Tory turmoil over tax is one of the reasons why David Cameron fails what a Right-wing mate – and yes, I do have a few – calls the £10 test.
My rich Thatcherite associate judges politicians on whether he’d trust them to look after a tenner.
Gordon Brown’s personal probity’s beyond reproach, the PM able to lecture Caesar’s wife on the value of being above suspicion.
The Tory friend’s no fan of Labour but he reckons Brown’s honest and would return the £10.
Nick Clegg’s a nice-guy-next-door kind of Lib Dem who’d push the paper through the letter box when you’re on holiday so burglars wouldn’t spot the house is empty.
The wealthy Tory thinks Clegg would also remember to give back the £10 note, possibly ironed to look smart.
But get him on the subject of Cameron and he erupts, a human Krakatoa, absolutely venomous about the Tory leader’s shortcomings.
He rants that Cameron would either forget or couldn’t be bothered to give him his tenner.
The smiley PR man spinning his way towards
Yet the widespread suspicion of the Tory leader will be ruthlessly exploited by Labour in the election.
A key player in Labour’s election campaign muttered all the party’s polling finds voters remain uneasy about Cameron. He’s superficially attractive until people stop and think.
Once they do, voters worry Cameron’s not what he seems, the image reappearing of the camera-happy cyclist secretly followed by a chauffeur with the shoes.
Frantic Tory backpedalling on tax cuts is the wobbly policy back wheel of Cameron’s buckling personal appeal.
What was presented as a £4.9bn easy ride for married couples has turned into a Penny Farthing promise not worth the hot breath.
If
But opinion polls hint at a hung Parliament, a result Labour would hail as a victory when the party was written off as fit only for the political knacker’s yard.
After all that’s happened – a global financial crisis, the 10p tax fiasco, the ridiculous Labour plots – I too am sometimes surprised Cameron’s not sealed the deal.
Then I remember the £10 test and the
