Why Cameron's team are revolting...

...And why they have so little to say on the current economic downturn (for the rest of us).

Anyway, it's in the FT.

No comment.

Day 24 and the Tory Grammar mutiny gets deeper as Lincs MP wades in ...

Day 24 in the Tory Grammar School debacle and the self-inflicted war inside Cameron's Conservatives goes on at every level.

A leading Lincolnshire Tory MP has waded into the row that his Leader David Cameron desperately tried to shut down weeks ago. And for good measure, Cameron's rival in his leadership contest has 'stuck the knife in'.

Today's Mirror reports that the Tory mutiny has deepened as David Cameron was knifed by David Davis:

Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, set himself at odds with Eton-educated Cameron by insisting grammar schools helped boost the chances of children from less welloff backgrounds.

Davis, a former grammar schoolboy, pointedly reminded viewers during the interview on the BBC's Sunday AM show that he had backed selective schooling during the 2005 Tory leadership contest - which he lost to Cameron.

Davis's intervention will be a bitter blow to Cameron, who is desperately hoping the education row will die down.

Meanwhile, The Daily Telegraph reports that Cameron's hopes of drawing a line under the split have been dealt fresh blow as a leading Conservative MP has joined Chris Woodhead, the former Chief Inspector of Schools, to back selective education.

Lincolnshire MP Edward Leigh, the Tory chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, and Mr Woodhead argued that it was "irrational" to oppose calls for the creation of schools to cater for the most academically able.

Edward Leigh's determined intervention comes weeks after David Cameron attempted to shut down debate on grammar schools and the humiliating u-turn he was forced into in the face of a massive Tory rebellion against his attempts to end selection.

Cameron caused the crisis when he attacked the 11-plus for 'dividing children into sheep and goats'. He promised to end selection, but then climbed down, leaving his policy tatters and Cameron facing questions over his leadership ability.

Plan for more Grammar Schools unworkable - Times analysis

The Great Tory debacle over Grammar Schools - which David Cameron desperately tried to shut down over a week ago - lives on for at least another day.

An analysis of Cameron's chaotic policy to build new Grammar Schools in tomorrow's Times is headlined Why their argument does not work.

I'm sure you get the picture...

Saturday's Guardian says Cameron returns from his holiday this weekend to face charges from senior Conservatives that he is making his Party appear elitist and choatic...

Tania Brannigan writes:

Even Mr Cameron's staunchest supporters are baffled by the way an apparently uncontroversial speech on a long-standing Tory policy could spark a 17-day row, infighting and a frontbench resignation.

The Guardian has also printed a helpful guide to where the current 198 Tory MPs were educated. The vast majority - 112 - attended private school (independent or public) with 46 going to Grammar Schools, 27 to Comprehensives.

Two Tory MPs attended secondary moderns.

Didn't they do well for failures...or not!

Bercow has his Grammar School cake and eats it...

Tory blogger Iain Dale highlights the hypocrisy of Conservative MP John Bercow in the Tory Grammar Wars.

He contrasts two statements by John Bercow:

1. On GMTV on Sunday declaring it would be 'electoral suicide' for the Tories to go on about grammar schools and that David Cameron's policy of 'no more grammars' was absolutely right.

2. In his local paper in Buckinghamshire this week, welcoming confirmation that new Grammar Schools would be built under a Tory Government.

Yeah but, nah but, yeah but...

As Iain fairly says: You couldn't make this up.

Grammar Wars: Is Vicky Pollard to blame...?

Midst the chaos of Dave 'call me cave-in' Cameron's collapse on Grammar Schools, Labour blogger Mike Ion poses the question:
Is Vicky Pollard responsible for Tory policy on Grammar Schools?

He concludes: no but yeah but yeah but yeah no but yeah no but yeah!

So more decisive than the current Tory Leader then!

Ironically, Mike posted his question - and answer - BEFORE Cameron's latest, and most astonishing u-turn...

Dogs bark, cats miaow, Tories make us laugh...

Fair Deal Phil's Nomination for Belly-Laugh of the Week goes to the unnamed 'senior aide to Mr Cameron' who told today's Independent

'This is not a U-turn. There is no row. The policy has not changed.'

Topsy-turvey world of Tory policy-making...

The longer the Tory Grammar School wars goes on, the more bizarre it gets...

Think on this conundrum...

At the start of the week, Graham Brady lost his job after being hauled over the coals by Tory whips for publicly expressing his apparently outrageous views on Grammar Schools.

At the end of the same week, hey presto, the very words he lost his job over have become er, Conservative Party policy.

Cave-in Cameron: chaos or what...?

Juvenile Georgie's silly gaffe...

Today's Daily Mirror rips the mickey out of Cameron's sidekick, wee Georgie Osborne, after he claimed to be an heir to Tony Blair...

Here's the Voice of the Mirror in full to enjoy:

Rich George Osborne thinks he knows the price of everything in politics.

Yet the shrill-voiced Tory knows the value of nothing in the country.

His claim to be an "heir to Blair" is juvenile, the posturing of a private schoolboy still to grow up.

Many Tories are horrified he wants to be compared to a Labour Premier who changed Britain for the better.

Others think baronet's son Osborne, in truth heir to a wallpaper fortune, is just plain silly.

Either way, George Osborne has proved once again that the Conservatives are a bunch of chancers unfit for government.

It wasn't Georgie's day.

In the same speech, wee Georgie said a Tory government would actively prevent new grammar schools being opened.

