WikiLeaks: Ivan Cameron's death hit Lib Dem election plans
Embassy cables show party officials now at No 10 said plans to depict David Cameron as 'fake' were dropped after son's death
The death of David Cameron's son Ivan prompted the Liberal Democrats to abandon plans to depict the Tory leader as "fake" and "out of touch" with real life in the election campaign, according to senior party figures now working in Downing Street.
Polly Mackenzie and Chris Saunders told Greg Berry, political counsellor at the US embassy, that Ivan's death had "eliminated" such an aggressive line of attack, prompting the party to rethink its electoral tactics.
Mackenzie, Nick Clegg's speech writer at the time, and Saunders, chief economic adviser to Vince Cable before the election, now work at No 10.
The Lib Dem change of heart was outlined on 9 March 2009 in a confidential cable, written a few weeks after Ivan died and following conversations Berry had with senior party figures about their election plans. One section was entitled: "The death of Cameron's son changes election strategy".
Berry, who wrote the note after attending the Lib Dem spring conference, wrote: "Both Saunders and Nick Clegg's speechwriter and policy manager Polly Mackenzie said that Cameron's clear vulnerability was the public perception that he is 'fake' and 'out of touch' with real life. The Lib Dems strategy had been to attack Cameron on these lines and make much of his insulated, upper class persona.
"However, the death of Cameron's son Ivan not only eliminated these vulnerabilities in the eyes of the public but also made the media skittish about character attacks that Cameron does not have experience of real life.
Mackenzie said the Lib Dems are still recalculating, but their attacks on the Conservatives will have to be focused on the issues, especially the enduring perception that the Conservatives cannot be trusted to run the economy and ensure social equality. Saunders and Mackenzie agreed that Labour would like to hold off calling for general elections until spring 2010 in the hope that the media's undeclared but apparent gentle approach with Cameron after his son's death will have subsided."
The note is one of the most powerful examples of the enmity between the Lib Dems and Tories before they found themselves sharing power after the election. Norman Lamb, the then Lib Dem health spokesman who is now Clegg's chief parliamentary aide, said his party leader had poor relations with Cameron.
Under the heading "And our leaders just don't get along", Berry wrote: "Lamb said that Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg and Tory chief David Cameron do not get along personally. Lamb said Clegg thinks Cameron is dismissive of him and Clegg refused an 'aggressive' invitation to dine at Cameron's house."
This piece of gossip may have been why Berry reported back, wrongly as it turned out, that "most Lib Dems are instinctively hostile to the Conservatives and would not agree to join a Tory-led governing coalition should the next election produce a hung parliament".
American diplomats were complimentary about Clegg in dispatches sent to Washington.
Louis Susman, Barack Obama's appointee as ambassador to London, cabled this year: "Clegg came across as very smooth, a bit like Tory leader David Cameron." He went on: "Clegg stressed the tremendous amount of 'goodwill' his party has for the Obama administration, raising no major objections to current US policy objectives and expressing his party's support for the new strategy in Afghanistan."
Susman's diplomat colleague, Maura Connelly, had earlier reported: "Clegg, like many Liberal Democrats, is individually articulate, charismatic and personable. Since taking over the leadership of the Lib Dems he has become more nuanced and realistic in his approach to domestic and foreign affairs."
Danny Alexander, now Lib Dem chief secretary to the Treasury who previously served as Clegg's chief of staff, told US diplomats before the election that his party had plans for dramatic spending cuts. Richard Mills, political counsellor, wrote on 18 July 2008: "Alexander said the Lib Dems are currently reviewing the national budget to find £20bn in savings, 'not through government efficiency, but by cutting entire government programmes.' He offered the Labour government's plans to roll out a several billion pound national identification card programme as one example of needless national government expenditure."
http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/PJ/KATERINA-PAYNE-INCIDENT.htm
The McCanns refused to hand over Madeleines medical records...with the releasing of the news that JonBenet was an abused child we have to now ask was Madeleine McCann an abused child and if she was why is the might of the British Goverment covering it up ?
http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/PJ/KATERINA-PAYNE-INCIDENT.htm
The McCanns refused to hand over Madeleines medical records...with the releasing of the news that JonBenet was an abused child we have to now ask was Madeleine McCann an abused child and if she was why is the might of the British Goverment covering it up ?
