, A Tory friend of mine remarked that, as far as Conservative misjudgments go, underestimating the new Prime Minister is up there with Black Wednesday. But isn’t that a little unkind? After all, there was – and, arguably, still is – plenty of evidence to support Cameron’s thesis.
This week, George Bush (a man who can only dream of a ‘heavyweight’ reputation) couldn’t contain his surprise that the new Prime Minister was not the ‘dour Scotsman’ he had been portrayed as. Last year, George Osborne famously joked that the then Chancellor might be autistic. In any other arena, Brown’s devastating intellect would be admired. But, in British politics, the word ‘heavyweight’ became a quasi-euphemism. Brown’s intelligence was seen as a sign of abnormality.
And the transatlantic right weren’t the only ones labouring from this misjudgment. Last month, the BBC unveiled their strategy to get more people watching their news bulletins – to streamline them down to sixty seconds. Meanwhile, the Corporation’s recent budget reports have often been accompanied by patronising cartoon graphics. And, over in the blogosphere, isolated academics have bemoaned the lack of intelligent comment, and highlight the rise in quirky captions and caustic sarcasm.
July’s polls haven’t just shaken Cameron’s Conservatives – they’ve challenged the popular perception of politics. Call it what you like – spin, dumbing down, soundbite politics – but it might soon be a thing of the past. For, whatever the media savvy once predicted, ‘lightweight’ Britain is hungry for a heavyweight.
Cameron’s Conservatives thought Britain would be turned off by ‘boring’ Brown – but who can blame them?
David Cameron has made a grievous mistake. Whatever the right-wing press might argue, it wasn’t the infamous ‘hug a hoody’ speech. And it certainly wasn’t ‘abandoning’ his Witney constituents during the July floods. The mistake – and one which Cameron may never recover from – was to underestimate Gordon Brown.
From his 2005 inception, Cameron focused firmly on the Prime-Minister-to-be. His tactic was to style himself as more accessible, more humorous and, ultimately, more normal than the number-crunching Chancellor. He, like the Tory strategists, was convinced that ‘heavyweight’ Gordon Brown would prove to be indigestible to the British public. If Cameron was to battle him on the centre ground, the solution was to leave all baggage behind.
But, in the light of the July polls, their predictions seem idiotic. Indeed, A Tory friend of mine remarked that, as far as Conservative misjudgments go, underestimating the new Prime Minister is up there with Black Wednesday. But isn’t that a little unkind? After all, there was – and, arguably, still is – plenty of evidence to support Cameron’s thesis.
This week, George Bush (a man who can only dream of a ‘heavyweight’ reputation) couldn’t contain his surprise that the new Prime Minister was not the ‘dour Scotsman’ he had been portrayed as. Last year, George Osborne famously joked that the then Chancellor might be autistic. In any other arena, Brown’s devastating intellect would be admired. But, in British politics, the word ‘heavyweight’ became a quasi-euphemism. Brown’s intelligence was seen as a sign of abnormality.
And the transatlantic right weren’t the only ones labouring from this misjudgment. Last month, the BBC unveiled their strategy to get more people watching their news bulletins – to streamline them down to sixty seconds. Meanwhile, the Corporation’s recent budget reports have often been accompanied by patronising cartoon graphics. And, over in the blogosphere, isolated academics have bemoaned the lack of intelligent comment, and highlight the rise in quirky captions and caustic sarcasm.
July’s polls haven’t just shaken Cameron’s Conservatives – they’ve challenged the popular perception of politics. Call it what you like – spin, dumbing down, soundbite politics – but it might soon be a thing of the past. For, whatever the media savvy once predicted, ‘lightweight’ Britain is hungry for a heavyweight.
