The Staggers: David Cameron

Whether it was an empty threat or not, it was intriguing to hear David Cameron say that he "won't rule out" introducing quotas for women in the boardroom. The PM, who is currently attending the Nordic-Baltic summit in Sweden, said that a target of 30 per cent could be legally enforced "if we cannot get there by other means".

It was Norway, of course, another attendee at the summit, that pioneered ... read more

"He's sold us down the river". So said one party leader of David Cameron's new EU stance. Except the leader in question wasn't Ukip's Nigel Farage but Ed Miliband, speaking on ITV's Daybreak this morning. The Labour leader has annexed the language of betrayal from the Conservative right. He went on: "I'm going to be asking him in the House of Commons today what exactly ... read more

You can't fault David Cameron's chutzpah. His speech earlier today was an audacious bid to seize the territory of "responsible capitalism" or, as the Prime Minister called it, "popular capitalism" from Labour. True, during his brief flirtation with "Red Toryism" in 2009, Cameron spoke of the need for "markets with morality" but we've heard little since.

The political assertion at the heart of his speech was ... read more

On the day that David Cameron finally makes his long-promised speech on moral capitalism, here are two tests of his commitment to the concept. RBS, the bank, lest we forget, that we now own 83 per cent of, is planning to award its chief executive Stephen Hester a bonus of around £1.2 million, despite a halving in its share price ... read more

There was an intriguing flicker of dissent on the government benches during Prime Minister's Questions today when Andrew George, a Liberal Democrat MP for West Cornwall, asked David Cameron if he would consider abandoning the bill containing controversial health reforms. (He won't.)

As rebellious interventions go it was fairly tame, since quite a lot of Tory MPs privately wish the bungled and unloved health reforms would go away. Still, it was ... read more

Removing child benefit from higher rate taxpayers was a coalition policy which drew criticism from across the board -- and now David Cameron has hinted that it could be watered down.

After the plan to cut child benefit for higher earners was announced in 2010, inconsistencies quickly emerged: stay-at-home mothers would be penalised, as a household in which one parent earns just over the threshold of £42,000 would lose all ... read more

The Conservatives failed to win an eminently winnable election in 2010 because they weren't seen as understanding and empathising enough with the needs of ordinary working people. They were seen as the "party of the rich" and big business, rather than the party of hard pressed "strivers". This inability to connect cost David Cameron an overall majority. The Prime Minister's New Year offensive on executive pay, along with an overture ... read more

In an interview on the Andrew Marr Show yesterday, David Cameron revealed that he was planning to bring forward proposals which he hoped would settle the "uncertainty" surrounding Scotland's constitutional future in a "fair, decisive and legal" way. This raised suspicions that the Prime Minister was about to call a pre-emptive, Westminster-led referendum on the break-up of Britain.

In the event, nothing so dramatic transpired. Instead, Cameron has made an offer ... read more

There is another side to David Cameron's eurozone veto that hasn't been told. Staying out of the euro was not a cunning example of British sagacity but rather a potent symbol of the weakness of the British economy. What was not admitted was that, though still the sixth largest economy in the world, Britain was judged not fit to compete in an open European economy where a single currency ... read more

After Nick Clegg's appearance yesterday, it was David Cameron's turn on the Today programme this morning (the Ed Miliband vacuum remains a mystery). On the economy, he attributed the UK's woes to the eurozone crisis and "stubbornly high" inflation (partly, of course, due to the 2.5 per cent increase in VAT). Cameron pointed to government support for the economy such as "boosting the number ... read more

David Cameron's run of good fortune shows no sign of ending. Today's YouGov poll confirms the Tories' two-point lead over Labour and reveals that Cameron's stance on the EU has significantly improved perceptions of his leadership. The percentage of people who agree that he "sticks to what he believes in" has risen by 13 points to 39 per cent, the number who view as ... read more

The House of Commons was on predictably raucous form for the Prime Minister's statement on last week's European summit. It isn't always a forum in which the best arguments win. Often they are trumped by the most bravura performance, the readiest wit or the exuberance of the backbenches.

On this occasion, the seriousness of the issue just about managed to cut through the roiling theatrics. Cameron pitched his statement soberly, clearly ... read more