I was sitting on the fence between 3) and 4).
I could understand, once Iād gotten over my amazement at the appointment, an uneducated person mixing up collective nouns to gaffe-generating effect. Cameron is many things; uneducated isnāt one of them. Indeed, his only actual job outside of politics was in media, so what with the education, the career and the weight he knows his words must have, he should definitely have scoured his internal thesaurus for a more palatable alternative.
I ended up voting 3), but I wouldnāt be entirely surprised if it was 4). The Conservatives, whatever else you might say about them, are sharp political operators. This could be a deliberate choice of words, carefully calculated to sing to their choir while simulatenously making political opponents look like a bunch of whiners. If thatās the case, mission accomplished.