A post-debate puzzle. I have still to hear a convincing explanation as to why David Cameron dropped any reference to the Big Society. After all, he had launched what he called the Tory big idea with great fanfare only two days earlier.
Will Mr Cameron revive the theme during the next debates or have the campaign focus groups already told the Tory leadership that it won’t gain traction? I ask the question as someone who thinks there is something to be said for encouraging civic engagement and social responsibility.
The absence over 90 minutes of a Cameron “story” is one of the reasons I don’t agree with what seems to be an emerging consensus that Gordon Brown was the big loser of the debate. Sure the prime minister was aggressive, but that would have surprised no-one with even a glancing interest in politics. All those reports a few weeks ago about his “bullying” didn’t seem to do him any harm.
None of this is to say I expect him to race ahead in the personality stakes. But then he was never going to do that.
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey