An amusing story has reached my desk about David Cameron's trip to the London Coliseum. The Camerons, en famille, had headed to English National Ballet's Sleeping Beauty. The Conservative leader's critical analysis was as follows: "I think it is wonderful. There's nothing better than watching them all thunder across the dance floor."
Ah well, a more cynical person than I might decide that Cameron has plenty of balletic experience, what with his adroit side-stepping and agile about-turning, not to mention his stately (though sometimes distinctly avant-garde) pas-de-deux with George Osborne.
Actually, I like the fact that Cameron's shown some enthusiasm (if of the unschooled variety, she said loftily) for the ballet. It has always bugged me and continues to irritate me that Labour MPs and ministers tend to steer clear of advertising allegiances to any artform that could be construed "elitist" or "effete" (although there's nothing that comes with more socialist credential than ballet, favoured artform of the Soviet Union). There are, of course, exceptions to this: Chris Smith (when he was an MP); and currently, James Purnell, the pensions secretary and former culture secretary, who at least lists his interests as "film, music and football". The usual idea, however, is to expunge any reference to cultural pursuits and just go for football. Here's an in example: in his department, the delightful minister Kitty Ussher: she lists her interests as "hill walking and spending time with her family. She is also a keen supporter of Burnley Football Club and attends matches regularly, being a season ticket holder." And yet I vividly remember this rather talented woman singing the Edith Piaf classic La Vie En Rose as the closing number in the Balliol College first years' concert at Oxford in 1990, which I myself programmed. There are lights, here, being firmly hid beneath bushells...
