How would a party worker be able to show a text message from David Cameron to Boris Johnson, unless he was holding Mr Cameron’s phone. Either way, it’s revealing.
Nick Robinson: If viewers heard a bit of a cheer there in the hall, that’s interesting for the future of the Tory Party, it was a picture not of David Cameron on his own which they are largely seeing, it was a picture of him and Boris Johnson who has been both the star of this conference and its biggest problem, because he simply refused to follow the script on Europe. Wouldn’t do it, nearly was generating massive headline by doing so, ignored the advice that he was sent. One party worker close to David Cameron showed me a text message that had been sent to Boris as he got on the train home. Not a word of it I think is safely repeatable at any time on television.
Andrew Neil: Really?
NR: Absolutely so furious.
AN: We are often accused of exaggerating this but there is a certain tension between the two. The mayor of London and the leader of the Conservative Party.
NR: They were, they now talk of him in the way that Tony Blair used to occasionally talk about John Prescott. Boris will be Boris, Tony Blair used to say John will be John. It’s a way of saying, what are we supposed to do, what can do about it?
AN: I’m told it all goes back to the fact that they come from different parts of Eton. That Eton’s actually divided into Sunni and Shiite or some equivalent.
Shaun Ley: The disquiet over General Dannatt’s move to the Conservatives is not just confined to Labour politicians. Lord Ramsbotham is a former Lieutenant General in the Army.
David Ramsbotham: The tradition has always been that the military do not align themselves with any political party. I was commander in Belfast in 1979 and on one Thursday I woke up in the morning with a Secretary of State from the Labour Party and that evening we had a Conservative one. But it didn’t matter, you were going on whichever government was there and that tradition is terribly important if there are to be proper relationships between the military and government that they should be entirely non-party and therefore personally I regret is when someone so soon after leaving and particular somebody who’s been so controversial as it were should appear to be lined up for a job with one or other of the political parties.
SL: There is an argument I suppose that we have no evidence that he effectively was expressing the views that he expressed in order to curry favour with the Conservatives so in that sense if this has happened after he ceased, being chief of the general staff isn’t that fair enough? If he’s now a private individual?
DR: Yes he’s perfectly entitled to express his opinions. What I’m concerned about is the suggestion that Mr Cameron who may be the next Prime Minister is seeking to use him as a source of advice and no reason why he shouldn’t of course but he was one member of the chiefs of staff committee and it was the chiefs of staff who provide military advice and of course if Mr Cameron becomes Prime Minister to whom he goes, not a former colleague.
SL: Do you think Sir Richard has made a mistake?
DR: Well I couldn’t comment on who gave him advice but I personally wish he had not allied himself so publicly with one political party at this particular time when so much febrile activity about who said what to whom about troop reinforcements and so on, is very much in the media.
David Cameron, glugging champagne on the day four million people heard their pay would be frozen; the day after they announced they’d slash pensions:
“When we caught him sipping fizz at an exclusive party, heavy-handed minders immediately moved in and tried to stop us leaving with the embarrassing snap.”
Basically, they’re taking us all for chumps. It’d be laughable if they weren’t 14 points ahead in the polls.
