Cameron fails to shine on his dinner date
Tuesday, November 6, 2007 
I have just been listening, on Five Live, to David Cameron responding in the House of Commons to the Queen's Speech and he was excellent. Sharp, witty, entertaining and (dare I say it) charismatic - everything that he wasn't at last night's Conservative Way Forward Annual Dinner.
The star of the show was, to put it mildly, disappointing. It didn't help that he arrived late (missing the Forest-sponsored pre-dinner drinks!) and left early. There were 170 or so guests and I can't imagine that he spoke to more than a handful - which is no way to drum up support from the party faithful (or sceptics like myself).
Worse, his after dinner speech (one or two jokes aside) was plain dull. I made some notes but without referring to them I can barely remember a word he said. It was a going through the motions performance devoid of passion or sparkle - and I wasn't alone in thinking so. No surprise, then, that the biggest cheer of the night went not to the leader of the Conservative party but to one of his predecessors - William Hague - who (willingly, it seemed) adopted the role of court jester.
Guests at the Forest table included our own Neil Rafferty (above, centre), our new website manager Georgie Wisen (second left), Ranald Macdonald of Boisdale (partly hidden at the back), Sarah Bland (our new project manager, also hidden), and Simon Richards of the Freedom Association. Simon took the picture!
Events
Reader Comments (5)
Well, at least he must have sanctioned Forest being present - but a rather anaemic sanction. One of those 'I will spew you out of my mouth' kind of sanctions. Let's hope it improves; he was certainly fiery in the Commons today.
Why should Cameron care? He didn't even vote, either for or against the ban.
I'm afraid that Cameron (like most other front-line politicians) doesn't realise the negative impact this blanket ban on smoking has and will have. They live in a different world and most of them haven't worked properly and lived in the 'real world' and mixed with ordinary people. Many ordinary people have had their social lives ruined and are now being treated like third class citizens by others. Eventually politicians like Mr Cameron will be forced to listen and have to take this seriously. That time approaches, probably sooner rather than later.
Iwould have thought that David Cameron would be more than just a little interested in smoking groups that could give him anywhere between 14 to 20 million votes in the next election and see him in at No 10, it makes sense to back the smokers and Freedom
At last a mention of the voters, I estimate that there is 14 Million smokers + probably about the same again in non smokers opposed to the ban that is well over a third of the population, Why are the poiticos not being lobbied as to reforming the ban to make choice an option as part of their manifesto, they would get my vote and probably a lot of others.
Lets get rid of Brown and his cronies, compared to him Cromwell would seem to be a fun guy.