Is David Cameron Considered Brilliant?

[Torie]

I ask, in hopes of a response from our Brit contingent here, because I saw Prime Minister's Question Time last night, and Cameron was just masterful - friendly, responsive, pity, knowledgeable in an almost encyclopedic way on seemingly everything, gracious and humorous. I am sure with time I could come up with more encomiums.

Anyway, what do you think? I have watched PM's QT since it first went on the air under Thatcher, and I have never seen such a skillful performance.  And Cameron actually answers the questions, rather than turn them around to bash the opposition party. What a concept!

Granted, over time when the honeymoon ends perhaps things will regress back towards the mediocre mean, as more things go wrong, and folks get more caustic and so on.

[Phony Moderate]

....no.

[k-onmmunist]

Yeah, I think this is one where the consensus lies with the above poster.

....just no. You'd understand if you live here.

[Franzl]

whether or not he's considered brilliant.....I think he's quite intelligent and competent.

[Hash]

Brilliant in bs. He beats me and my law teacher in that field even.

[You kip if you want to...]

No.

[Torie]

I guess I will have to wait for our sole Tory poster for a comment that I trust I guess. The rest of you Brits are just jealous. At least the man from Illinois (I feel sorry for him that he lives in some dump like Alton next door to Phyllis Schlafly but whatever) got into the zone.

[King]

A leader that can be considered brilliant would likely be too pompous and overconfident to adequately lead.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Political talent is largely subjective, isn't it? Not only for the obvious reason of partisan blinkers, but because different people see different aspects of politics as more important than others. Neil Kinnock was dreadful at the dispatch box, dreadful on television, and never popular but I would argue that he was one of the most talented leaders of any British political party in the latter half of the twentieth century. Most people would disagree.

Cameron has his fans, of course. Quite a lot, actually. I can't stand him (especially that accent), but then people who know all the words to The Red Flag are not the target audience of Conservative Prime Ministers.

[Torie]

Al, you are an accent snob in reverse ? Who knew?

By the way, do you have the gift of song?  My dad claimed he had a substantial dollop of Welsh blood in his veins, and he had a very fine singing voice. Alas, my Welsh blood line was diluted by 50%, and my effective singing range is about 5 notes.

Kinnock I would note was Welsh (I think). How provincial of you.

[Јas]

He doesn't seem to be widely regarded as brilliant...but I will agree with Torie (based on the one that I have seen) that he has displayed a strong competency at PMQs (at which I also think Hariet Harman has done well, btw).

[Хahar 🤔]

Cameron is very much an American-style politician, for want of a better term. He comes off as very insincere to me.

[The Mikado]

Neil Kinnock

As long as we're on the subject, did the incident 20 years ago when Joe Biden plagiarized him attract any notice over there at the time?

[YL]

He comes off as very insincere to me.

To me too, but I'm also not naturally inclined to like Tory Prime Ministers.

Blair also came across as insincere to me, right from the start.  I guess I'm unusual in picking Gordon Brown as my favourite PM I can remember.

[k-onmmunist]

Harman is far more brilliant if you ask me But then, I do tend to approve of people who rip into the Tories.