5 days to go - In which David uses his 'Coalition of Chaos' soundbite to divert attention

02/05/15

Dear Claire,

Today, I’d like to have a look at the election campaigns that have been going on.

We’ll put to one side, pro tem, the fact that Cameron has chickened out of all head-to-head debates with any other leaders, apart from the farce that was the 7 party leaders at one go, in which there was plenty of opportunity for Cameron to keep his head down.

For the record, we’ll list them here, lest we forget:

1.      26^th March: Cameron & Miliband grilled by Paxman. Cameron chickens out of head to head.

2.      2^nd April: Cameron appears alongside Miliband, Clegg, Farage, Bennett, Sturgeon & Wood.

3.      10^th April: Cameron’s only hustings meeting in his constituency. Cameron’s office prevent an Independent candidate and Dr Clive Peedell of the NHS Action Party from taking part. As well as chickening out of a debate with these rival candidates, Cameron also stopped a photographer with a local newspaper (sympathetic to Labour) attending, and brings along a mate of his to take the snaps.

4.      16^th April: Miliband, Farage, Bennett, Sturgeon & Wood go head to head. Cameron chickens out again and stops Clegg participating.

5.      30^th April: Cameron, Miliband & Clegg appear sequentially on a Question Time format. Cameron again chickens out of a head-to-head with Clegg and/or Miliband.

So, four times, Cameron has been ‘feart’ (© M Thatcher. Scottish colloquialism for ‘frightened’). Impressive. 

Anyway, I don’t want to dwell on them, well not today anyway. What I’m going to talk about is the impression the party leaders of the traditional ‘big three’ parties have given various people I have spoken to. Not all are socialists I can assure you.

Let’s start with Nick Clegg. Fighting from a seriously wounded position, will his traditional supporters forgive him for climbing into bed with your lot? The perception seems to be that he’s putting a brave face on it. He’s trying to distance himself from the Tories, but isn’t cosying up to Labour either. He comes across as sincere, and is positioning himself as the party to keep either Labour or the Tories honest, should his party go into coalition government with either of them. Bit of a paradox there: the words Tory and Honest in the same sentence.

Now let’s have a look at Ed Miliband. Yup, he is a bit geeky, but he has noticeably grown in stature during these political debates, particularly following Cameron chickening out of so many potential head-to-head debates. Above all, he comes across with an air of compassion, sincerity and integrity. He is credible and believable.

OK, time for your dear leader. Everyone, but everyone I have spoken to, even loyal Tories, say he projects an image of oily insincerity, smugness, and patronising condescension. Someone that talks ‘at’ people, rather than with them. Someone that nobody trusts, someone that is coming out with increasingly unbelievable promises and bribes in a desperate attempt to cling on to the power he believes should be his, as his birth right. Someone running scared of direct debate with his main challenger for the keys for no. 10. Someone incapable of answering a direct question or making a commitment. Someone making empty promises e.g. “We’ll pass legislation to prevent VAT, National Insurance or Income tax going up”. What sort of rubbish rhetoric is this? If he remains Prime Minister, do they need to implement legislation to stop themselves putting these taxes up? This is a ruse to implement something to use against any subsequent government that needs to scrap this legislation. Empty promises and weasel words. He lies as fluently as he draws breath and he oozes insincerity.

Cameron keeps talking about the ‘Coalition of Chaos’, referring to a potential alliance of Labour and SNP. This is an attempt to divert attention from his government's abysmal failure to deliver on any single promise in their 'Contract with the people', issued before the 2010 election.
So who would Cameron choose as a partner? The Tories will not get enough seats for a majority. The spectre of Naughty Nigel and his bunch of racists, misfits, Tory rejects, and foul-mouthed MEP fraudsters climbing into bed with the Tories is something infinitely more worrying than anything they might predict about a Labour coalition. The Tories and UKIP? The worst of both worlds. A ‘Coalition of Chaos’? More a deeply unattractive bunch of ignorant bigots, divisive liars and utterly deluded revolting individuals, hell-bent on preserving their own interests and those of their wealthy supporters, at the expense of those at the very bottom of the pile.

I’ll risk the Coalition of Chaos any day thanks.

Kind regards

Polly