The fungible Mr. Cameron
The London Times tells us that a poll shows the Conservatives of Britain are more popular than the Labor Party, but only because the Laborites are so unpopular.
In other words, the U.K. public are prepared to throw out Labor and return the Tories, but only because they want to get rid of Gordon Brown and Co. They are not inspired by the Conservatives, just itching to show their displeasure.
That is not a sign of long term of hope for the Conservatives. To make matters worse, the Tory leader--the fungible Mr. Cameron--is more popular than his party.
Two thoughts: 1) Image is triumphing over substance in many countries these days. The British survey has no particular programmatic aspect to it, for example. 2) Polls, as Discovery senior fellow John Miller indicated in his New York Times piece Saturday, and as George Gilder has said repeatedly, are not reliable indicators of significant public viewpoints.
Partisanship and publicity distort rather than refine policy options today. It's not just in the U.K. The people who try to roll everything into a poll are damaging serious public deliberation. Parties that are poll-driven are making a glib mistake. Live by imagery, die by imagery.
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