Divide And Rule
News has finally and officially broken that the Deputy Editor of ConservativeHome, Samuel Coates has accepted a job in David Cameron’s office as part of his speechwriting team.
Some websites have been wishing Sam Coates well, and I suppose for me not to do so would seem somewhat mean-hearted considering what a golden political opportunity this is for him. So, very well done and congratulations to you Sam – best of luck in your new position.
I remember once meeting Sam outside the Highcliffe hotel on the cliffs of Bournemouth at the Conservative Party Conference in 2006. The poor boy was standing by the garden gate handing out some expensively produced 18 Vanity (Doughty) Street adverts to those leaving that day’s conference proceedings.
I spoke to him for about ten minutes or so and thought he seemed like a decent enough chap – but then most of the people in this party do until you really get to know them. I have also been pretty certain for some time now that Sam would eventually move on from ConservativeHome to pastures new because he had been in a position to build up a long list of contacts.
However, one does have to express more than a little scepticism at the decision by Cameron’s office to bring young Sam into the inner fold. Taking nothing away from Sam who is I’m sure a fine upstanding young man with all the qualities a speechwriter requires, the motivation behind this is actually, I think, a classic case of divide and rule by David Cameron – a tactic of which Tony Blair and the Labour party have in the past been very fond.
As a major part of the ConservativeHome team with Tim Montgomerie, Sam Coates has effectively played an equal part in creating a website that was at one point in time (about two years ago in fact) a major thorn in the Conservative leadership’s side. It was often critical, piercing and thought provoking in its comment and content and very widely read by party members.
In the past two years the Conservative hierarchy has lessened that pain considerably by wining and dining the two ConHome editors. This has been to such an extent that far from seeking the truth and standing up for some traditional conservative values as Tim Montgomerie says, ConservativeHome at times resembles nothing more than an MPs press release area and rarely makes any critical remarks at all concerning the Cameron project.
Yet, despite its decline in recent years, ConHome does at times still have the ability to embarrass certain high profile MPs and the party leadership. Therefore, what better way was there for the Conservatives to help finally finish off the ConHome coalition than offer one of its editors a highly paid speechwriting job working directly for the party leader?
One also has to wonder where Tim Montgomerie has managed to acquire a supposed pot of £25-50k to hire new staff members to replace Sam. I would have thought it highly likely that ConHome is being funded by the Conservative Party itself. Perhaps that is another issue for another time though.
