Cameron: “wanting things to get worse”

CCHQ is arguing that Shadow Cabinet member Andrew Mitchell was not gloating about being able to make political capital out of people’s hardship when he said this [emphasis added]:

We have seen the effect of the credit crunch, the looming recession -which I hope doesn't come but is now increasingly likely- and people are beset with problems and difficulties and they want to know how the Conservative party would tackle them. This is an incredibly good moment for us, both in terms of policy and in terms of the fact that David Cameron has earned us the chance to be heard, for us to get across how we would tackle those problems.

And I think that defence is probably fair. The quote is momentarily wobbly at worst. But much more damning on this score is this quote:

In opposition you spend the whole time moaning that people should realise just how bad everything is.
This leads to the most depressing aspect of opposition: part of you actually starts wanting things to get worse.
…an enthusiastic Tory backbencher like me can hardly wait to switch on the Today programme every morning in order to listen to all the bad news.

The quote’s a little old, but I’m sure this enthusiastic Tory – a backbencher no longer – will be sticking to his guns.