That Nice Mr Cameron

Note to the Daily Telegraph; if you're going to write a 'puff piece' at least make it vaguely plausible. This one on Cameron is so magnificently ludicrous (apparently one of Cameron's faults is that he's too nice for his own good) it's not even one worth frisking - just reading the first two sentences is enough:

It is odd, but undeniable: a lot of people still underrate David Cameron. There are parallels with Margaret Thatcher.

See what I mean? Just those 19 words would take a whole blog post to frisk! Quite frankly anyone who thinks Cameron is underrated needs to find a very large saucepan, fill it with water, bring it to the boil...and then stick their head in it. But oh no, the deluded article goes on, praising Cameron's handling of the riots:

Again, the Prime Minister struck exactly the right note: reassuring but firm. He displayed the most important quality which a political leader needs in difficult circumstances: grip. He took a grip on the crisis and in so doing, set the terms of the debate: that while social problems must be addressed, there is no excuse for criminality.

Reassuring but firm? Took grip on the crisis? Or another way of putting it: announcing a number of half-baked, unworkable measures and also propose ones that already existed. One example was the shutting down of social networks during a riot (a move even praised by China):

Mr Cameron told MPs: ‘Everyone watching these horrific actions will be struck by how they were organised via social media.

‘We are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality.’

So how's this well-thought out, carefully considered and 'firm' proposal going Dave? Er not well:

David Cameron’s plan to shut down social networking sites to prevent disorder was ditched in a humiliating U-turn yesterday.

Humiliating eh? Still at least we can take comfort in the Telegraph's analysis that Cameron is underrated.