David Cameron has done a big interview with the Sunday Times (£) this weekend, and it’s confused me quite a bit.
The morning of Margaret Thatcher’s funeral, David Cameron gave an interview to the Today programme, in which he said:
I think in a way we’re all Thatcherites now because – I mean – I think one of the things about her legacy is some of those big arguments that she had had, you know, everyone now accepts. No-one wants to go back to trade unions that are undemocratic or one-sided nuclear disarmament or having great private sector businesses in the public sector.
You can listen to it here, just in case you missed it at the time:
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Clear enough, you’d think. He’s a Thatcherite, and he thinks the rest of us are too. But talking to Eleanor Mills for the Sunday Times, the Prime Minister changed his tune. She asked him again, and he said:
No… other people might call me that. I think the label’s now… it’s slightly become… labels now don’t quite mean what they did then.
When reminded that others in his party do call themselves Thatcherites, he responded “each to his own”.
It turns out, he’s moved on. Rather quickly, though, it would seem:
I was a tremendous Thatcher supporter… but there are now other challenges that need to be dealt with. I have problems with some of the Thatcher legacy — I’ve been more socially liberal.
Aside from Cameron’s muddle over Thatcher the interview is worth reading in full if you can get your hands on a copy or breach the paywall, not least because it’s a rare sit-down with a journalist who isn’t in the lobby. In practice, this means that it doesn’t contain much of the political doublespeak and Westminster code you so often get in these things. For instance, Mills writes:
I see what they mean about changing gears. I suddenly visualise him as a robot with four modes: 1. TV mode. 2. Public speaking. 3. Chummy to his aides. 4. Dispatch box. Adding to this cyborg persona is his almost artificially smooth, sleek skin — so peachy that he could be wearing foundation, though I don’t think he is. There’s definitely a whiff of the ham actor, or Barbie’s boyfriend, Ken, about him. Cameron is a polished performer, but perhaps we might warm to him more if he made the odd Boris-style howler.