With all the combination of self-inflicted disasters hitting the British government – lost data, Northern Rock, dodgy donations, ranks of senior military officers stating the bleedin’ obvious about lack of funding – it has been an extraordinary time for the Conservatives. Dead in the water, so we were told by the commentariat, back in September, David Cameron suddenly discovered the wonders of tax cuts – inheritance taxes, to be exact – and the momentum of politics suddenly shifted. There is still a huge way to go as the next general election is some way off, however, and in this environment, the spotlight will shine a lot more brightly on Cameron now that his prospects of getting into 10 Downing Street have increased. This is as it should be.
And one or two people have already concluded that Cameron is a bit of thug under that Etonian gloss. I have noticed the same thing. Thuggery has its limited uses, of course; if it means Cameron has the killer instinct in standing up to the government, excellent. If it brings closer the time when the current government, with its dotty plans for ID cards, etc, get removed, that is good. But there is a nagging worry that I have; with politicians who lack a clear set of principles to distinguish them from their opponents, it creates a vacuum.
I think that Cameron, in general, is not very different from the man he shouts at across the Dispatch Box of the House of Commons, apart from his rather different social origins, speech inflexions and choice of friends. Into that space that might have once be filled by large political differences enters personal animosity. True, in the 1980s, when politics was in some ways far more ideologically charged than it is now, Margaret Thatcher could be pretty savage to poor old Labour leader Michael Foot (personally a most charming man, apparently) and she treated Neil Kinnock (remember him?) as a joke.
But in some respects, as politics crams in to the supposed ‘centre ground’ and ideas matter less, the hunt for power becomes even more vicious. I am not entirely sure this is smart for Cameron to play the schoolyard bully. We Brits are a funny lot. People might, just might, start to feel sorry for Brown (please stay with me on this one). They might think, “Kerist, we all have bad weeks in the office”. I know I do. So that fatal fair-mindedness of the British may assert itself. Which would be a shame, since Brown, wrecker of pensions and much else, deserves to be kicked out.
The next election is in two years’ time. To adjust a famous quote from the late Harold Wilson, that is a bloody long time in politics.
Cameron is a git. That he’s less of a git than Commissar Brown is a relief but forgive me if I’m not singing the Hallelujah chorus just yet.
Brown is a dead man walking. And oddly enough the acting leader of the Lib Dems, Vince Cable landed the telling blow with his Stalin/Mr Bean jibe. The UK electorate might tolerate a git in charge, they might feel sorry for politicos but they will not tolerate a buffoon. Just ask Neil Kinnock. All through the eighties Spitting Image did their level best to kill-off Thatcher – Caligula, Drag King, “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” and none of it really hit the mark. We can’t say the same for their attacks on Kinnock. They were much less vicious against the “Welsh Windbag” portraying him merely as incompetent. Killed him at the polls. The sheer incompetence of Brown’s administration will hand the keys to number 10 to iDave (and his fucking windmill which ought to be shoved up his fucking iArse tout de suit but I digress).
Seriously though, iDave has made a decent fist recently of slagging-off the Broon but hell’s teeth so could I have done. I have warmed to iDave and I keep on having to remind myself he’s not going to be much better and he’s nowhere close to a libertarian or even a Conservative. But hey! At least he’s not a joke. I wish the Tories had stuck with Billy Hague then I might even be tempted to vote… As it is I’m only on the electoral register on the off-chance of an EU-referendum.
Is two years time enough to discover a political philosophy? One hope so, it is the remit of HM Opposition to provide a real alternative rather than to just go Brown whacking!
There’s the popular notion that the British like to support the underdog (most likely because we often are the underdog, when it comes to sport). I thought that might possibly pose a problem for the Conservatives. The other problem is Dave looking too smug, perched up on his moral high ground. I think he needs to show a little bit more humility.
Anyway, with regards to ideological concerns within the Party, I’ve heard a few times that there’s an underswell of yearning for a shift to classic liberalism as a guiding philosophy within CCHQ. There have been one or two instances that point to this. Whilst Dave isn’t necessarily at the heart of this- and I doubt he ever will be- his speech to the ODS was an interesting indicator of the sort of people working within the Party now, and the current debate within the Party on Europe signifies the serious possibility of a new direction for EU policy.
