squeaky bum time

(Photograph: Observer/Karen Robinson)

What is it - just the smoothness of his skin? David Cameron has this uncanny, computer-generated  quality in photographs - he's like a Pixar politician. It's unfortunate, is all I'm saying.

Anyway, that's not my point. My point is, I'm starting to think that all those Cameron supporters who claim he's great under pressure (a view I've subscribed to myself) may want to reconsider. He is showing signs of panic. Today he conjured up a constitutional change from nowhere:

This morning, Cameron has suddenly launched a new idea: a proposal that, if the premiership changes between elections, an election has to be held within six months. That is very clearly targeted at Gordon Brown. It also flags up a Tory fear that Labour could ditch Brown for a new leader in order to facilitate a post-election coalition with the Lib Dems: "You could have someone as prime minister who wasn't even in the televised debates." His latest proposal would be a major rule change to Britain's democracy, which is, we remind him, parliamentary, not presidential. The policy features nowhere in the Tory manifesto.

So under this law, Churchill would have been forced to call an election in 1940. This is a policy that manages to be at once carelessly radical and hopelessly irrelevant. On the one hand, it's a pretty significant change to the way the country is run (and not very conservative at all); on the other, it doesn't address the underlying flaws of our electoral system. Whether it was dreamt up over cornflakes as Peter Mandelson suggests, or a cappuccino-fueled brainstorm with Steve Hilton the night before, it should never have seen the light of day.

Even if you like the idea, it's shockingly ill-disciplined to start throwing out new policies in the middle of an election campaign. At a time when the Tories need to be conveying calmness, strength of conviction and maturity, it makes them look shallow, jumpy and desperate for attention. Is Armando Ianucci writing Cameron's script?

Comments

[peter]

Not just Churchill, but Eden, Macmillan, Douglas-Home and Major became PM without having earlier led their party at an election.

And if the ruling party has to call an election immediately they replace their leader, should not the same rule apply to the Opposition? Surely, it must be wrong (for example) that the nation's intelligence secrets are being shared with Leaders of the Opposition who have faced no recent electorate. I don't recall David Cameron resigning his seat and re-contesting it when he became Leader.

[CC]

Is it nothing more than a way of reminding everyone that they never voted for Gordon Brown in the first place?

Either way, it shows how vogue-ish the idea of voting system reform has suddenly become - probably too quick for either Labour or Conservative policy-makers to get a handle on. Reform has always been attached to the Lib Dems (who weren't taken seriously), so maybe there's confusion over whether reform is an issue the Lib Dems have brought with them or whether it represents a discontent that was there before Nick Clegg appeared on the scene. In this sense, it should really be no surprise that one of either Tory or Labour would propose a fudge and hope it's enough to appease. In this particular instance, it had to be a Tory fudge because Labour have to watch what they say about reform at the risk of upsetting the party which might represent their best hope for remaining in touching distance of power.

If I was a Tory I'd ask why the policy has been attached to Cameron. It seems a massive risk. Why not attach it to Osbourne (or Hague, or even Clarke!) and see if people get wet over it?

[Elemjay]

Hmmmm also John Major became PM in 1990. The following general election was in 1992. How would that work then???

[Dan]

Ill-disciplined perhaps but he's got to come up with something. Since 'that' debate the Tories have been sitting on much the same percentage as they scored in the last election. The Labour losses have transferred to the LibDems, suggesting it's all a rejection of Labour rather than anyone embracing the newly huggable Conservatives.