Holding their annual conference in a city well versed in tales of the tall variety appears to have rubbed off on the Conservatives. As the frontbenches jostle for the morning's headlines, evidence has given way to anecdote across the board – culminating, of course, in Theresa May getting in a pickle over a Bolivian cat. Speaking of Pickles, wheelie-bin champion Eric has been peddling his own brand of rubbish, in an often-bizarre speech bemoaning ''clipboard-wielding inspectors...nosing about your bathroom''. Never ones to let the truth get in the way of a good story, Tony Wilson, Frank Gallagher and all would no doubt approve. But is the rhetoric of the raconteur masking a deeper problem within the party?
Naturally, colouring fact with fiction is hardly new in politics. Neither is the use of eye-catching examples to translate the plodding language of policy to the electorate. May's exposure, however, is particularly dangerous to the government as it adds weight to a growing critique: that for all the heft of their presentation, the Conservatives remain worryingly light on detail. For Cameron in particular, this is risky territory. Having been described in the past as 'like a butterfly', a tendency to flutter a little too far away from the facts has, at times, undermined the Tory party leader's effectiveness at Prime Minister's Questions – and voters seem to have started taking notice. With public confidence key to the continuation of the cuts programme, appearing competent in the eyes of the electorate is absolutely crucial to Cameron as the Conservatives seek to keep their vote afloat through the choppy waters of deficit reduction. Each time a Minister flounders over the facts, the party's credibility credit decreases – along with Cameron's already-thin economic mandate.
All of this should make opposition an easy game for Ed Milliband. Safe in the knowledge that there will be no general election until 2015, and with no obligation to provide the levels of policy detail demanded of government, he and his team have the space to develop a wider argument – and the resources to skewer Cameron for his mistakes whenever they arrive. Cameron has no such luxury, a problem that commentators on both sides of the political divide have been quick to pick up on. So long as storytelling holds sway over serious discourse, the Conservatives will always be one fabrication away from crisis. Having bet the house on his personal credentials, the devil remains in the detail for the David Cameron.
