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Bland Cameron Didn't Give Me Lift-Off I Was Looking For

Posted on: Saturday, 19 July 2008, 03:00 CDT

I guess I am still something of a sucker for a famous face.

As soon as I looked up and clocked him, I went all of a twitter and cursed the fact I was on my tod with no-one to dig in the ribs. Second best was a furious texting spree.

"David Cameron has just walked into the lounge!!", I sent out.

Droll as ever, Shereen came back with "Your sitting room, or can I assume you are at the airport?"

God, that girl knows how to pop your bubble.

It was the airport lounge, the morning Cameron, below, visited the Glasgow East constituency and curiously chose it as the place to give his 'moral neutrality' speech.

He'd clearly had time to really get to know the area. We were on the same lunchtime flight which means he must have had up to three full hours to get under the skin of life in the East End.

Anyway, in he strolled accompanied by Iain Duncan Smith and three whip-thin, well-bred, thirty-something Petronellas who buzzed about him looking incredibly worried.

He, by contrast, appeared vaguely bored and got himself a packet of crisps.

Now this, I thought, is going to be interesting.

After all, this is the man who would be King or at least, the man who would be Tony Blair. Cameron, we have been told, is 'real' where Brown is out-of-touch, suave where Brown is blustering and charismatic where Brown is remote.

I sat back and prepared to enjoy a master-class in working the room. It's been one of the perks of my job to observe, over the years, the way public figures deal with... the public.

I've long since stopped being shocked at the mismatch between the so-called 'personality' that comes out one side of a camera lens and the reality of the person in the flesh. Sharon Osbourne is a good case in point. On-camera: gutsy, forthright,down-to-earth and warm. Off camera: awkward, shielded by phalanxes of 'her people' and generally tricky.

I've been sorely disappointed by many a 'screen icon' over the years.

The fact is there's a real skill in celebs letting us know they know we know who they are and making that acknowledgement in a way that's comfortable for all.

In my experience, class acts include Bruce Forsyth, Graham Norton, Michael Parkinson, Clive James and, perhaps surprisingly, Jeremy Clarkson. All of whom can send out that special vibe that makes you feel fleetingly high from having passed ten seconds intheir air space.

So, to Mr Cameron. How was he going to work this room of 15 folk in the airport lounge? Well, he finished his crisps and, to one punter sarkily declared he'd been 'Up to campaign for Gordon 'cos he needs a bit of help'.

He made no eye contact with anyone, despite me grinning at him like a chimp, then flopped on a couch and had a snooze.

At Heathrow, he strode off the plane with his Petronellas trailing in his wake looking every inch like Leonardo Di Caprio in 'Catch Me If You Can' where he plays a fraudster pilot who proves you can fool most of the people most of the time.

Like I say, I've lost count of the times I've been sorely disappointed.

(c) 2008 Daily Record; Glasgow (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

Source: Daily Record; Glasgow (UK)

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