What a difference 9 months makes

Back in January, I posted on how well Tony Blair had performed in the Commons. What a difference 9 months makes! This week he was well and truly trounced by David Cameron at Prime Minister's Questions. Still, Blair has dug a hole for himself by refusing to endorse Brown now after having done just that earlier in the year. Quite how he could hope to get away with this U-turn is beyond me.

As someone mentioned on the radio the other day though, it must be deeply galling to have pumped so much into the NHS over the last 9 years, only to have the Tories come out ahead of Labour in recent polls which seek to measure which party is trusted more with the health service.

As for Cameron, I don't have much time for the guy. As I heard that entertaining political duo Abbot and Portillo say on This Week last week, the shadow cabinet has something like 13 old Etonians in it, including Cameron himself. Furthermore, apparently, there are even more Etonians and their ilk working for Cameron as political advisors etc. Diane and Michael pointed out that an affable, self-deprecating manner was what distinguished the old Etonians from their peers and how, in meeting an old Etonian for the first time, it was easy to get sucked in by all this charm. This is what seems to be happening to the British public right now.

I had much more time for Cameron's predecessor, Michael Howard. He was a superb parliamentary performer and I think it's fair to say you knew where you were with him. As an ex-grammar school boy from less than affluent roots, I'm sure he doesn't have much time for the crowd who now dominate the Tory front bench.

Of course, Howard like the much derided Ming Campbell, had the great disadvantage of being an intellectual and the great British public has always hated intellectuals.