The Tortoise And The Hair

‘VOTE David Cameron and say “NO!” to avian flu, “No!” to MRSA and “No!” to terrorism. Well, if Cameron did say that it would be a start. As it is we have little idea what the front runner in the Tory leadership race stands for.

But he is still standing. In fact he’s round the next bend and checking his hair in the mirror. Meanwhile, the man who looks like a copper’s copper, David Davis, splutters along under his carapace of law and order making steady but unspectacular progress.

As the duo pass the second staging post, Davis pauses to tell the Times: “This is a marathon not a sprint.”

As if we need telling. This contest to be the next leader of the Conservatives seems to have gone on forever. The danger is that the hacks following the event will start feeling their aching joints before the contestants – who may or may not know what joints are, let alone have ever dared to touch one.

But at least the race is down to the final two. Yesterday Liam Fox was forced out. When the MPs voted for the second and final time – the last two contestants go before the party’s members – Fox took the bronze medallion.

The Times says that Fox emerged from the whole thing with “much moral dignity” and has surely assured himself of a place in the Shadow Cabinet.

But he has yet to endorse either remaining candidate. And that may or may not be because he doesn’t want to alienate himself from the eventual winner and so damage his chances of securing a decent job under him.

And what if the result is challenged? What if Cameron wins and then fails the post-race dope test?

The question of whether or not David “Dave” Cameron has taken drugs will not go away. And the Telegraph says the man who polled 90 votes to Davis’s 57 and Fox’s 51 has been forced to discuss his drug history once again.

Interviewed on Channel 4, Cameron was asked by the interviewer if he has ever snorted cocaine while an MP.

The Times has kindly reproduced the exchange between Cameron and Channel 4’s Alex Thomson for its readers’ delectation.

Alex Thompson: “If I asked you if you’d snorted cocaine as an MP, you’d therefore say ‘No’, wouldn’t you?”

David Cameron: “That’s right, but, please, I mean, I think we’ve dealt with this issue…”

AT: “So that’s ‘No’?”

DC: “I’ve absolutely answered your question.”

AT:” Say ‘No’.”

DC: “I’ve just said ‘No’.”

AT: “Thank you. Right, we can move on.”

Which is an insightful glance into how little you have to say to be a prospective Tory leader, and how every interviewer wants to badger like Jeremy Paxman, however banal the line of questioning.

And it leaves us no time to investigate what it is Cameron does stand for. Other than the Tory leadership, that is…’

Posted: 21st, October 2005 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink