Reading the Signs

David Cameron walks to his work at Parliament

I notice the UKIP supporters and suchlike pouncing (as they tend to do) on anything and everything they can find to condemn David Cameron and the Conservatives.

In so doing they miss the signs that others have been able to read. Simon Heffer has made a career of "dissing" Cameron's Conservatives, and is a reputed UKIP supporter.

Fortunately, anyone can see those clues just by paying a little attention, whether it be in the words, the way those words are spoken, Cameron's body language or that of others who are with him, such as foreign national leaders.

For example, the way Cameron has reiterated our not being within the Euro-zone and unlikely to be so, has reinforced the new government's stance in contrast to the way things were heading under Gordon Brown, and how they were certain to go if Tony Blair had still been PM. The element of doubt stems from the Liberal Democrat perspective now (though held in check for this parliament at least) and Labour if re-elected in future.

Thus Cameron is sending a signal that the only way to be sure of staying clear of the Euro is to support the current coalition but to have a Conservative majority at the next election. If one were to check out other recent events they also hold similar signs, just waiting to spotted by the perceptive and missed by those not sufficiently attuned.

Sarkozy certainly realised what was going on, as Henry Curteis points out; though I wouldn't go quite as far as his almost gushing article suggests. However it is a fair assessment if taken in a more matter-of-fact manner, and shows (along with the other examples I just touched upon) how very cleverly Cameron is handling his new-found coalition situation and is looking to the future.

I was with a group of Conservatives this afternoon, including our new MP, and it was pleasing for me to find that several of them had already realised for themselves at least some of what I have just discussed. It shows we have some alert members in Rochester.

Some commenters on other 'blogs have also understood more than the pounce-on-Dave brigade seem to do, I think simply by looking before they leap, not because the post's author is a bad person or anything like that.

As it is good self-training, I leave it as an exercise for readers, now that it has been pointed out, to go and study other recent such events and see if they can now understand what is really going on. I hope so: it's quite illuminating!