PANTOMIME SEASON COMES EARLY FOR THE TORIES

AS theatres across the nation prepare for pantomime season, it seems the biggest farce of all was at Westminster last week as the Tory-led Government fumbled from one embarrassment to another.

Even I couldn’t have anticipated that my question to David Cameron over energy bills would have prompted such a catalogue of mishaps from a Government that is clearly running out of ideas.

It was right and proper that I posed the challenge at Prime Minister’s Question Time as it was the anniversary of Mr Cameron’s Energy Summit. Given his abject failure in the intervening 12 months to do anything positive I thought it was timely to remind him of his pledge to reduce energy bills.

But even I didn’t expect the to-ing on fro-ing that followed.

First Mr Cameron “revealed” an apparent Tory policy to force energy companies to offer the lowest tariff to all their customers. The only problem was Mr Cameron hadn’t bothered to talk to fellow ministers or civil servants about his plan to drop this bombshell.

“Oh no he didn’t!” was the initial cry from Whitehall, as panic ensued while ministers desperately tried to make sense of the Prime Minister’s announcement.

“Oh well he might have done!” was the message from Energy Minister John Hayes during a shocking display of back-pedalling in the House of Commons the next morning.

“Oh yes I did!” then confirmed Mr Cameron that evening, as journalists caught him before a meeting in Brussels and, once again, the Prime Minister found himself sweating on the spot.

Even now I’m not 100 per cent convinced I fully understand what the outcome is, and what we can expect to see in the Energy Bill when it comes before Parliament.

And it is a very serious issue. Spiralling energy costs are one of the biggest challenges facing families, with the cost of living rising but income at best stagnating and at worst reducing.

That is why it is important that any legislation affecting it is fully thought out. That Mr Cameron and his cabinet colleagues lost grip on this topic to such an embarrassing extent proves, once again, how totally out of touch they are with the public.

Or perhaps it is a sign of Mr Cameron’s arrogance that he doesn’t even feel he needs to talk to his ministers any more.

Let’s face it: he stopped bothering to ask what his Lib Dem partners in crime thought months ago. So perhaps it was only a matter of time before he treated his own party colleagues with the same degree of contempt.

And it is becoming increasingly obvious just how arrogant David Cameron really is.

He exudes arrogance every time he refuses to budge on his failing economic policy that has blighted his Government from the day he took office.  Despite an increasing number of independent economic and political commentators agreeing he is causing irreparable damage, by cutting too far and too fast, he carries on regardless.

And he certainly displayed arrogance in his total failure to take action against his shamed Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell.

Mr Mitchell has been less than honourable in his mishandling of the storm he caused by belittling a police officer last month. Stepping down from his position is the first honourable thing he has done since then, albeit several weeks later than he should have done.

But it is notable that even though the whole world, including Mr Mitchell, could see his position was untenable, the one person who refused to admit he may have made a mistake was the Prime Minister.

And that’s the really worrying thing.

If David Cameron cannot bear to admit his mistakes over smaller matters, what hope is there that he will fare any better when it comes to the really big issues?