By Nick Wood
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The media are likely to brand it a relaunch. After the 'omnishambles' of the past few weeks, David Cameron will take to the airwaves this morning, including Radio 4's flagship Today programme, in a bid to get his floundering administration back on track.
The stakes are high and getting higher. With the latest opinion polls giving Labour its biggest lead since the general election two years ago, the Conservatives are heading for a drubbing in the May 3 local elections.
Ed Miliband is poised to pick up hundreds of seats. UKIP, increasingly the home of disaffected Tories, may not win many seats, but it will pull down the Conservative vote, boosting the Labour surge.
The betting is firmly that Boris will see off blubbing and bumbling Ken ("hypocrite") Livingstone, thereby doing his greatest political rival (Dave) an enormous favour. Defeat for Boris on May 3 in the London mayoral election would be a disaster for Cameron, triggering waves of mutiny and recrimination. But in the elections to the Greater London Assembly, the Tories are braced for another pasting.
Little hope: No one is holding their breath that Dave's media blitz tomorrow will make a scrap of difference
As Dave enters the bull-ring of the Today programme studio for the prized
8.10 am slot, he is not short of advice.
From the Left of his party comes the cry for him to stick to the centre ground policies (no referendum on Europe, no confrontation with foreign courts, no significant tax cuts, no really painful spending cuts, no crackdown on immigration or crime, more money for foreign aid and the Eurozone bailouts) that failed to lift the Tory vote above 36 per cent in 2010.
The Right, meanwhile, is increasingly restive. Nick Clegg latest vote-losing idea, shaking up the House of Lords, is under fire from a string of Cabinet ministers and Tory MPs, all of whom are warning that to the electorate it will look like a self-indulgent distraction from the main tasks facing the Government.
It is likely to go the same way as the Lib Dem leader's first attempt at constitutional tinkering (AV or the alternative vote) crushed in a referendum a year ago - but not before fueling the impression that the Coalition's priorities are a million miles from those of most voters.
Tory MPs and Ministers are increasingly fed up with the faulty wiring of the Coalition. In particular, Ministers are complaining that No 10 lacks a political brain. The country wants decisive action to get the economy moving and curb the deficit. What it gets from the PM are piffling speeches on, for instance, how to be a good nurse or fringe-politics measures such as the Lords nonsense, gay marriage and nannying crackdowns on smokers.
For his relaunch to do any good, Dave must focus on the big picture: measures to create growth and jobs, to balance the nation's books, to reassert Britain's right to govern itself, and deal with terrorists and criminals without foreign interferenc e, to curb immigration, to reform welfare and education.
Most of all, he has to persuade the country that he knows how to ease the squeeze on Middle Britain's family budgets and show them the way to the combination of prosperity and opportunity that marked the Tory heyday under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
He still has time. No matter how grim the May 3 elections prove, Dave still has 2-3 years to demonstrate he is not a one-hit wonder.
But for that, he needs to get more political, not less. He needs to pick some fights with the Labour Left and win them.
Nick Clegg latest vote-losing idea, shaking up the House of Lords, is under fire from a string of Cabinet ministers and Tory MPs
He needs to capitalise on the sense of crisis surrounding the economy to push through radical ideas (such as far sharper deregulation of employment laws) to encourage entrepreneurs and business expansion.
And he needs to hire some political streetfighters in No 10, not hand the whole show over to Sir Humphrey.
One of the most alarming rumours doing the rounds at Westminster is that Matthew Elliott, the Taxpayer's Alliance boss who led the campaign to destroy Clegg's AV dream, has been blackballed for a Downing Street job by his Lib Dem enemies.
Right now, no one is holding their breath that Dave's media blitz tomorrow will make a scrap of difference.
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I do not understand how deregulation of employment laws and business regulations is going to help The Government, politically or The Country economically in the immediate future. There are literally, thousands of regulations that cover business, they include the very good, through to the downright stupid. Changing law, is time consuming and getting even Tory MP's to decide what should be changed would take years. Those laws that were changed, would not have any immediate impact on the economy. Some will say that, changes would make "Britain a better place to do business in" but the sort of changes that would require would be unpalatable for most MP's. I do not believe that most employees, who comprise most of The Electorate, think that depriving workers of hard won rights, will mean more jobs or more prosperity. You do not have to be a Socialist, to view Employers and Business in a different way and with a lot less reverence than Right Wing MP's, The PM and Tory Ministers do.
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If his interview this AM with John Humphries on the radio 4 today program my honest opinion of this man as our PM is ziltch he came over as nothing short of a pampered school boy - he most certainly ain't a Statesman he is not even a paper tiger - I liken him to being just a toff an airy fairy one at that!
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Unfortunatelt the 'Prime Minister' can only piffle at the edges of governing the UK as he has to take orders from the unelected Commissars of LaLa Land. On top of that, having never done a day of real work, just a PR man at heart, he is unable to make decisive decisions. He has lead a Government for two years and, as yet, he has made no decisive decisions other than to renege on his promises, failed to reign in quangoland, the EU or ECHR. As Winnie the Pooh said, I am a bear with little brain. Cameron, Clegg and their minions have definately shown they collectively have little brain, or for that matter, the capability of understanding what the voting public require. Strong decisive government to get us out of this mess the Labour party, civil servants and bankers have gotten us into. In addition we have a Labour opposition who promise more of the same when thrown out of power and are are as opinionated and thick as the coalition.
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Expect some crowd-pleasers from Shifty Dave.
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"Dithering" Dave has lost it. He might as well hold his hands up now and have an election. He and his wimps are finished. Unfortunately, if he carries on much longer, so will Britain be finished.
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My compliments to the Eton drama coach. David's acting skills are quite remarkable but he now needs help if he is to maintain the role of a conservative for much longer.
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You say he has time to "prove that he was no one hit wonder" - but he wasn't even that, he couldn't get a majority, even against Gordon Brown! His problem now is that he has been exposed as a serial liar, he will never recover from that, he is a busted flush.
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He will say/promise one thing and then do the opposite. I no longer listen to what this lier has to say.
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'Dave still has 2-3 years to demonstrate he is not a one-hit wonder.' ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sorry Dave, you are a 1 hit wonder. You fooled most of the people once, but you won't do it again. If you really care for the country and the conservative party, resign and make room for the one who should have been elected party leader, David Davis.
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'Dave' is proof that you never send a boy to do a mans job. He is another Blair, and the Conservatives need someone to proclaim, "Come in Dave, your time is up!" Until then, sad to say, the decline of Britain will accelerate.
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