Desperate PM calls on Three Wise Men and One Woman

DAVID CAMERON has appointed his own Three Wise Men and One Woman to provide him with a guiding light through the austerity desert in the New Year. He has asked his four most senior advisers inside Number Ten to come up with a new narrative to convince the public in the hard times ahead that he can steer them through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

Steve Hilton, his senior adviser, Craig Oliver, director of communications, Kate Fall, deputy chief of staff, and Andrew Cooper, director of strategy have been asked to come up with Big Society 2. They have been told that repeating John Major’s mantra “If it isn’t hurting, it isn’t working” is no longer enough.

Their task is to find an argument that will stitch together help for jobless youth, getting people off benefits and into work, support for the family and collapsing consumer confidence among the squeezed middle. They have to convince the public that - in Churchill’s phrase - they are heading to the sunlit uplands.

It sounds like mission impossible. Cameron is clearly worried that the coming economic storm will be so great that the Tories may yet pay the price at the next general election, despite gaining a six-point lead (40 points to 34 points) over Labour in an ICM poll at the weekend, largely as a result of his use of the veto which isolated Britain in the EU.

Cameron warned his MPs at their last meeting of the year that 2012 would be tougher than 1982 when Margaret Thatcher’s popular support crashed as unemployment soared and there was social unrest.

Police chiefs have warned Cameron more riots could be in store if he is not careful. With so much anger spreading in society, from unions bitter about their pensions to moral crusaders protesting that the bankers have caused our ills through their greed, there is a very real danger that collapse of the euro, bringing on a deeper recession, will lead to more public disorder.

Hence Cameron’s orders to his Three Wise Men and One Woman to find a solution to bind the country together – to persuade us “we are all in it together” and it’s going to get better.

Napoleon said a successful general gave his soldiers hope. The ICM poll allows Cameron to sound upbeat in his New Year message next week but the truth is he’s bracing the Tories for their lead over Labour to dip in 2012.
 
The ICM poll - if translated uniformly into seats - would leave Cameron just six short of a working majority if the election were held next month (which isn’t going to happen). In normal times, such a big Tory lead in the opinion polls in mid-term would be terminal for Ed Miliband, Labour’s leader, but Cameron knows what is around the corner.
 
The poll also showed that Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats could be more than halved to 23 MPs (though in reality they could be reduced to a still smaller rump). The prospect of a catastrophic collapse in their strength could also cause them to cut up rough inside the coalition government, if times are as hard as Cameron fears.

The Prime Minister would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year… but all the signs are, it won’t be. ·