I am mildly insulted by the thought process behind the decision that the Prime Minister should not wear a morning suit to William and Kate’s nuptials. Cameron is posh and he comes from a privileged background. To pretend otherwise is unnecessarily cosmetic, and symptomatic of a Westminster bubble mentality that divides the country into us (the political classes) and them (the masses).
People do not care about ‘class war’, as was shown when the voters of Crewe and Nantwich rejected Labour’s classist campaign. We care about jobs, the economy, security, education and health. Many of us are also respecters of etiquette and tradition. If I had been fortunate enough to be invited to the wedding of our future King I would have gone the extra mile and hired a morning suite. The reality is that hiring out such a garment from Moss Bros is within my purchasing power, while owning a tailor made lounge suite from Savile Row is not.
Ironically the suggestion that he would not wear a morning suite has started off a big discussion about Cameron’s background. It won’t take long for the millions of people watching the wedding to figure out that Cameron is not wearing a morning suite because he doesn’t want to draw attention to his background, thus drawing unnecessary attention to his background.
David Cameron should fly first class and stay in upmarket hotels if he wants to. It’s better that he gets a proper rest as opposed to chasing the puritanical vote. As far as I’m aware Tony Blair lost no votes because of his trips to Barbados, while Gordon Brown won non by holidaying in Suffolk. The kind of people who moan about such things wouldn’t even be satisfied if politicians spent their holidays walking across pins while wearing a hair shirt so there is no point in trying to please them.
I don’t want a Prime Minister who panders to false expectations to be normal. We want a leader who has strong convictions about how to make Britain better and is comfortable in his own skin. David Cameron is both theses things, thus those around him should concentrate on letting Cameron be Cameron AND stop treating voters as ‘them’.
New blogpost: Wanting Dave to do what common people do http://bit.ly/gl8BZK #fb
New blog: Wanting Dave to do what common people do http://bit.ly/gl8BZK Cameron should wear tails and fly first-class, if he wants to.
Common sense has prevailed. Ben Brogan is reporting that Cameron will wear a morning suit.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/benedictbrogan/100084528/huzzah-david-cameron-will-wear-a-morning-suit/
But this should have never been an issue and when it was it should have been dealt with quickly.
Well said Fiona! My working class relations would be appalled that the PM, as a principal guest at the wedding, isn’t correctly attired! Atr almost every family wedding I’ve been to, the most important guests (parents, best man, ushers, etc) all wear proper clothing and take a proper sense of pride in donning the right gear – it costs a lot to hire a morning suit, but its worth looking the part for the special day of someone you care about. So David, wear the morning suit or you WILL look out of place and your background will be even more conspicuous!
Good rule for politicos is if u don’t care there’s a high chance most ‘people’ won’t either. My blog on morning suits http://t.co/M3Luqmj
Sorry Rene, it was Nick that wrote this!
But you’re right (as is he) – what you wear to a wedding depends on what the people inviting you want. It’s their day. Though poor Kate + William, it’s SO much not their day in so many ways. Imagine having all those cameras, people you’ve never met, security, publicity requirements…