Cameron to act as a 'critic of the government'

Spin emanating from a ‘close ally’ of David Cameron last week suggested in future the Prime Minister will “act as a critic of the Government, a tribune of the people against the Government when it falls short”, according to the Guardian and the Telegraph.

Cameron in a recent cabinet meeting

Cameron has gone rogue. This is the story of an underdog fighting against all the odds. An expensively educated, nuclear warhead controlling underdog. With a personal security detail. Pitted against the people he appointed ten months ago and has the power to sack at any point. He’s basically Jack Bauer.

The news that in future Cameron will try to distance himself from his own government, and intervene when it ‘falls short’ (or ‘does something that, it turns out, is very unpopular’) warms my heart. It takes a special kind of hero to appoint a cabinet of people, watch as every policy is passed through No 10, and then (when it turns out the public don’t like it) stand up and say “No. Not today. Not like this.” But how can just one Prime Minister hope to make a difference in a mad world like this?

Because this hero has got a whole host of establishment incompetency to fight against. Sitting around the cabinet table one day, as the conversation of his cabinet colleagues roamed from the U turn over the forest sell-off to the U turn over ‘the fuel tax stabiliser’ to the U turn over sport spending in school to the U turn over free school milk for under-fives to the U turn over Bookstart funding, Cameron must have thought: “what idiot appointed these people?”

Fraser Nelson compared Cameron’s strategy of waiting to see whether or not a policy ‘works/causes a huge outcry’ and then intervening to stop it with a chef coming out into the restaurant and tasting people’s food to see if it’s cooked properly. Nelson makes the point that this should ideally happen in the kitchen. I take huge issue with that – when I’m hosting, I genuinely can’t tell if a chicken is totally raw or cooked to perfection until I see my first guest making a dash for the toilet muttering “oh god oh god please no”.

Similarly, how can we expect Cameron to appoint competent people, oversee the policies of the government and exercise basic collective responsibility? He’s the Prime Minister, not God. He’s a true underdog because his only previous job experience is as a PR man – and now we expect him to lead the country. Shame on us. But I have faith in this knight of old. It takes a special kind of bravery to distance yourself from your colleagues when something goes wrong in order to snipe at them. Sure, it means he can maintain his personal poll rating whilst the coalition slips in the polls. But that's just the price you pay for doing the right thing.