Early days, and there’s a good chance that it could all amount to nothing, but I’m more than willing to be optimistic about it all. That there’s a renewed philosophical and ideological buzz apparently about influential parts of the Party is an encouraging start, I think.
Albert Camus said,
We have yet to see policy from Cameron, while we are endlessly exposed to his ‘conscience’. Hopefully that might change once he achieves a higher office but unfortunately I’m not holding my breath on this one.
Prior to 1997 Bristol West, the constituency I live in, had been Tory for 136 years, then olive from on the Buses got in for Labour.
Last time it was won by a Lib/Dem gent whos name I do not even know. The vote must be nip and tuck close.
But I will be voting UKIP as I had exactly the same feeling the first time I laid eyes on Cameron as I did with Blair.Glib flashy vacuous phoney.
Like Nick, if Hague was still leader, I’d vote for him like a shot, but not iDave. No way in hell!
I agree with Nick about Cameron. Shooting fish in a barrel does not indicate you are a marksman. If anyone wants to vote for some genuine conservatives, well go right ahead and vote UKIP then.
They were not self inflicted wounds. The Northern Rock was not labour’s fault. Neither was the Disc scandal.
You tories have your casdh for access leader. and they employ a spin doctor who was forced to resign form newpaper after his “employees” bugged the royal family. .
RAB,
Talking of glib, vacous phoneys I’m so glad you brought up the Lib Dems. They are all things to all people. The Lib Dems where I originally come from in the NE are basically sensible with a big focus on local issues. The council types I know there are all long-standing locals who actually know the area. So unlike the Labour ones who are generally superannuated Union wonks who have been granted a sinecure for services rendered. The Labour Party has for way too long treated Geordies with utter contempt on the basis that they’d vote for a donkey if you pinned a red rosette on it. Our local MP for years, John McWilliam, was a Glaswegian shipyard shop-steward who Hansard showed asked the fewest number (i.e. zero) of questions in the house for more electoral cycles than I care to remember.
Fortunately, this is changing and Newcastle and Gateshead are Lib Dem strongholds. That’s good or at least better because if that unmitigated bastard T Dan Smith weren’t dead I’d have to kill him. Anyhow, I’m rambling.
The Lib Dems in South Manchester’s Muslim ghettos are way different. Just up the road from me (I lived in the Irish end) we had a council member called Liaquat Ali who couldn’t even spell “sensible” because he spoke no English at all. He had an Urdu/English interpreter with him at the cost to me of £24 an hour whenever on council business. He was allegedly a “fencing contractor” from Pakistan who pitched up a coupla years before at Manchester Airport and did a “Me seeky asylumy” because aparently he’d tendered a lower bid on a fencing contract back in the ‘stan and a competitor had threatened to have him offed! Anyway, you wouldn’t believe this guy was from the same party as the Lib Dems of lower middle-class West Gateshead. They got their knickers in a twist about things like converting a certain junction on a bypass to a roundabout (they were right too) but all his stuff was just stop the war Islamism. It reminded me of student politics. You know the sort of thing, “Let’s stop homophobia on campus” as a top priority (and the hell with campaigning for better housing or more computers or anything to the sodding purpose) when a Western university campus is about the least homophobic environment on the planet. No, Mr Ali was all for the US stopping killing muslims – a policy that a seat on Manchester city council would give him an excellent platform to deliver on but curiously silent over, say, the appalling traffic congestion through his ward which was clearly something Mr Ali had no say over whatsoever.
The Lib Dems will do anything to get elected. I bet your Lib Dem is something else entirely. I bet he or she is (given what you’ve said about the seat) a “nice Tory”* and in the NE they’ve painted themselves as democratic socialists you can trust** but in Little Islamobad, Manchester (with the emphasis on the “bad”) where they’re up against Labour and RESPECT*** they’re Islamo-trots who aren’t quite as blatently self-serving as Galloway.
You can see this schizoid demokleptia nationally in Lib Dem luminary Simon Hughes. He won his Bermondsey seat in ’83 against Peter Tatchell (Lab at the time) the gay rights activist with a blatently homophobic campaign – “Vote Hughes – The Straight Choice”. Simon Hughes, it has emerged, sometimes bowls from the pavilion end. I don’t care within reason about elected representatives sexual kinks, but I do care about hypocrisy.
Actually, I don’t suppose there was too much wrong with Wild Bill the Mannequin Fucker (apart from him being somewhat “odd”) though I’m sure spidly might disagree 😉
Anyway, I’ve got a nasty cold and I’ve rambled on for way too long already.
