The Boy speaks

Mr David Cameron is telling us that, at the next election, people have a choice.

They can, he avers, have a Conservative Party which, as a very important part of its make up, does not want a European constitution, wants to keep the pound as our currency and wants to see powers returned from the EU to nation states rather than the other way round.

Or they can have a Labour Party that has campaigned for the constitution, says it is absolutely essential and would still like to give up the pound and see transfer of powers going further.

That, he claims, is the choice. To him, the rest is just a side show and irrelevant. He does not spend his nights thinking (sic) how do we get another hundred votes of (sic) UKIP. He thinks about how to win the great battle for the centre ground of British politics - who's going to improve the health service, who's going to get the basics right in education, who is going to build a stronger society by scrapping the multiculturalism approach and having a greater emphasis on integration, all subjects about which the fringe parties have nothing to say.

Just how much of this is wishful thinking is debatable. But any realistic analysis would tell you that there are more scenarios than just the two the Boy would have us believe exist. As credible as the Tories winning the next election (more so, some would argue) is a hung parliament, the Conservative support having been fatally weakened by the stay-at-home vote and by those who opted for the minnows.

Cameron's bigger problem is that he has a very poor understanding of human psychology – and even less of his fellow countrymen. The moment he tells people they only have two choices, or that their choices are "irrelevant", they will immediately look for a third, and a fourth, and a fifth… and then exercise one of those choices just to prove him wrong.

What people are reacting against is the arrogance – their unspoken message is: "you are not going to tell me what choices I have – how dare you assume you can". Put in more simple terms, their answer is, "Up yours!"

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