Cameron wants us to think that the torch has passed to a new generation

One of, if not, the key theme of David Cameron’s leadership has been generational change. Back in his 2005 conference speech Cameron told the hall “We can be that new generation”, in his first PMQs he told Tony Blair that he “was the future once” and responding to the Budget in 2006 he derided Gordon Brown as an “analogue politician in a digital age.”

It was, though, far harder to wield this weapon against Tony Blair than it is with Gordon Brown. (Sometimes the execution was also too self-satisfied, NB Cameron’s reference to being “bunched” at PMQs). Blair always seemed to have a sure touch for the zeitgeist, I can’t think of any other British politician of recent times who could have pulled off that Comic Relief sketch with Catherine Tate. But Brown’s demeanour and belief system make him extremely vulnerable to this line of attack.