Last week, the Conservative Party unveiled a photograph
of its MPs, which was promoted as the first ever picture of the Conservative
parliamentary party in the Chamber of the House of Commons.
However, the photo was not all that it seemed. It didn’t
take long before it was revealed that several of the MPs apparently smiling
along with the Prime Minister were not actually there when the photograph was
taken. Clearly photo-shopping is not just for fashion magazines.
Actually, it struck me that photo-shopping accurately
sums up David Cameron’s whole approach to promoting his policies. Unlike Nick
Clegg, who is perfectly happy to promise something he has no intention of
keeping – like student fees, Cameron presents enough verifiable information to
make you believe he’s presenting an accurate picture, whilst hoping to get away
with ignoring key facts and issues which fatally undermine his case. Let’s take
a few examples from the last week.
David Cameron has consistently told us how the steps he
has taken will secure a range of Conservative parliamentary candidates for the
next general election which is more representative. Now we learn that, of the
48 aspiring MPs chosen to fight the election to date, only 14 – less than one
in three – are female and just one is from an ethnic minority background.
Then he said that Ed Miliband’s energy price freeze was
ludicrous and unaffordable before, a few days’ later, revealing that George
Osborne is going to announce parallel proposals in the Autumn Statement –
presumably these will be unaffordable too?
Once, David Cameron was telling us all about his
intention to ‘hug a hoodie’, when actually we can now see that his real
intention was to make them homeless. According to the latest statistics, 16 to
24-year-olds have lost services worth 28 per cent of their income since 2010
and the announcements made at Conservative Conference will push that far
higher.
And then there’s Help to Buy, which Cameron presents as
helping those on lower incomes to get on the property ladder. Leaving aside the
almost universal criticism, across the political and economic spectrum, that
fuelling inflation in an already over-valued market is dangerous, we now learn
more about the details. Those purchasing the lowest valued homes and having the
least available deposit will pay significantly more than those getting help to
buy a home worth £600,000. Clearly, it’s that latter group, who would need an
annual income approaching £150,000, who Mr Cameron believes is most worthy of
support and subsidy.
