Why I am at ease with David Cameron’s public persona

DESPITE their shared objectives of seizing the “common ground”, comparing David Cameron to Tony Blair is unfair to the incumbent Prime Minister (“Lack of authenticity in Cameron following ‘son of Blair’ path” (Yorkshire Post, March 8).

With youngsters now complaining that “they are all the same”, personality is as important as policy. If Tony Blair has indeed been “rumbled” by voters it is because they have seen through the fawning mannerisms, the forced grin, the photo calls, the opportunism at the death of Diana, Princess of Wales and tiny but tell-tale details such as lying about watching Jackie Milburn the Newcastle football legend, a chronological impossibility.

I am at ease with David Cameron’s public persona which I find totally unaffected: it is not his fault that he went to Eton. I don’t know if his £448m scheme to help troubled families will bear fruit but anyone who believes he is out of touch with the real world should read his article on troubled families (Yorkshire Post, March 7), with, and I quote Cameron “children growing up in Britain, in homes that are chaotic and even frightening; homes affected by chronic addiction, drug dependency, chronic worklessness and crime. Families where parents are more likely to tell their children to run off to the off-licence than do their homework”. That last eloquent sentence tells the whole story.

Contrast this insight with the view of Tory MP Claire Perry, somewhat incongruously one of Cameron’s advisers on family policy, whose idea of a family problem is a student struggling at university because they no longer have a zealous mother to supervise their homework (Yorkshire Post, March 7).

Contrast also with Ed Miliband who ruthlessly and with the help of the trade unions cut out his more likeable and charismatic brother. As for the Lib Dems, the less said about personality the better.

If David Cameron keeps the dinosaurs and “fruit cakes” (his words), and they know who they are, in their place, for the first time in my life I will be voting Tory at the next election.

From: Ruthven Urquhart, High Hunsley, Cottingham, East Yorkshire.

I REFER to Terry Duncan’s letter (Yorkshire Post, March 6) and there are two sayings which I believe may be pertinent regarding the present Conservative Party, and as follows.

“God gave us one mouth 
and two ears so that we can 
listen to more than we say,”
and secondly a sound and relevant remark by Mark Twain: “It’s better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you’re a fool than open it, and remove all doubt.”

And finally, two pieces of 
advice from Winston Churchill (the greatest statesman ever, 
if not always the best 
politician): “What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes, and to make this muddled world a better place for those who live in it after we are gone?” (1908).

“There is no worse mistake in public leadership than to hold out false hopes soon to be 
swept away. The British people can face peril or misfortune 
with fortitude and buoyancy, but they bitterly resent being deceived, or finding that those responsible for their affairs are themselves dwelling in a fool’s paradise” (1951).

From: George Appleby, Leighton Croft, Clifton, York.

OUR Archbishop of Canterbury and other Bishops have spoken out about a further 200,000 children being pushed into poverty by Government policy (Yorkshire Post, March 10).

Good, but that is only half of 
it. They should be shouting from the pulpits about the wrongs of the massive imbalance of the wealth at the top of our society and their overall responsibility for this.