David Cameron is the man I’m delighted and proud to call my political leader. Last night, he showed to a fault how we were right to put our trust in him.
Two weeks ago, in the aftermath of the first debate and public birth of Nick Clegg, I asked tories to ‘calm the fuck down’ and carry on campaigning, sure in the capacity of David Cameron to pull the campaign together and improve his performances in time for the election. Last night, on question after question, he blitzed Clegg and the increasingly irrelevant Brown, beasting Clegg on VAT for new build housing and the Liberal Democrat proposed illegal immigration amnesty.
Surprisingly, Clegg was at sixes and sevens last night. But was it really so surprising? He lacked confidence in the area, economy, where he has consistently relied on his crutch, self declared expert Vince Cable. In other areas, where anyone can waffle, Clegg performs well, but nobody wants to give a treatise on fiscal and monetary policy in front of the professor, however nutty he may be. Clegg was sweaty and defensive.
Cameron was exceptional last night and both LibDems and Labour know it. Twitter streams died off from libdem supporters as the credits rolled, as iMac keyboards were thrown down in devastation.
The dream of Clegg giving his ‘Her Majesty has asked me to form a Government’ speech to anyone but himself in the mirror has died, but the prospects of a minority partnership in a grubby little coalition with Labour under new management still remains, galling the party.
What needs to happen now, Teresa Villiers will be delighted to learn, is that Tories who blogged for Cameron now need to put down their keyboards and MacBooks and get out there, knocking on doors and asking for votes.
The time for posturing and the establishment of the policy is over. The mood music has been set. The menu is apparent – five more years of the sort of decline we’ve seen under Brown or the beginning of a national social and political renaissance for our country with David Cameron and his team in Government. The prize of casting Ed Balls, Ben Bradshaw and Alan Johnson out of office is too amazing to turn down. The only thing between David Cameron and a trip to Buckingham Palsce this time next week is the threat of our own complacency.
Fire up the Quattro. It’s time for change