*Unlike that “black-hearted reactionary” Mr Marks.
**And you can trust ’em from my experience. You may disagree with them but they’re straight arrows.
***I can no longer remember what I was going to footnote here – time for some Lemsip. Though I’d prefer a Cheeky Girl… Simon Hughes is ambivalent on the matter.
Dear aptly named Dirty European Socialist,
‘Us’ Tories? I guess you don’t read us much. Being a control freak who wants to tell everyone how to conduct their lives, Cameron is actually much closer to your way of thinking than ours.
Northen Rock’s initial troubles in foolishly lending money to people who could not pay it back, was none of Labours fault, No.
But lending our money on top of this to the very same people who cannot pay it back, Is.
I’ve just looked at your site Dirty Euro Socialist, and your grasp of reality appears a bit thin so I’ll type this slowly.
We have Government Ministers who are put in charge of Departments of State, for which they are responsible.
Alas NuLab Ministers appear never to visit their Departments or enquire how all the initiatives and new Laws they are so proud of passing are being dealt with.
I didn’t Know, has become the Nulab Mantra.
Well your the fuckin Minister! It is your bloody job to know. So yes, the CDs and a whole raft of disasters I am too lazy to type out again, is very definately Labours fault!!!
If you can be bothered to read this site properly, you will note that this site has very little time for the Tories either, so spare us the partisan hooey; as for the loss of data, it was Gordon “prudence” Brown who decided to merge the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise, in the face of clear advice that this would be a problem; he ignored that advice. He also encouraged the amalgamation of data held by said agencies, creating the potential for what happened. As for Northern Rock, it was Brown who removed regulatory oversight from the Bank of England and gave it to those numpties at the FSA, who failed totally to spot what was going on; true, Northern Rock’s own management are at fault, but the government was at fault by the insanity of propping that business up with £23bn+ of taxpayers’ money.
As for Andy Coulson, he’s a spin-doctor, and I certainly carry no water for such odious people.
Perry,
You know what? If they have a candidate round here (and they might) I think I will vote UKIP.
DES,
You tories have your casdh for access leader
That is the Hiroshima ruins calling the kettle black. Also, please learn how to type, use upper case, and construct a coherent argument. Nobody here has suggested that the NR collapse is (directly) the government’s fault. They have frequently suggested though that the government’s response is wrong. Totally different issue. Hell, I know, I am, for my sins, a bloody share-holder. Please now go away and amuse yourself with the idea that this evil capitalist (wheels of the system greased with the blood of the workers etc) has suffered a misfortune.
As to the Discs [sic]. Seeing as a government department lost ’em by following a procedure which beggars belief (I’m an IT guy and the only reason I didn’t drop my cutlery when it came on the news was I once temped for the ass-clowns of the Revenue so nothing surprises me about them). Who’s fault was it then? It wasn’t mine. I assume it wasn’t yours? Who carries the can for it then? Might just a smidgen of the blame lie with a government which has been in power for over ten years?
PS. I had to correct my typing. I had rendered, “…once tempted for the ass-clowns of the Revenue”. It was a bad job but not that bad.
I forgot to add that we ain’t Tories either. I had meant to say that but I’ve got a bugger of a cold. Perhaps DES should parse what I said about them on the first comment on this thread. Perry of course said it explicitly and the liberal Billy Goat Gruff can therefore live to walk across another bridge, should it come to that. I am well aware DES that my use of the “L” word is probably very different from yours. But I’m stealing it back!
I’d rather vote for “black-hearted reactionaries” than “nice Republicans.”
Hell, I’d rather drink with the former than the latter as well. They’re usually more interesting to be around.
Do you think that if we swapped 9iu11ani or that goofy chump from Massachusetts for iDave, anybody would notice?
Doubt it Sunfish
but if we swapped our Paul for iDave
they certainly bloody would!
Christ, I nearly fell off my chair when I saw DES had posted here… He’s been from pillar to post on various blogs over the past couple of weeks… and has been seen off from them, too.
I’ve always wondered what it’s like, living the 80s retro mantra 🙂
“I’ve always wondered what it’s like, living the 80s retro mantra :)”
It’s all right,as long as it isn’t on the ground floor.
There IS no ground floor in the 80s retro mantra.