Britain’s Nice Guy

For now, that kind of rhetoric may work in Cameron's favor. When it comes to policy development by an opposition party, too many specifics can dangerously narrow a politician's appeal when he's seeking the widest possible support. And for most of Cameron's time as leader, this style-over-substance strategy has worked. Andrew Cooper of the polling firm Populus notes that before Cameron was elected leader, the Tories were "constantly stuck" at about 32 percent of the vote, with Labour well ahead and the Liberal Democrats behind. Following Cameron's election, he says, the Conservatives "instantly" rose to 37 percent and has topped 40 for the better part of the last year and a half—a level not attained by the conservatives since the late '80s. "While it's pretty clear to voters that the party itself hasn't changed," says Cooper, the difference is that the party "now has David Cameron."

But as the election approaches, Cameron will have to balance the hard work of preparing his troops for the coming battle with hanging onto his most precious electoral asset: his likability. Even his political antagonists recognize this quality in Cameron. "He's a nice guy," Labour Health Secretary Alan Johnson said in an interview with The Sunday Times—an opinion widely shared, as demonstrated by the unambiguous national outpouring of emotion and support after the February death of the eldest of Cameron's three children, 6-year-old Ivan, who suffered from a rare neurological disorder.

Belying the fact that Cameron was all spin, and that his life was a bed of roses as a rich Eton and Oxford man, Ivan was at the heart of his father's un-Torylike devotion to the National Health Service, cornerstone of Britain's postwar welfare state. "I have a child who's not too well, so I've seen a lot of the NHS from the inside," he said a month after becoming party leader. "In fact, in the last three years, I've probably spent more time in NHS hospitals than any politician apart from the few doctors in the House of Commons." Extremely fine words, and obviously heartfelt. But as Johnson said in his interview, "Cameron's been very skillful at the way he has projected his own image onto his party. Now there is a feeling that, yes, you are a nice guy, but what is next?" Almost certainly, Prime Minister Cameron is what's next. It's what comes afterward that really counts.

With David Merlin-Jones

© 2009