No Pain No Gain

‘IF the stories surrounding the Tory Party leadership contest are any guide, a vote for David Cameron is a vote for a return to the days when politicians were interesting creatures and not glorified middle managers and marketers.

The non-drug taking David Davis may retain the backing of the largest number of Tory MPs – the Telegraph says he has 67 declared supporters, Cameron has 34, Kenneth Clarke 24 and Liam Fox 22 – but it’s Cameron’s star that’s rising.

Even Clarke seems to think Cameron is the man to be reckoned with. On the Telegraph’s front page (“Clarke: I’m too old to be leader”), the affable 65 year old says he’s “probably too old” to be the party’s leader, let alone the next Tory Prime Minister. On the other hand, Cameron is “too young”.

“The ideal candidate, maybe, is someone between the two of us, half the age with half the experience, but he ain’t there,” says Clarke.

It sounds to us, and to the Telegraph, that Clarke is introducing the notion of the Cameron-Clarke dream ticket. Clarke seems to have conceded defeat in the battle to be leader, and says that if offered a “very senior role” in the shadow cabinet, he’d take it.

But what would leader Cameron bring to the party, if not experience and the wisdom of age? In a word: interest. First, there’s Cameron’s decision not to say whether or not he has taken Class A drugs. And now, as the Times reports, there’s a story that harks back to the sleazy Tory years of Maggie Thatcher and John Major.

This story centres on George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor and Cameron’s campaign manager. He’s been spotted in the company of a “cocaine snorting dominatrix”.

A photograph of this meeting, with occurred 12 years ago, shows a youthful Osborne (he’s still only 34) in the company of a prostitute called “Mistress Pain”. In the shots a white powder, she claims was cocaine, is on a table in front of them.

Osborne denies taking cocaine with this woman – although he maintains Cameron’s line and declines to say if he has ever tried the drug.

To some this is too awful. To the straight and upright David Davis such stories do not sit well with a Tory leader. Perhaps Davis might benefit from them being made public? So has he been giving them a push?

The Times says Davis was invited by Jonathan Dimbleby on TV to answer the charge that he was skilfully “dripping poison into the campaign” and then “pretending to pour balm on the wound”.

Davis denies this. “This has run on,” says Davis,” because he [Cameron] hasn’t answered it, but he has absolutely got the right not to answer. That’s his call.”

And, in truth, it looks like being a good one. From being just another Tory, an old Etonian toff, Cameron has been changed into an interesting character who can hold his own. He’s worth knowing, and worth writing about.

Now, if he can just sleep with Osborne and Osborne’s wife while wearing a football kit, the Tories may yet rise again…’

Posted: 17th, October 2005 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink