Dispatches

Cameron Uncovered (2010x8)

Air date: Mar 08, 2010

Award-winning columnist and writer Andrew Rawnsley has caused a furore while lifting the lid on Gordon Brown's premiership. Now Rawnsley presents an inside portrait of David Cameron and the government that might be... According to opinion polls, after 13 years in the political wilderness, the Conservatives under David Cameron's leadership seem likely to form the next government. He has been working hard to change his party's image from 'the nasty party' and to demonstrate economic competence. Yet many voters still don't feel they know his new Tories. How does Cameron operate? Do his closest colleagues work as a party within a party, creating disgruntled outsiders? How much harsher will their cuts in public services be than Labour's? Will they really lead the country out of recession faster than Gordon Brown? Can the so-called 'toffs' identify with the concerns of the vast majority of the population? Rawnsley interviews the man who could be Prime Minister, and his colleagues George Osborne, William Hague and Michael Gove, the men who hope to run our economy, foreign affairs and education system. He gets an opponent's perspective from Lord Mandelson. The programme reveals how these ministerial hopefuls plan to put their policies into action the day after the election. They've promised a budget within 50 days. What can we expect to happen to taxes, wages, public services and unemployment? Have they really done the homework that would get them off to a running start? The country seems to want change. But has David Cameron, whose only experience outside politics has been in public relations, done no more than just tinker with the presentation of old Tory attitudes and added some more diverse candidates to the old mix?