Comments on: Is Britain about to shrug off David Cameron?

By: NickM

NickM — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:54:35 +0000

“So who else do the Tories have in line for the top job (those who are actual Tories that is)?”

And therein RAB nails it.

By: RAB

RAB — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 22:23:32 +0000

I have no problem with anything which fatally wounds iDave ( a Tory in name only) but I do have a problem with what comes after.

The Boy Clegg is Deputy Prime minister, will he take over if Cameroon is forced to resign? How will he cope between his paper round and doing the school run for his wife?

I had high hopes of Hague once upon a time, but he got the job too early, and now I just don’t think he will get past that Eric and Ernie, two in a room with his Aide incident. Could have been completely innocent, and I couldn’t give a fuck anyway, but the public does, and Fion is still not pregnant and nowhere to be seen.

So who else do the Tories have in line for the top job (those who are actual Tories that is)?

By: Paul Marks

Paul Marks — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:18:45 +0000

Lee Moore.

Agreed – on all points.

By: Andrew Duffin

Andrew Duffin — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 12:16:21 +0000

“when is a major, credible politician going to denounce the anti-Co2 hysteria? There must be votes in it”

Vaclav Klaus is having a good try.

So far, few are listening to him.

By: Lee Moore

Lee Moore — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 23:44:07 +0000

Well I think the fact that Cameron is in a bit of trouble because of the NOTW almost completes quite a neat circle. The Conservative sheeple elected him because he was thought to be acceptable to the BBC, and consequently wouldn’t get kicked as hard as Major and the two bald guys. Nor was he, to start with. The BBC, which dominates the UK media space far more than Murdoch ever did, is now leading the charge to destroy their only substantial ideological enemy in their home media market. And in the process they are trying to bring Cameron down. The 2010 election result was a disaster for the Conservatives and a deliverance for Labour, as it placed the Conservatives in the frame to carry the can for ten years of Gordon Brown’s economic policies, and allowed Labour to escape scot free. Because the government changed before there was any sense of real crisis (aside from a few nutters screeching on websites about the build up of debt etc.) If Cameron were to be kicked out now, and the Conservatives were replaced by Labour now, Labour would be snatching disaster from the jaws of its 2010 deliverance, as there is STILL no sense of crisis amongst the voting public. The public will only demand serious measures when the roof actually falls in. There will be no prizes for the Jeremiahs who have warned about the dodgy state of the roof. The only thing that matters, politically, is not being in power when it falls in. And if the Conservatives aren’t in power when the roof falls in, then and only then, is there a possibility of a Conservative Prime Minister acceptable to the Conservative party rather than acceptable to the BBC. The BBC would be much better advised to keep their own patsy in power until the roof finally goes.

By: Paul Marks

Paul Marks — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 23:36:07 +0000

I have read Brian’s post – I agree with all of it, and I can think of nothing to add.

By: nemesis

nemesis — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 19:45:33 +0000

Question: when is a major, credible politician going to denounce the anti-Co2 hysteria? There must be votes in it.
Quite. There must be some but maybe they feel it is a bit premature to put their heads above the parapet yet. Graham Stringer MP would seem to be a good candidate, he seems to me to have some integrity. He is a Labour MP but also a scientist.

By: Brian Micklethwait

Brian Micklethwait — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 16:08:53 +0000

Andrew Zalotocky

I agree with the Callaghan comparison. Another Prime Minister who specialised in remaining calm in the face of disaster when he should instead have put himself about a bit.

We now await Cameron’s “It can’t go on like this” speech.

Many, including me, pick out Callaghan’s speech acknowledging this as the moment when Thatcherism truly began.

By: Johnathan Pearce

Johnathan Pearce — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 16:05:56 +0000

If Cameron survives the current scandals (as he probably will) his downfall will come when the lights start going out because of his government’s mad dash to cut CO2 emissions.

Absolute bullseye. When the power cuts come, and old Etonians start encouraging us all to remember how to brush our teeth in the dark, it will be electoral suicide for them.

Question: when is a major, credible politician going to denounce the anti-Co2 hysteria? There must be votes in it.

By: Michael Jennings

Michael Jennings — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:20:21 +0000

I think there is a certain feel of “We all know Cameron is useless, so this is possibly an opportunity to get rid of him” in certain circles. I think there may be a similar feeling in the City about James Murdoch. There seem to be further thoughts beneath that suggesting that it might be time to put Rupert Murdoch out to pasture as well. It has long been assumed that once Murdoch dies, the institutional shareholders will demand that the cleaners be put through the management of the company, and bits of it will be closed and other bits sold off. If this crisis leads to the feeling that Rupert Murdoch has lost his touch (the man is 80 years old) then this might all happen sooner.

By: Brad

Brad — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:02:47 +0000

You can only shrug at the politicians here in the US as well.

These people are made out of nothing at all. They are nice looking, generally likable people who are merely placeholders at this point. Placeholders for what or whom is the question.

As sinister as it sounds, and perhaps I need to apply another layer to my tinfoil hat, I take these bland talking heads to be a front for the behind the scenes Prime Movers. The Leviathan, with only the tiniest of factions, has grown and calcified its position over the last 100 years to a point of being “too big to displace” and all it need do is put a front on their operation(s) in the form of a Bush II on one hand or an Obama on the other.

Presidents or Prime Ministers aren’t leaders anymore, they are mouthpieces. You get the feeling if they really did make much of a difference, it wouldn’t be for your benefit anyway.

By: Andrew Zalotocky

Andrew Zalotocky — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:02:12 +0000

The Prime Minister that Cameron reminds me of is James Callaghan. Sunny Jim was the last PM of the post-war consensus era. In many ways he was an improvement on his immediate predecessors (Wilson and Heath) but he was doomed to ignominious failure because he came to power just as the consensus was about to collapse. He was a man of the old consensus and he couldn't think outside it, so he had no answer to the problems the country was facing. Cameron is in a similar position with regard to the welfare state, the Big State in general, and probably environmentalism too. He's a man of the old consensus who has come to power just as the system is breaking down and public opinion is turning against it. Callaghan's career was ended by the Winter of Discontent. If Cameron survives the current scandals (as he probably will) his downfall will come when the lights start going out because of his government's mad dash to cut CO2 emissions.