The mandate of heaven - otherwise known as 'Themedia' - has passed from Brown to Cameron. The Tory leader is now getting away with it. Power is passing to him and power gets respect. There is an amusing thread by Don Paskini in Liberal Conspiracy about how many houses Cameron has. In effect, the fact that he didn't know is not regarded as a story. Where are you blogosphere! Had he been a previous Tory leader he'd have got a kicking. Much more revealing of his teams professional calculation and media collusion was his 'meeting with the people' in his constituency over his expense claims. Only one reporter got the story, Peter Hitrchens. He called it "How to hold a public meeting in private". Hitchens P has some ghastly prejudices. But he sure can report (see his encounter with the police and his shock at their becoming a "militia"). His story in the Mail on Sunday is an absolute must read. He reproduces it and expands on it in his blog HERE.
Hitchens thinks that how much Cameron is worth is a private matter - I don't. But the last part of this passage is as revealing as his slipping up on his houses (and here too he slips responsibility to wife)
A freelance TV truck was parked outside, but nothing from Sky or the BBC. When, I wonder, were the big broadcasters informed of the event? And who decided which clips of the occasion they saw? Mr Cameron had a mike clipped to his tie, so anything he said could be recorded, but questioners were not offered a microphone and any heckling or hostility - had it happened - would have been indistinct on videotape.
Once the meeting started, it was clear that the local loyalists had been summoned to fill most of the 200 seats. The average age was well over 50. Mr Cameron recognised almost every questioner by name, and most of them addressed him familiarly as ‘David’. Every trick in the Tony Blair Fake Sincerity Handbook was used. There was no lectern, so Mr Cameron looked defenceless and vulnerable. He took off his jacket as soon as questions began, and he deployed his (absent) wife as a human shield when awkward questions - about how rich they are - came up. Do we have a £30 million fortune? Chuckle. Samantha must have spent it all, ha ha. No specific answer, though.
