David Cameron, the "truth"

Perhaps inverted commas should be used in the Telegraph's piece by self-confessed posh social climber James Delingpole, promising "the truth" (my quote marks) about David Cameron's days at Oxford.

Dave was just an ordinary bloke. If that isn't the ultimate in spin, I don't know what is.

Peaking too soon

In the Independent, Andrew Grice has some fun at the expense of still shadow chancellor George Osborne, who was asked to present a Spectator award for "newcomer of the year" to Peter Mandelson. The main thrust of the piece is that many tories think Osborne is - or should be - on the way out.

The shadow Chancellor is being blamed by Tory backbenchers for a lacklustre response by the Opposition to the economic crisis. They admit it is not all his fault but he is an easier target than Mr Cameron after being damaged by the "yachtgate" affair in which he was accused of seeking a Tory donation from Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch.

But:

Despite all the rumblings, Cameron aides insist Mr Osborne will not be moved from his Treasury brief. "They are joined at the hip," said one frontbencher. A strategist added: "Nobody should underestimate how close they are. It is a very strong partnership – like Blair and Brown, but without the tensions, rivalries and rows."

Also in the Indy, Michael Brown says that Cameron should ditch Osborne. But I didn't get past the sub-headline:

If they want to be taken seriously, how about Redwood?

Milking the drama

This morning Iain Dale said that David Cameron should call for a recall of parliament to deal with the latest financial crisis. Cameron didn't quite go that far, but showed how desperate he is to pretend that he can do something about it. It looks a bit sad really.

Meanwhile, Labour's John Hutton has tried to outflank the Tories on the pro-business front:

"By opposing Heathrow expansion and now casting fresh doubt on their support for new nuclear power, the Conservatives have today shown they are too weak to take the major decisions so businesses and the economy can succeed."

Too tempting

The Guardian's Andrew Sparrow is tempted by the apparent highlight of Dylan Jones' book of interviews with David Cameron, a claim that a van driver once tried to push Cameron off his bike.

I think it's best not to say anything else about this.

Guru goes to California

In the Independent, Andy McSmith wonders how the David Cameron will get along without the (immediate) help of Steve Hilton, "the man who made the tories electable". Hilton is off to California, where his wife will work for Google. At the end of the piece, McSmith wonders:

How deeply David Cameron believes in all this new-look Conservatism is another question. Some suspect that he adopted the strategy as an imaginative way to dig the party out of the hole into which it sank 15 years ago. Perhaps now that the Conservatives have their biggest opinion poll lead for a generation, he has decided he does not need to try the patience of traditional Tories any more. If that is so, Steve Hilton might just as well be living in Silicon Valley.

Hilton is said to have studied New Labour very closely. I've just been reading Francis Wheen's "How mumbo jumbo conquered the world" (it didn't), which reminds us how left-wing Tony Blair was - or claimed to be - in the 1980's. Maybe Blair didn't believe all that third way nonsense after all - or maybe he did.

Telegraphing your plans

The Telegraph has a report of an interview with David Cameron, who is said to have praised several Blarites in an attempt to get them to defect. Andrew Grice blogging in the Independent thinks it's a bad strategy because they are less likely to jump. I think it can only strengthen Gordon Brown to have Blairites portrayed as spiritual Tories.

Further down the Telegraph piece, we are told that:

Throughout a visit to Hastings and Maidstone last week [Cameron] was approached by people complaining about the abolition of the 10p tax band, the influx of foreign workers and the Prime Minister's apparent lack of empathy for the concerns of the ordinary Briton.

I'm sorry, but is the journalist (Robert Winnett) reporting what he saw or naively conveying Cameron's account? It looks very much like the latter. And very good spin it is too.