Iggy Pop describing your average Labour/Limp Dick voter (Slightly edited version) -

Here comes Johnny Yen again
With the liquor and drugs
And a flesh machine
He's gonna do another strip tease

Hey man, where'd you get that loan?
I've been working since I bought the gimmick.

Well, I'm just a modern guy.
Of course, I've heard that in my ear before.

I'm worth a million in prizes
With my torture film
Drive a G.T.O.
Wear a uniform
All on a government loan.

I'm worth a million in prizes
Yeah, I'm through with sleeping on the sidewalk.

No more beating my brains,
No more beating my brains,
With the liquor and drugs,
With the liquor and drugs.

Cameron isn't just connecting emotionally. He's a better leader and the British public usually vote for the better leader. Labour's problem is that they chose Ed Miliband over David Miliband because they thought Ed was a more leftwing version of David. Turns out that as well as being more leftwing he's not as good a leader.

Excuse me, Labour didn't choose Ed, the unions did.

As for narratives about capitalism, these don't win elections. And as it happens, the Tories are currently more reditributive in tax policy and more activist in interfering with the market than Labour was during its time in government under Brown and Blair (we have only ever had a 50% tax rate in effect since the colaition). Its not just Labour who can seek a shift in our socio-economic settlement; the Tories are doing it too. If 20th century history should show anything it is that Tories adapt.

Cameron popular ?? Please keep up to date. The Labour lead is now 4 points and growing daily and Cameron's rtreatment of the NHS has seen him slide and he, too , continues to do so on a daily basis.

Of course this news may not have reached you yet on planet Zog where you obviously got your qualifications. Funny culture on Zog I hear !!!!!

Don't forget, Cameron lost the election.

And people are sick of ego driven leaders.

So, this doesn't impress me.

The English have been so beaten into submission since 1979 that they fawn over posh gits - first Blair, now Cameron. That's the problem with this servile little country.

The policies of all parties seem to be very similar. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm not a great lover of party politics. I'm glad if anybody from any party does something for the country that benefits us and makes sense.

However, i'm still waiting...

David Cameron is fortunate in that he is a good public speaker. Obama is also a good public speaker. They are mostly at ease when debating. Not everything they say is especially credible, but they are both adept at public speaking.

In a way Blair and Mandleson were good at this, but Brown was poor. It really seems to be a requirement for the job too. At present, Labour don't have a good public speaker. This may be a shallow way to assess politicians but it certainly helps if the public can listen to your voice without cringing too much.

I often wonder foolishly I know what if Cameron was leader of the Labour party.

Conservative policies will always seek to ruin working people, which make up the bulk of the population in the UK.

Cameron's domestic test is Scottish independence, in foreign policy among the plethora of issues, it surely is about positioning the UK to benefit economically from the BRIC economies as Germany is doing.

Unless he's got a clever hairdresser, Cameron will be as bald as a coot by 20015 and that never goes down well with the electorate.

David Cameron is not a popular leader by any means - he has been a dissapointment to voters - even to his own party. But look at what is on offer as an alternative. Ed Miliband - another privileged creature of the poltical class who like David Cameron, has never known anything else but wealth and political power. We have an opposition party who on all real major issues that concern the public are in alignment with the Conservatives. An opposition that thinks that opposition to NHS changes is going to win them an election! The Tories and Labour are no longer distinct - the differences are minor and technical. The election is there for the taking - Cameron is unpopular with the public - and providing the public are offered an real alternative vision to Cameron and his Tory party... then 2015 is there to be had. Sadly the ideological gap today is not between Tory and Labour but between a remote political class that controls westminster and a disenfranchised public not given a political "choice".

This article has got the whole thing arse upwards.
Labours problem is not David Cameron but it's leader Ed Miliband.
The Tories cannot believe their luck that he was elected Labours leader.
But as usual with the Labour Party they will stick with a leader even if it means being anhilated at the next GE a la Micheal Foot.

Labour will never now win an election unless they use the Conservatives trump card; namely an understanding that large bureaucratic government will only ever produce champagne socialists. On top of that, any fool can see that the 150000 civil servants who will lose their jobs in Greece are part of the problem, and the solution is to remove them. Mindless bureaucracy has a real impact that the public are becoming aware of, because the job of bureaucrats, councilors, and anybody else who works for the state is to regulate and control. Or put another way, to stop anybody doing anything so long as they get their overinflated pension. This is the only concern of the bureaucratic great & good, but they seem to think the public can't see this despite the demise of Europe. Also given the huge number of well paid non-jobs, Labour would have to cut these parasites loose in order to win an election, and that will never happen.

Seen Cameron at PMQs today. Flailing at Ed when hopelessly out of distance, Dave was pretty hoarse at the end of the session.
Hollering is all right when addressing the servants or possibly one's fag. Eton, wasn't it? It is certainly not the done thing when debating in the Chamber.

So Embarrassing

Go to Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle and see how popular he is.

Get out of the South East and see what most of the country thinks of him.
He's hated.

The Tories are no further on than in 2010 and are only showing near Labour because of the drop off in the Libdems.

35 or 36% is all they'll get again in 2015.

@ sally
21 February 2012 at 23:46

Absolutely well said!

But Hugh, it was not Cameron's fault.
Ed would not ask the right questions. It was obvious that Cameron had rehearsed the 'Risk Register' thingy in front of Sammy's teeth. Did you not hear the pleading (don't ask me difficult questions about the NHS.please ask me about the 'Risk Register', please ask me about the 'Risk Register, Please ask me about the 'risk Register'.

What an embarrassment our useless, powerless and pantomime PM is.

Nick, please feel sorry for him and put him out of his misery !!

cameron is just seen as better than clegg or miliband, that is not popularity.

trying to be like him would be a mistake, what is really needed is a leader who is completely unlike him, or clegg, or miliband, or any of the oxford ppe politicians.

cameron is just using dog whistle politics to attract right wing working class voters, many of whom probably never vote anyway.

but he can only play that game for a while, as the reality is the largest past of the mess we are in was created by the financial sector, and that is an unavoidable truth, and cameron is too close to them, to take them on.

A one point lead? Labour has a 4 point lead in one opinion poll over th weekend. Labour lost an election due to its insistence on following the Washington Consensus. It will take a long tome for the voters to forget that. Milliband is not so popular but remember - Jim Callaghan was much more popular than Margaret Thatcher in 1979. The Tories won. An election is not a popularity contest between two people.