Tory hopeful takes his Toffs on tour
DAVID CAMERON, the young turk who covets the Tory leadership, is desperately trying to live down his privileged background.
So the Eton and Oxford- educated MP for Witney will be dismayed to learn that Downing Street has dubbed his campaign team “Toffs on tour”.
Cameron’s supporters include Boris Johnson, Eton (school fees £22,000); Hugo Swire, a scion of the dynasty that owns the Cathay Pacific airline, Eton; Oliver Letwin, Eton; Nicholas Soames, grandson of Winston Churchill, Eton; and George Osborne, the son of a baronet, St Paul’s (fees £16,000).
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Cameron, 38, the leader of the Notting Hill set of affluent young Tory thinkers, describes himself as a resident of North Kensington, an area known for ethnic markets and drugs, to try to create some street cred.
He is in charge of Tory policy on education and looks to Rachel Whetstone, Michael Howard’s political secretary, for strategic advice. Whetstone is an old girl of Benenden School (fees £21,000). Viscount Astor, a close friend of Whetstone, is also onside.
The support of Whetstone and other supposedly impartial party officials has led to Conservative campaign HQ being nicknamed Cameron’s campaign HQ by Tory MPs.
Poetic pleasures
LORD SAATCHI may be in a sulk over Michael Howard’s election performance, but his wife Josephine Hart continues to flourish. Time Warner is to publish Catching Life by The Throat: How to Read Poetry and Why, by Hart, which is based on her experiences of hosting poetic salons at the British Library. The book centres around recitals by Charlotte Rampling, Sinead Cusack, Ralph Fiennes, Sir Roger Moore and Claire Bloom.