Betting price set to tighten even further

The heavy betting in recent days on David Cameron winning the Tory leadership should continue this morning after getting a pretty good press following his combative interview with Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight.

In the Times, under the headline “Paxman’s cocktail of rudeness fails to shake Cameron” Ann Treneman amusingly describes the opening when Cameron was asked if he knew what a “Pink Pussy was”. She goes on “…Dave relaxed (always a mistake). “Oh, that’s a drink. And that is all Paxman needed. For these were not just drinks. They were an outrage! Jugs of pink pussy are being sold for £8 in bars owned by a company of which Dave used to sit on the board. London was awash with crime and pink pussies were involved! What did Dave have to say about that? Dave soothed us with a lullaby about how important it was to create safe cities. Paxo interrupted him: “A drink containing white rum, Malibu, strawberry liqueur, grenadine and cream! Dave did not say the obvious thing — i.e. “Pass the sickbag” — but instead demanded: “What’s the question?” And then we knew that we had a fight on our hands. Dave was showing what he was made of. He was standing up to the Big Sneer. “

Andy Smith in the Indpendent reveals that right up to a few hours before the recording that Cameron team was fighting with the programme over where it should take place. They objected to the first planned venue – a hotel – because it was “too baronial” and would play on the idea that their man was “a toff”. Of the discussion itself Smith observes: “The interview revealed he was able to withstand intense questioning. He made a number of good-humoured complaints about Paxman’s continual interruptions. On one occasion he offered a deal: “Let me have two sentences, and then you can interrupt.” But having competed two sentences without interruption, Mr Cameron could not resist adding, “and one more thing, if I may”.

The Telegraph suggests that “Mr Cameron launched a clearly pre-planned attack on Paxman’s aggressive style to counter the interviewer’s questioning” On the drugs issue the report notes “Although there was some ambiguity about the exchanges with the BBC Newsnight interrogator, Mr Cameron, 39, appeared to survive without making an explicit admission and stuck to his line that politicians had the right to keep private their past before entering politics.”

On Cameron’s approach to the interview the Guardian reports “Mr Cameron also turned the tables on Paxman, telling him: “This is the trouble with these interviews, Jeremy. You come in, sit someone down and treat them like they are some cross between a fake or a hypocrite. You give no time to anyone to answer any of your questions. It does your profession no favours at all and it’s no good for political discourse.”

The best Cameron price you can get is 0.08/1 on the betting exchanges. This will tighten today as his victory looks even more certain.

Mike Smithson