Work Harder? Not The PM! - Sky News (blog)

Jon Craig May 19, 2012 12:28 PM

Less than a week after William Hague told us all to work harder, it seems David Cameron may be doing exactly the opposite!

"If there was an Olympic gold medal for 'chillaxing', the Prime Minister would win it," reveals an ally of the PM, according to The Times.

Chillaxing?

Apparently this includes karaoke, snooker, tennis against a machine dubbed "the Clegger" and three or four glasses of wine at Sunday lunch followed by a nap.

Nice work if you can get it!

This unflattering portrait of the Prime Minister comes in an updated biography, "Cameron: Practically a Conservative", by Francis Elliott and James Hanning, serialised in The Times.

The paper also helpfully reminds us that with Britain in recession and the Tories slipping in the polls the PM has already been dubbed "DVD Dave" and mocked for enjoying "date nights" with wife Sam.

William Hague angered Britain's bosses when he told them to stop complaining about Government economic policy and declared: "There's only one growth strategy: work hard."

Gordon Brown was notoriously a workaholic who rose early, telephoning sleepy colleague at 6am. Back in 2007 he took a holiday that lasted barely a few hours before he returned to 10 Downing Street.

Not so his successor, apparently!

We're told Chequers now has a karaoke machine, a Christmas present from friends, and David Cameron invites friends over for a game of snooker.

And "the Clegger" is a machine that fires tennis balls at him at high velocity, given its nickname after a closely-fought victory against the Deputy Prime Minister.

According to a friend, after the newspapers and working on his computer his Sunday routine involves "a crap film on telly, play with the children, cook, have three or four glasses of wine with lunch, have an afternoon nap, play tennis".

But that's not all...

In another damaging revelation, Fraser Nelson, the high Tory journalist who edits the Spectator, claims a senior adviser told him the PM spends a "crazy, scary amount of time playing Fruit Ninja on his iPad".

Fruit Ninja?

It's a game where you slice fruit with a cartoon samurai sword, apparently.

Fraser suggests the PM should "turn off the iPad and start dealing with our debt".

Quite right!

In fairness, though, I should point out that Downing Street insists it's the Cameron children, not the PM, who play the game.

That's a relief, then!

But with a Eurozone crisis, double dip recession and all the Government's other problems, I'd say the Prime Minister should listen to William Hague's advice!