David Cameron

The most common complaint made about David Cameron is that he is vague. A Conservative government is now as inevitable as the London 2012 Olympics, and yet all we know about our future prime minister is that he doesn’t like Pot Noodles, that he prefers Lily Allen to Amy Winehouse, that he needs six or seven hours of sleep a night and that he thinks that Margaret Thatcher “was a great leader”.

Will we ever get an idea of what he’ll do once in power? Tired of waiting for an answer, last week I visited Smythson, the Queen’s stationer, to find out. My logic was as follows: as Samantha Cameron is often described as the brains behind David Cameron (a “one-woman focus group” apparently) and as she is also often described as “the brain behind Smythson”, where she has been creative director for many years, it stands to reason that an examination of “the ultimate purveyor of luxury stationery and leather goods” will provide an insight into the intentions of David Cameron.

And, on walking into the store, I couldn’t believe that the parallels and synergies between the Tories and Smythson hadn’t struck me sooner. Both organisations are attempting to revive a tired British brand. Both organisations traditionally have a thing for individualism, the Tories in relation to political philosophy (“There is no such thing as society”, etc) and Smythson in relation to bespoke pens and paper (it will flog you 500 sheets and 500 envelopes of Dukes personalised, engraved stationery for just £515.00).

And having spent part of an afternoon browsing around the Bond Street branch of the world’s foremost luxury stationer, it seems safe to predict that a Cameron government will…

Read atTimes Online