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Cameron 'rips up' Queen's Speech as Boris Johnson's star rises
HS2 and Lords reforms are postponed – and the PM is even ready to shelve the gay marriage plans he fought for
AFTER SUFFERING crushing losses in Thursday's local elections, David Cameron has gone back to the drawing board, revising the Queen's Speech at the last minute as his own party urges him to learn lessons from London's re-elected mayor, Boris Johnson.
According to The Independent on Sunday, "senior figures" within the Conservatives are calling on the PM to remove George Osborne from his role as chief electoral strategist and replace him with Johnson's campaign manager, Lynton Crosby.
An unnamed Tory minister told the paper: "If we want to win next time, we want Lynton Crosby. Lynton is a first class campaigner and, to be blunt, we missed that in 2010." (Osborne was also in charge of strategy for the 2010 general election.)
Cameron is said to be responding immediately to his party's drubbing by tweaking Wednesday's Queen's Speech in a highly unusual last-minute revision. The Sun quotes a "Whitehall source" as saying: "He is going through the speech line by line."
The source added: "Boris has made David see the error of his ways." The paper also notes that bookies last night "slashed the odds of Boris becoming the next PM to 3-1".
The Sunday Telegraph dubs the speech Cameron's "battle plan" and predicts it will include measures to "make firing underperforming employees easier", "extend flexible working to … overcome Tory unpopularity among women" and "clamp down on crime with a new 'British FBI'".
The paper also predicts that plans to set a minimum level for foreign spending, to build a new high speed rail line from London to Birmingham (HS2) and to create US-style private universities – all unpopular with backbenchers – will be delayed.
Looking further ahead than this week's Queen's Speech, The Sunday Times says Cameron has decided to shelve plans to legalise gay marriage and to reform the House of Lords – moves which will be deeply unpopular with his Lib Dem coalition partners.
Meanwhile, troublemaking backbench MP Nadine Dorries, who earlier dubbed Cameron and Osborne "two posh boys who don't know the price of a pint of milk", today suggested in an article for the Mail on Sunday that the PM could face a leadership challenge.
She pointed out that the signatures of 46 Tory MPs are needed to trigger a no confidence vote and added: "I would guess those signatures are already coming in and will reach 46 by Christmas."
The PM visited Johnson hours after his London victory, hoping perhaps that some of the re-elected mayor's sparkle might rub off on him. According to the Telegraph, though, Johnson had a joke at Cameron's expense as he celebrated his victory, telling supporters at a post-election party: "We survived the rain, the BBC, the budget and the endorsement of David Cameron." ·
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Cameron, Clegg and Osborne just do not get it. This was not a vote for Labour, many people have lost faith in them and voting at a general election might have resulted in a hung party again. However local council does not have much say in the running of the country so it was safe to vote AGAINST the conservatives and to punish Nick Clegg for letting his supporters down in 2010. He will need a long time to live this down and the only hope the Lib/Dems have now is to get rid of Nick Clegg, don't worry David Cameron will find him a safe seat somewhere. Mr. Miliband does not want to get too complacent either, this was not a vote for Labour it was against the Tories. However people voted against the coalition because when someone is facing unemployment with little hope of finding another job, when someone is struggling to meet mortgage payments to save the home they struggled hard to find a deposit for, when someone is struggling to pay the bills, when someone is struggling to find a £1.00 for a loaf of bread, do the Tories think that an individual is worried about the deficit. Does he honestly believe he is winning people over by making such ridibulous statements like "We are all in this together", when was the last time he had to borrow off Peter to pay Paul, when was the last time he had to tell the kids that a simple luxury like a packet of biscuits was too expensive, when was the last time the kids had to walk to school in pouring rain because fuel was too expensive an there was not enough left out of the benefits to pay for bus fare, when was the last time their kids had to beg for school dinners because on benefits parents could not afford the cost, and on and on and on. No Mr. Cameron there are far too many people facing these hardships with your cuts to worry about the deficit.
Goodness! Some of the press are suggesting that Boris's next political step is to be PM. Whilst Boris has something of a comedy value about him, I don't think we really want the blonde buffoon determining international policy. As a charming, relatively harmless Mayor of London, he is merely a jokey character. As PM, the whole country would be an international joke with about as much credibility as Bulesconi's Italy had. No thanks!