March 29: Cameron The Terminator
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LIKE The Terminator, David Cameron
today proclaimed that he’d be back – in Kent, that is, as the
‘official’ general election campaign unfolds.
So, expect to see a lot more of
him and other big hitters from the main parties as they woo voters
in Kent’s key marginals.
The only problem is that if
feels like we’re already in the midst of a campaign and it seems to
have been underway for several months. For Cameron himself, it was
his second visit to Kent in barely a week
When it comes to the real thing,
I wonder if voter apathy might kick in rather sooner than later? It
won’t stop the cavalcade of party battle buses motoring to all
parts of the county, of course, between now and May 6.
But I was struck during David
Cameron’s visit to Sittingbourne today that the parties have pretty
much declared their hands in terms of policy pledges and may
struggle to find anything new and interesting to say over the
coming weeks.
The problem will be filling four
to five weeks with new material which doesn't send the electorate
mad or worse, indifferent.
Mr Cameron contrived to sound
upbeat but he didn’t seem to me to be as enthused as I’ve seen him
before.
It can’t help having to answer
the same questions posed slightly differently by various reporters
and journalists but even so, it's going to a long few
weeks...
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STILL, it's part of the job of
any would-be Prime Ministers to sound energised, interested
and excited whenever they appear in public and David Cameron did a
decent enough job addressing a group of warehouse workers in what,
it has to be said, was probably not the most inspiring
environment.
(He jumped up on to a stack of
wooden palettes and peeled of his inevitable high-visibility jacket
to give the standard impression of a politician meaning
business).
In fact, the press pack pondered
exactly what small talk the Conservative leader might have been
having as he wandered up a huge aisle in the vast Morrisons’
warehouse for the benefit of the cameras accompanied by his
hosts.
Perhaps he asked a few pertinent
questions about the price of nappies.
These events are so carefully
choreographed that the spin doctors are scrupulous about ensuring
that the potential for inadvertently embarrassing pictures or film
footage is strictly minimised.
It doesn’t do, for example, to
have any politician to be photographed or filmed under an "exit" or
"for use only in an emergency" sign.
Warehouses are notorious for
such warning signs but we failed to spot any.
The one sign that did catch the
eye of the press pack was one for an "Ambient Colleague
Suggestion Box" – apparently the 2010 equivalent of an
ideas box.
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Monday, March 29 2010
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