Can Cameron get tough?

A worrying poll for Dave in today’s Sunday Telegraph. It’s not all bad news for the Tories: they still have a five point lead on voting intention (though it should be much wider), and Dave is seen as more forward-looking, more caring and (by an impressive margin) more inspiring. He also trounces Brown as a likeable chap (56 per cent versus Gordon’s 27). But Brown is streets ahead on strength, competence and (less revealingly) experience. Witness a remarkable role reversal. Labour used be seen as nice, but ineffective and weak; the Tories, in Maurice Saatchi’s memorable phrase were “cruel but competent”. Now it’s the other way round. And it’s no accident that Brown was talking tough yesterday on law and order. I have written in the Sunday Telegraph on the grammar school war (Day 19) – and the much-needed appointment of Andy Coulson as the Tories’ director of communications.