"I am different to Margaret Thatcher," David Cameron told me earlier this week and today he demonstrated just how different.
She famously said "the lady's not for turning".
He said today - the day his government confirmed u-turns on selling off the forests and cuts to housing benefit for the long-term unemployed - "should we listen to people along the way? Yes. I thought that was the point of a listening government".
You can, of course, take listening too far. The prime minister confirmed that he does occasionally listen to BBC Radio 4's Today programme but joked that only in limited amounts as "sometimes I find it gets in the way of my well-being and general breeziness".
PS This is beginning to feel like the week reality hit this government. Until recently ministers were largely in control of the political news agenda. At today's welfare launch, however, the PM faced awkward questions about forests, NHS cuts and battles with councils. He had to placate Iain Duncan Smith who angrily denied calling the unemployed "lazy". The noise of angry protesters drifted through the windows of Toynbee Hall. As someone once remarked about a previous Tory government: "never glad confident morning again".
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2011/02/the_laddies_for.html
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