The sentiment moves to Cameron

After favourable press comment at the weekend and his emergence as the clear challenger to David Davis the money has been piling on David Cameron to be the next Tory leader.

Since Friday the best bookmaker price on the young Etonian has tightened from 7/1 to 5/1 and the signs are that this will move further.

In a flattering piece in the Sunday Times under the heading At last, a fanciable Tory Indira Knight writes that although she has never thought of supporting the Tories before a party led by Cameron might swing it.

She notes… So: the Tories have got their chance to snare the likes of me and of a sizeable majority of my friends. If the party has any sense at all, it will elect Cameron to the leadership and, if the feeling in the air is anything to go by, very possibly pocket a great big slew of votes from people who have never voted Tory before, and never imagined they ever would — unless of course Cameron suddenly outs himself as a believer in the intrinsic evil of all immigrants, or as a weird homophobe. If they’re stupid, which they might well be, the Tories will pass him by on grounds of chippiness, and we’ll continue to have no effective opposition, and we’ll all fall into a deep, coma-like sleep of boredom. Which will it be, I wonder?

In an article in the Sunday Telegraph the senior Tory front-bencher, Oliver Letwin comes out strongly for the Shadow Education Secretary. He notes:-

The phrases which form Cameron’s leitmotif – “We are all in this together”, “a decent society”, “a government which is aware of its own limitations rather than a government which is limited in its aspirations” – are phrases that will stick. They express the instincts that will enable us to win elections and to provide Britain with the government she needs. To judge by my experience of working with David, he is someone who lives the message, someone who actually believes in free markets, a stronger society, a more civilised Britain and a more civilised politics. I hope that he will stand. If he does, despite my admiration for other colleagues, I shall back him.

The current 5/1 on Cameron is a good value bet. Take it while it lasts – I have.

Mike Smithson