Cameron needs results that match his words

Further to James’s post on the Cameron interview, here’s what jumped out at me:

1. ‘Governments have difficult months. This government came together to dig this country out of the huge economic mess that it’s in…’ This is the official No.10 explanation about the last few months; that it’s the problems of the austerity agenda. As James Forsyth says in his political column in the current magazine, there are strongly-held alternative explanations.

2. ‘We’re not just a bunch of accountants dealing with the deficit…’ Cameron kicks off with this, an interesting phrase as it has been used by those criticising his Chancellor’s economic message. Osborne’s critics says he no agenda for growth, isn’t making the moral case for a smaller state, and speaks about deficit reduction as if he were an insolvency expert. The danger behind a deficit-focused economic policy is that when you start to tear up your deficit reduction timetable, as Osborne now has, you have no cards left to play.