Cameron has media stitched up, but public still doubtful

By Alastair Campbell / @campbellclaret

Gosh, David Cameron must have reeled his way out of the BBC studio after that mauling from Andrew Marr.

That final question – tough or what? Hey, we can read the body language, said Marr … ‘you’re on a roll!!’

Take that … You’re all bouncy-bouncy-bouncy, full of beans and on your way to Number 10!! Yaaaay!!! No need to ask if you’re on anti-depressants eh Dave!

As the news bulletin made clear,the weekend polls indicate that the outcome is likely to be in hung Parliament territory. Yet the tone of the coverage is all playing into the ‘unstoppable momentum’ strategy for Cameron, led by Murdoch papers and TV. It is sad to see parts of the Beeb fall in behind, especially bearing in mind what is going to happen to them if they end up with a Tory government whose media policy has been shaped to suit the Murdoch agenda. Best quote from his News of the World interview today is his product placement for Sky Plus.

The real story of this campaign remains that Cameron went into it with a big poll lead, which despite a massive poster campaign and the tamest media environment of any leader in our lifetime he has been unable to hold onto. But the impression given is that the media has decided the outcome already. Nice of the Marr people, too, to flash to newspaper headlines as the interview neared its end, with the Mail on Sunday on top, announcing that Gillian Duffy won’t be voting for GB.

If there is one thing the sudden surge of Nick Clegg post-TV Debate 1 showed, it is that people will make up their own minds, and the numbers of undecideds have grown not shrunk in recent days, despite the near one-way traffic of the media debate.

That is why all the three parties still have everything to play for. I’ve just seen GB’s schedule for the day, which has him visiting ten seats before rounding off with a bit of good old-fashioned telephone canvassing. That is not the itinerary of a man who has given up the fight.

I’ve done a bit of phone canvassing myself and I keep coming back to the same point – there just isn’t the enthusiasm for a Cameron government that there was for change in 1997. Fiona was out canvassing yesterday, and found that whilst there is a lot of doubt about all politicians and parties at the moment, the strongest desire was the one to stop the Tories getting a majority.

They have most of the media pretty much signed up. But they’re still struggling with large sections of the public. Which is why the ‘fight for your future’ GB will be leading today is one still very much worth having. And why in the key Tory/Labour marginals up and down the country, those who want to stop Cameron being PM should know that a vote for the Lib Dems, Greens, or any other party – not to mention a non-vote – is a vote to put Cameron into Number 10, with devastating consequences for jobs and public services.

This post was originally published on Alastair’s blog at alastaircampbell.org.