Four words for the media: what would Cameron do?

By Toby Flux

The journalists are back at their desks after their summer breaks and will, no doubt, also soon be back to their old ways of giving Cameron and crew an easy ride into power.

So few believe Labour can win, that to suggest otherwise is generally met with derision. Some journalists have even already moved on from a presupposed Conservative victory next year to talk about what Cameron should do in his second term.

But, as Mike Ion wrote in LabourList yesterday, the chattering classes will be able to afford Cameron’s cuts; it’ll be those in need of a Government willing to back them who will lose.

There are suggestions that the minimum wage will be frozen; child benefit cut; VAT increased to 20%, but Tory denials are taken at face value while Government denials are ignored.

So today I’d like suggest we all start prodding journalists who are giving the Tories a free ride. When you read an article online which fails to spell out, or more likely ignore completely, the Conservatives’ plan (or lack of) on a subject, call them out on it. Don’t bother using the comments area to produce a thousand word critique, just write these words: What would Cameron do? Keep doing it again and again until it becomes so irritating to journalists that they start asking the same question of the Tories.

Labour has nothing to fear from the Tories setting out their stall provided that it’s not just the bits selected by them to be populist. It was apprently George Osborne who reportedly claimed that Cameron’s government would be the most unpopular ever within six months of being in office. With the Tories riding high in the polls, can there be a better admission that what you see is not what you’re going to get?

Now I realise that some might misinterpret this as some kind of affront to Christians because of the similarity to the phrase ‘what would Jesus do?’, and Cameron is no Jesus that’s for sure, but if enough of us ask journalists ‘what would Cameron do?’ and keep on asking, maybe journalists will start asking themselves the same question. This close to the election, it’s what journalists should be asking without prompting after all.

So the next time you read something like “Cameron attacks Brown over Lockerbie release silence”, to pick a topical case in point, simply add to the comments below the article below with 4 little words: What would Cameron do?

I think I’ve asked what would Cameron do enough in this article. Now it’s your turn!