There’s a widespread idea that Team Cameron are obsessed with the West Wing, just as New Labour types have always been avid observers.
The idea has been repeated lately in The Guardian. Elsewhere it’s been reported that Cameron wants to model Downing Street’s layout on the West Wing if he becomes prime minister.
Andrew Rawnsley, in the Observer, recently pointed out that:
“To visit Norman Shaw South is to see a political machine whirring beautifully,” writes Fraser Nelson in the most recent edition of the magazine. “It is like a British version of The West Wing: the key players walking in and out of their rooms and having 45-second impromptu meetings in the corridor.”
In similar vein, a report in Friday’s Independent talks about “a cast of advisers, tacticians, policy wonks and spin doctors that would not look out of place walking the corridors of President Bartlet’s The West Wing”.
But does Cameron actually like the programme?
Er, no. I’m told that the Tory leader has watched a couple of episodes and “just couldn’t get into it“. Apparently he is more of a fan of The Wire. I don’t blame him.
George Osborne, however, does like the West Wing. So there you have it.
UPDATE
Cam has apparently told someone else that he may not be that bothered about The Wire, either. So what do we know for certain? That he enjoys Lark Rise to Candleford, whatever that is.
It appears to be a costume drama made by the BBC.
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey