Public enemy number one

Sunday, 11am: Liberal Democrats have, it seems, a pretty ambivalent opinion of Gordon Brown. He is a friend of Ming (as we are reminded perhaps a little too often by Ming and those who interview him), he is serious, and he has dropped hints on PR, so can he be all bad?

But one thing unites them: a visceral loathing of David Cameron. They have an uncontrollable gut reaction to him, his privileged background, wealth and manner. What's more, they are incandescent at at the way he has been going for the green vote. THEIR green vote. The only way the red mist lifts is to repeat ad tedium that Mr Cameron gets his official car to follow him when he cycles to work.

One recent piece of private polling has given the party a boost, I'm told. A year ago, a focus group was shown pictures of Mr Cameron surrounded by children. The participants said it suggested the recently crowned Tory leader was a youthful family man, who cared about similar similar values to them.

The exercise was repeated much more recently. This time, the focus group labelled it a photo opportunity, a cynical PR ploy and were asking about the story behind the photo.

This comes with the caveat that I have not seen the raw data. But the Liberal Democrats are placing faith in this finding, and believe the public is receptive to suggestions that Cameron is more spin than substance. Expect to hear much more of this....

Update: A few more details have emerged. The focus groups took place in July 2006 and June this year. Participants were shown three photos: one of David Cameron on a bycicle, one with a baby and one in an environmental setting. A Lib Dem source said there was a "distinct" shift of mood, with the group more cynical about the motives of the photos this year. Apparently in the group two months ago, the members were particularly sceptical over the baby, assuming that it probably belonged to someone else (it was in fact his youngest son, Arthur).

Comments

[public enemy#1]

whats lib dems view on green belt

[expriest]

Post spot on - cartoon on politics page that leads you too the blog is and Times coverage so frankly offensive.

Is that really the best that the Times can do when trying to cover the conference of a political party that got nearly a quater of the public vote 2 years ago.

tired, lazy, cynical - and if you read the other press about Ming and the lack of any move to unseat him - just plain wrong.

Finger off the pulse I'd say

xp