MobileCameron quango speech poorly received by insiders
16:38 | Insider Research
David Cameron’s speech yesterday, where he called for a reduction in the number of quangos, has not been seen as a success, the latest PoliticsHome insider research suggests.
Sixty eight per cent of the Phi100 panel, including a majority of right-leaning panellists, agree with the view that Cameron’s speech ‘went badly’.
It was felt that the speech was undermined by a contradiction between Cameron's enthusiasm for creating new quangos to drive reform, and a Thatcherite impulse towards a 'bonfire of the quangos'.
Less than a quarter (twenty four per cent) disagree.
The politically balanced panel comprises parliamentarians, senior political journalists, strategists and think tank heads.
Heavy majorities of left-leaning and Liberal Democrat panellists reckoned that the speech had gone badly. Right-leaning and non-aligned panellists held this view by much smaller margins.
Confusion
A non-aligned thought leader saw the speech as an example of: ‘classic Cameronite intellectual confusion - no clarity’.
A media panellist said: ‘Cheap politics. Heard it a million times before.’
A right-leaning parliamentarian said: ‘It did not so much go badly as have nothing very much to say of any novelty.’