As with the expenses scandal, what I find most surprising is that anyone is actually surprised that this has been going on.

I was surprised the expenses regime was so lax.

This is not at all surprising though.

The scandal has been given a name in the media:

"Cam dine with me"

Like it.

Fallon dying on his arse with Paxo.

Apparently, if you don't allow £50k a year donation, the taxpayer has to step in. You could stop doing all those posters with Cameron on.

Here he goes on the real issue is a tanker driver strike.

Fallon said "£4m from one union!" Kwasi Kunteng did the same schtick in Parliament.

£1.33 a member. Bit more for per member that pays the political levy, admittedly. Given that £50k "keeps the big money out of politics", that would need there to be no more than 80 paying the levy.

Are the government's planning reforms the next scandal waiting to happen? I find it impossible to believe there weren't a few backhanders flying around whilst all this was being drawn up.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/hands- ... rules.html

I often wonder whether Cameron is the PR man he's cracked up to be, to be honest. Granted, he's still the most electable leader the Tories could have - the other prospective candidates are completely lacking in empathy and the sense of entitlement just drips off them - and he's played Clegg like a fucking fiddle since 2010, but he has a knack of getting himself into trouble and doesn't seem to have that invincible aura that Blair had in his early years.

What should be more worrying for the Tories is that he doesn't even seem to be in touch with his own base - a Labour PM would have struggled to aggravate the nimbys as much as Cameron has so far, and his back-of-a-fag-packet policies are picked apart before the papers have even gone to press. I've heard people say he's 'good in a crisis', but I don't see much evidence of it myself. When he does get himself into trouble, he ends up tying himself in knots about it before the media eventually lose interest.

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Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.

Agree: The same guy leading any other party would have been hounded out by the press by now.
I've lost count of the U-turns as his leaked policies have barely got a toe outside the door.

On planning, take a look at the No 10 Diners club and you'll see plenty of construction business representation.

No private healthcare providers though (unless I've missed something) which why I don't believe for a second that it is everyone.

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MY COMMENTS ARE FROM THE HORSES MOUTH AND ARE ALL FACTS

It's worth remembering that his only commercial experience was as director of corporate affairs with Carlton TV, a company regarded as a bit of a joke in media circles.
His PR ability seems to only extend as far as presenting as being well-spoken, pleasant and charming ... right up to the point that he is asked awkward questions which box him into a corner, then the façade drops and he starts snarling like a cornered fox. I've worked with capable PR people and their ability to remain calm and charming under fire is something to behold, Cameron is a rank amateur.

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That subtle admixture of the absurd and the surreally plausible...

And he only got that Carlton job in the first place through family connections, iirc.

But yes, Cameron's shiny-faced family man image has helped him deflect a lot of the flak but it doesn't take much to rile him (see PMQs pretty much every week). I suppose he's been astute in the way he's deployed the Lib Dems as a human shield - not just as a scapegoat for the rabid Tory right but also for the left - but to be fair to the Labour frontbench they were fairly quick to cotton on to that strategy and their attitude towards Clegg & co seems to have softened a bit. The problem is that the perception of sleaze is hard to shift, as even Blair eventually found out to his cost. Perhaps the loss of Coulson has hurt Cameron more than I thought it might.

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Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.

Oh Dave...

Cash for access: The Tory donor who profited from links with Libyan rebels

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Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.

Oh that lefty Telegraph.

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That subtle admixture of the absurd and the surreally plausible...