Prime minister's put down of Angela Eagle shows the Etonian charmer has another side
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David Cameron's 'calm down, dear' call causes outrage Link to video: David Cameron's 'calm down, dear' call causes outrage
Etonians tend to break down into two groups.
There are the charmers who float above the fray and tend to end up ruling the world, or at least parts of it, out of a patrician sense of duty. Then there are the arrogant elitists who believe they have a God-given right to rule and do not take kindly to lesser mortals who have the temerity to question them.
Occasionally these two characteristics clash. David Cameron, who became prime minister at the age of 43 by deploying the charmer qualities of an Etonian, today showed that he retains a small element of the arrogant elitist. This became clear when he nearly lost his cool as he told Angela Eagle, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, on two occasions to "calm down dear". In all he said "calm down" on seven occasions.
The prime minister showed the impact of Michael Winner on his thinking when Eagle objected to his attempts to say that the former Labour MP Howard Stoate supports the government's NHS reforms. Eagle gesticulated after Cameron claimed that Stoate had returned to his career as a GP after being defeated by the Tories at the last election. In fact Stoate decided to retire as an MP.
This is what Cameron said:
Calm down dear, calm down, calm down. Listen to the doctor. Calm down and listen to the doctor.
Howard Stoate GP says this: 'My discussions with fellow GPs reveal overwhelming enthusiasm for the...'
At this point Cameron paused amid anger on the Labour benches. He resumed to say:
I said calm down. Calm down dear.
The prime minister then looked at Ed Miliband to say:
I'll say it to you if you like.
Cameron then quoted Stoate in full who said fellow GPs revealed enthusiasm for the chance to shape services for patients. The prime minister then said calm down again as he rejected calls to apologise:
I am not going to apologise. You do need to calm down.
Labour demanded an apology for what it regarded as a sexist remark. The outburst by Cameron was the most powerful example of what Miliband dubs the prime minister's "Flashman routine". This is what the Labour leader told Mary Riddell in the Daily Telegraph in March:
When he doesn't have an argument, he'll throw an insult. It's the Flashman routine isn't it?
This flaw was first identified by one of Cameron's greatest admirers, the Sunday Telegraph columnist and former Spectator editor Matthew d'Ancona. This is what d'Ancona wrote in November 2007 of Cameron's taunting of Gordon Brown who was then badly wounded after the non-election:
For Mr Cameron, there is a danger that he will be seen, not as a prime minister-in-waiting, but as an effortlessly deadly playground tormentor, the charming bully in a fancy waistcoat.
The Miliband argument – that Cameron resorts to his old self as an unpleasant Etonian when challenged on policy substance – that applies today. Cameron nearly lost his cool because the Labour leader had dissected the NHS reforms.
Miliband opened with a simple question which was to ask why 98.7% of nurses have no confidence in the reforms. Cameron's reply was telling and highlighted why the reforms have come unstuck. He said:
Inevitably when you make changes in public services it is a challenge taking people with you. But that is the whole point of pausing the reforms and then trying to get them going ahead again with greater support from doctors and nurses.
This answer was from the rule book governing the Tories' approach to public service reform drawn up in opposition. The rule book was written by Tony Blair, regarded by Cameron as the "Master", who said that public service reforms are always opposed when they are launched but end up being accepted.
Michael Gove, the education secretary who is close to Cameron, showed the influence of Blair when he interrupted an interview with myself and Patrick Wintour last year to read out the key passage on page 481 of Blair's memoirs, A Journey. Blair wrote:
It is an object lesson in the progress of reform: the change is proposed; it is denounced as a disaster; it proceeds with vast chipping away and opposition; it is unpopular; it comes about; within a short space of time, it is as if it had always been so.
Cameron obviously believes the Blair approach is right. But there is one key difference between Cameron and Blair which Downing Street appears not to appreciate. Blair was a Labour prime minister. This meant that while he faced intense opposition from within the Labour movement to his health and schools reforms, the wider electorate never believed he was dismantling the NHS.
Cameron is discovering that it is much more difficult for him to implement reforms even if they are in the spirit of the Master. This is because Cameron is a Tory prime minister who only managed to win the support of 36.1% of the electorate last year.Today's outburst shows that Cameron at least needs to take some lessons in manners. Perhaps he could consult Nick Clegg who went to Westminster School, one of the two Ws along with Winchest