Prime Minister David Cameron takes a ‘selfie’ photograph with party activists during a Conservative Party election campaign event in Norton Sub Hamdon near Yeovil, south west England, yesterday.
AFP/London
Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday hit back at critics who claim his re-election campaign lacks passion, insisting he has the will to win a knife-edge poll on May 7.
A shirtsleeved Cameron joked that those looking for excitement should “go to Greece”, which risks a default and possible exit from the euro, during an animated stump speech in southwest England.
“We don’t always shout with the passion that some people would like but don’t mistake that for any lack of drive in changing this great country of ours,” added Cameron, gesticulating freely and often stopping to catch his breath.
With just 11 days until the election, his centre-right Conservative party is at level pegging in opinion polls with the centre-left Labour party led by Ed Miliband.
Experts say that, unless one party pulls ahead, Britain is set for a hung parliament, meaning that the Conservatives or Labour will have to team up with a smaller party to govern.
The campaigns of both main parties have been widely criticised as sterile and short of interactions between politicians and ordinary voters.
A leading Conservative donor told this week’s Sunday Times that Cameron had shown a “curious lack of energy and belief”.
But Cameron said during his speech that rhetoric “doesn’t amount to a hill of beans” without action.
“If you want political theatre, go to Hollywood. If you want political excitement, maybe you could go to Greece - that’s a very exciting country I’m told,” he added.
Cameron scores own goal with football gaffe
Prime Minister David Cameron appeared to forget which football team he supported, drawing ridicule on social media. Cameron, a descendant of King William IV and an alumnus of the elite Eton College, was left looking embarrassed after referring to his support for the east London Premier League club West Ham in a speech about identity. Cameron quickly tried to backtrack, pointing out that he is in fact a fan of Aston Villa, another Premier League club who wear a similarly coloured kit. “I don’t know what happened to me,” he said afterwards. “I must have been overcome by something this morning.” Cameron, also a fan of the upper class pursuit of fox hunting who is accused by his critics of being out of touch with ordinary voters, said he had suffered a “brain fade”. He later failed to remember when Aston Villa won the European Cup.