He insisted that countries in the "mainstream" of thinking on education - such as America - would not allow selective schools to appear.

Pressed by a Conservative activist from Buckinghamshire on whether the party would permit them to open new grammars which had local support, Mr Osborne went further: "We don't believe in schools choosing pupils. We believe in pupils choosing schools."

That's clear then. No more Grammars, which was exactly what Cameron wanted him to say.

Only hours later, the challenge to Cameron by Buckinghamshire Tory MP Dominic Grieve on Grammar Schools became public.

Rather than sack Grieve and lose his second front bencher in as many days, Cameronwas forced into a massive u-turn, yet again reversing Tory policy on the hoof by allowing his Education Spokesman to say more Grammar Schools may be built if he became PM.

Graham Brady of course lost his job in Cameron's team after he was much less critical of Cameron's promise of 'no more Grammar Schools' than Grieve had been.

Either way, in the total muddle that Cameron has created, his faithful sidekick wee Georgie has been hung out to dry...

Grammar Wars: Tory Council Leader tells Cameron he's out of touch...

A poll of Tory council leaders by Channel 4 News shows that Cameron's ideological attack on grammar schools is backfiring among Tory council leaders.

Of 52 Tory council leaders interviewed, more than half - 28 - opposed Cameron's cave-in on schools policy. Channel 4 also saw a private letter to Shadow Education Secretary David Willetts, in which Kent’s Council leader accused senior Tories of being completely out of touch...

Could it be Bryan...?

Another bizarre twist in the hunt for a Tory candidate for London Mayor: Yet another non-Tory is being touted to take on Ken Livingstone. The latest is the current deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Brian Paddick, according to Tory blogger Iain Dale.

Two minor problems: One, Mr Paddick's a serving police officer - though is retiring next month. Two, he's said to have Liberal Democrat, rather than Tory sympathies...

Next!

Major snub for muddled Cameron over London Mayor...

David Cameron's desperate search for a Conservative candidate for London Mayor hit the buffers for the second time in as many weeks when former Prime Minister Sir John Major rejected an invitation by the Tory leader to stand.

In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, Mr Cameron all-but invited Sir John to be the Tory candidate:

John Major would be an excellent candidate, I would be delighted if he put his name forward...I hadn't previously thought about it but I think he'd be a very good candidate.

Cameron, the fourth Tory Leader since Sir John Major said he still sees the former PM who 'organises some things for me, which is very helpful.'

But not apparently that helpful!

Sir John, retired as MP for our next door constituency of Huntingdon, swiftly snubbed Cameron's offer saying his political future was behind him.

It turns out that no-one had bothered to ask Sir John if he'd consider standing!

At least Sir John is a member of the Conservative Party (presumably).

Which is more can be said for Greg Dyke, former director general of the BBC, and the last person to whom Cameron offered Conservative endorsement to take on Labour's Ken Livingstone.

I found it astonishing that Cameron apparently wooed Dyke simply because he was well-known (with an over-inflated ego). The fact that Dyke has never signed up to Conservative beliefs speaks volumes about Cameron's desperation - and lack of principle.

So it is increasingly possible that Steve Norris may get a third crack at beating Ken Livingstone.

Shame. I was looking forward to the re-make of the famous 1992 election broadcast when John Major paraded through Brixton looking for his childhood haunts - but never actually getting out of his chauffeur-driven limo!

Get your very own 'hug-a-hoodie' for Christmas...

Want to follow David Cameron’s ‘hug-a-hoodie’ advice but not sure where to start…? Well, I’ve found just what you’re looking for at our local Deeping St James Exchange gift shop.

Among the coffee mugs decorated with pictures of Priory Church, and tee-shirts celebrating our village, there’s something called an urban hoodie for sale with a Christmas discount.

It looks as if it needs a good hug.

Conservative Leader David Cameron said in the summer that we should all hug-a-hoodie. Last week he went even further and urged us all to love-a-lout.

In a bizarre speech, the man who wants to be in charge of running our country went totally soft on crime: Cameron said society needs to show a lot more love to young criminals in order to steer them away from crime and misbehaviour.

Personally, I think he’s lost the plot. Crime has fallen here in Lincolnshire and across the country, but we still have too much crime on our streets, particularly anti-social behaviour.

Cameron’s idea that we could cut violent crime if only we took time to cuddle criminals is dangerous nonsense and demonstrates his scary lack of leadership and judgement.

I don’t think anyone who advocates hugging hoodies or loving louts can be trusted to run our country.

But you don’t have to take my word. Former Sunday Express editor and Conservative Press Secretary Amanda Platell wrote in the Daily Mail:

…what is becoming increasingly clear is how utterly out of touch Cameron is with the harsh realities of life for millions of families in modern Britain…

…You’d have thought Cameron could have some sympathy for the ordinary, decent people who they have victimised.

But no. In true Sunshine style, he sees the criminals as the real victims.

Sunshine Dave - a marketing confection lacking all conviction.

I wasn’t at all surprised to read in The Telegraph that Cameron’s Love-a-Lout speech was written by his fellow old Etonian, Danny Kruger.

I reckon the pair spent too much time day-dreaming at Eton and not enough in the real world.

But I’m sure they’d appreciate an urban hoodie from the dsj-exchange gift shop which they could hug to their heart’s content.

It’s green, which is of course one of colours Mr Cameron is trying to be.

So far, he’s proved to be very green in one place: behind his ears.