Rejoice
Remember a time when the country rejoiced in a happiness and optimism inspired by coalition government? Me neither. In fairness, this is because such a period never occurred. Not for Dave and Nick those sun-kissed halcyon days of May 1997, a liberated nation excited by the prospect of renewal which beckoned before it (and which did happen). No. It quickly turned out that not even Nick agreed with Nick; university students got what scholars of the classics term ‘the shaft’ and as many children as possible were forced into penury as quickly as the chuckling duo could manage.
Footloose
Back then, when we were all getting to grips with the rose garden routine – why didn’t we see more of this? – (Steve) Hilton-mani, pre-Crosby, was at its height. Downing Street’s secure communication network was replaced with tom-toms and an elaborate network of string-and-yoghurt pots, wigwammery flourished, shoes were banned. I actually encountered this phenomenon at first hand on one occasion
when in No 10 to talk about some nuclear issue or other.
Where to begin? Context, I suppose. The Blair Downing Street struck me as high-tempo and professional. It was the first I ever encountered so the impression will no doubt be distorted in some way because of its novelty. The Brown Downing Street struck me as hard-driven, and I’ll never forget one of the young Brown children running around singing ‘Sweet Home Carolina’ as I awaited my call. The Cameron Downing Street is different again, the staff and security no less polite and, for the most part, they wear shoes.
Loitering in the No 10 entrance waiting for my meeting to begin, the prime minister sauntered through; no tie, no shoes. He looked at me, looked at his feet, looked up and walked away. What a time it was to be alive …
Spatchcock: The Chickening
But it was a more confident Dave who bumbled around Downing Street in his socks. This Dave would never have chickened out of a pre-election television debate with the leader of the opposition.
The Downing Street operation has been roundly and publicly panned – deservedly so. Politics aside, the quality of the operation doesn’t begin to approach the effectiveness of the last Labour government – but the decision making of the centre at critical moments is sometimes breathtakingly bad. The decision to effectively both chicken out and try to destroy the party leader TV debates is astonishing. In essence, Cameron is afraid to defend his record; this is visible to the public and will serve him poorly.
This is a test, of course, for the broadcasters. Will they roll over as they have done since 2010 (tough questions mean that your access as a journalist access is stymied)? In particular, it’s a test for the ultra-supine BBC. Will the publicly funded broadcaster have the courage to act on the behalf of the public interest and empty-chair the prime minister? Watch this space and mark these words: a BBC without bottle isn’t a BBC worth having.
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Jamie Reed is member of parliament for Copeland. He writes The Last Word column on Progress and tweets @jreedmp
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Photos: 10 Downing Street ; The Spectator