Prime Minister David Cameron gave a masterclass in political showmanship on Tuesday - showing how to take Ulster shopfloor wit in his stride.
Awaiting his arrival at the Nacco factory in Portadown, Secretary of State Teresa Villiers, Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster and Upper Bann MP David Simpson filed into their seats while shop floor workers, close protection officers, a tightly corralled media and Downing Street apparatchiks took their positions. When Mr Cameron finally entered it was a well managed show-biz event; striding towards those gathered, an enthusiastic round of applause swept around. When he took the floor, he was flawless in expounding the Tory programme of government in response to a wide range of questions from the factory workers. He never missed a beat, never showed a shred of hesitation as unscripted questions were fired at random from factory workers who had no idea when they got up yesterday that they would personally grill the chairman of the 2013 G8 summit.
As the News Letter expected, the unique Ulster shop-floor wit revealed itself immediately. The very first comment came from assembly line expert, Roy McKerr. “It would be remiss of me not to express my disappointment that the G8 is not coming to Lurgan,” he told Mr Cameron to peals of laughter, also challenging him about what he was doing to help manufacturers. The Prime Minister easily took it in his stride, answering glibly: “I am not going to please everyone here today”. He went on to praise the track record of the factory, noting it accepted pay cuts and a short working week in 2008-09 to survive economic difficulties, which he said was “a testament to all of you”.
For full story see Wednesday’s News Letter