Monday 28 February 2011

Cameron the Naive-l

Last week, my brilliant friend Eoin Clarke wrote this about Cameron's ill-fated Egyptian visit. Now Eoin is scrupulously fair, non-partisan to a fault. You might notice he doesn't even mention the list of arms dealers he took with him. He does however, point out that :

 "Cameron is meeting all the opposition parties except for the most popular, Muslim Brotherhood. In rather explicit terms he is, rather naively the poor sod, gifting the Muslim Brotherhood a propaganda coup."


I'm not the only commentator today asking the question : Is Cameron just hopelessly naive? Or is there much more to it than that?


When he promised that,
 "any cabinet minister … who comes to me and says 'Here are my plans' and they involve frontline reductions, they'll be sent straight back to their department to go away and think again"


Was he really naive enough not to understand that you can't cut £83 billion - an amount never attempted before - without frontline cuts? 


When he promised that 


"Our plans involve cutting wasteful spending....our plans don't involve an increase in VAT
or "I wouldn't change child benefit, I wouldn't means test it, I don't think that's a good idea"
or "I Absolutely support the EMAs"
or"I will lead the greenest government ever"
or "It is sick and frankly disgusting to say we will end the two week cancer guarantee"


Could he possibly have meant all of those things at the time?


When he promised more midwives was he really naive enough to believe that he could deliver them?


When Lansley came to him with his NHS re-organisation plans, was he really naive enough to think that promising there would be "No more top-down re-organisation of the NHS" would be forgotten?


When Gove came to him and suggested scrapping the Building Schools for the Future fund, was he truly  naive enough not to realise that there would be massive uproar resulting in legal challenges?


When councils were told they must slash their budgets by 27%, was he really naive enough to think that this could be achieved through efficiency savings? Had he honestly come to believe his own rhetoric to the point where he thought this would not result in cuts to the very Big Society voluntary sector he hoped to nurture and develop? Really?


Perhaps most incredible of all, when he spoke of his personal experiences of disability through his son Ivan, when he explained how amazing the NHS had been, when he claimed to understand the lives of the millions of carers around the country in speeches like this :


"This is the support, trust and respect that parents of those with disabilities deserve. Because we can never forget what an amazing job they do. Just consider what it would mean if the army of parents and carers in this country gave up, packed up, said they couldn't cope any more. The financial cost of looking after those children would be immense"


Did he really believe his own words?  
Did he honestly think that he could make life better for the sick, the disabled and NHS patients at the same time as cutting housing benefit, freezing all other benefits, time limiting ESA, abolishing the Independent Living Fund, taking over 60% of sick or disabled people off ESA and 20% off DLA, limiting the Access to Work programme and removing mobility payments from adults in residential care?
Did he honestly not realise that this particular piece of touchy-feely Cameroonianism would come back to haunt him?   


There's a serious question here and neither answer is reassuring. Either he is the most bumbling, out-of-touch, naive, clueless, hapless politician ever to make it to the role of Prime Minister, or he is a cruel, opportunistic, liar who repeatedly and consistently said anything at all to get elected.


Eoin leans towards naive, I, of course, believe he is made of purest evil, but either way, it does not bode at all well for a country facing its toughest challenges for a generation.  






12 comments:

  1. Thanks for the typically kind mention Sue,

    you're tooo nice beyond words, and I am very grateful

    ReplyDelete
  2. Don't be silly, thanks for letting me quote you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. He has a psychopathic personality disorder. He smiles as he inflicts destruction and misery.

    ReplyDelete
  4. He's an evil bastard. He know exactly what he's doing, he is worse than Thatcher, hatcher was virtuous compared to Cameron. At least with Thatcher she said what she would be like, no one could say they were surprised.

    ReplyDelete
  5. He is an evil smarmy basket who did anything to get in - He lied to us like a goodun and I dfor one will never forgive him! Amd I hope no disabled person will ever vote for that party again!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Good question... naive? Amoral? Devious? What I wouldn't give for someone to actually ask him this, politely and on camera (or audio recording).

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hello Sue
    Strong words above. I see that the Con leader of Hull council is doing your campaigning for the disabled for you (albeit unwittingly).

    Colleagues must realise that DC doesn't think he's doing anything wrong. he simply does not have the social education to be aware of it. He also has no sense of what a lie is - he's like the 'innocent' friend of Mr Jarndyce in Bleak House.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Cameron would have eaten his own grandmother if he thought it would further his ambitions to be PM. He shows little true respect for the ordinary people of our country, which is why he feels able to treat us like gullible fools.
    On the other hand, he must be naive if he thinks we really fall for all those PR tricks, the photos on the tube, on the bike, with the huskies, with the lovely Samantha, and that fabulously airbrushed election poster.
    But what's even more scary is that there are plenty of people willing to cheer him on and praise all that he does? That I don't get.

    ReplyDelete
  9. What a brilliant piece of writing! Personally I think he is an amalgamation of the two! Never in all my life have I known such a criminally feckless government as this one, it is like being governed by an evil Frank Spencer.

    ReplyDelete
  10. My comments thread is WAY more interesting than my blog :)
    Howard that is GENIUS!! I think I'd like to give it a post all of its own.

    Gracie "it is like being governed by an evil Frank Spencer." I almost certainly have to buy the copyright for that phrase for a Toblerone too.

    You've both summed him up totally.

    By the way Howard, Anthony is away and polls are due, thought I might catch up with Amber :) Will you drop by?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Eion i couldn't have said it better myself they the Conservatives have always been a selfish cruel party and they are a very dominant force not only in this country but in the middle east as well
    They also have a large following and they could seriously damage the venerable population make no mistake about that and there would be very little if anything you could do about it

    ReplyDelete
  12. Excellent piece, Sue! And I'd like Gracie's line on a t-shirt, please :)

    xJ

    ReplyDelete