A great comment piece (for a change!) in today's Telegraph from Simon Heffer as he points out that Cameron is likely to win an election, but that will not result in a conservative government.
Heffer lays into the lack of political principle and policy of Cameron and those he surrounds himself with and points out his blatant sectarianism and cronyism. Heffer dwells a little too long on the fact that Cameron seems to be alienating natural conservatives who would, usually, be predisposed to vote Tory. It's not that the issues he refers to are not conservative points - it's just that most conservatives will vote Tory regardless so there is little concern for Cameron about alienating them. I think Heffer labours over that "alienation" thing a little too long, but other than that he is right.
The reason I think Heffer goes on too much about the alienation issue is that he also points out the delusion of those self same voters.
Some of you cling to the hope that Mr Cameron knows what must be done, and is sparing details of the strong medicine until in power. Given that he has never exhibited the slightest scintilla of principle at any time during his political career, I cannot imagine what the evidence is for that.
I think this is the main reason why Cameron may win. Tory voters can not believe that Cameron is really the soft social liberal he appears to be and are expecting him to waltz into Downing Street before revealing his true colours. It's the people who believe that who will carry him to victory and it is they who are set to be the most disappointed.
Finally, Heffer echoes my own view that, rather than being the next Maggie Thatcher Cameron will in reality become the new Ted Heath.
What I fear most, as I watch this circus of gestures and promises, is a re-run of the Heath government. We are watching the preparations not for office, but for an orgy of managerialism. It could even be worse than 1970-74, for the economic situation was (at the start) nothing like so bad, and Heath did have around him people of sense and experience with some bottle-age on them.
Yep - that's my view too. And the outcome of such a government for Britain is dire to say the least.
7 comments:
" Tory voters can not believe that Cameron is really the soft social liberal he appears to be and are expecting him to waltz into Downing Street before revealing his true colours."
Anyone who votes for someone expecting them to be a total hypocrite and willing to say anything to get into power deserves everything they will get!
Stan,
As you pointed out in your post about the crime perpetrated against a member of your family, this country has decended into an amoral pit.
If our 'leaders' reflect 'us' and our values as a society (in a general sense), then they are clearly only out for their own gain and agenda.
By removing the principles of right and wrong and making everything 'relative', progressive liberalism has brought about the society we see around us today.
We are living 2Tim 3 day by day.
The amazing thing, Julia, is that it is the same people who fell for the Blair bullshit who are buying the Cameron crap. You'd have thought they'd have learned their lesson about electing leaders with no principle or policy by now.
I don't think our leaders do reflect the values of the majority, Anon - just the values of a small but significant and vocal minority who, by design or coincidence, dominate the opinion forming areas of our lives from early education to the media.
Cameron has to ignore the core conservative vote for now as he scrambles for the middle-ground, which is the ONLY place to win general elections from.
Whether he changes course after getting into power remains to be seen....
I appreciate that LFAT, but I do not agree that the way to win elections is by abandoning your principles - it should be done by putting the policies to support those principles forward and then winning the arguments for them.
We can see how this has backfired on Cameron with the row over spending. Cameron said right from the start that he would match Labours spending plans if he came to power - as a result he can not point the finger at Brown over the financial mess we're in and claim that things would have been different under a Tory government.
If he had the courage of his supposed conservative convictions he would have argued for lower spending right from the offset - and by now he would have won the argument as he could justifiably say to the electorate "if you'd listened to us we would not be in such a pickle as we are now".
Nope - Cameron is NOT a conservative. He is a social liberal and is turning the Parliamentary Conservative Party into a social liberal party. It might remain the Conservative Party by name but it is by no means a conservative party and any genuine conservative who votes for it is making a big mistake.
Heffer spot on as usual - and well done to you for highlighting this.
I will not be voting for the conservative party especially as they have parachuted a black female solicitor in place of the retiring one we have now.
Too many similarities bewteen Blair and Cameron.
I refuse to vote BNP simply because theya re a bunch of thick TWATs. On policies only I would, but I have seen the Master Race close up!
So who do I vote for? UKIP I'm afraid. The libertarian camp is split too much. The Greens are crazy and the rest are TWATs
After what happened to someone in my family a couple of weeks back, ranter I am VERY tempted to join the BNP let alone vote for them, but there are still several issues (mostly about policy rather than race) that I'm uncomfortable with so I'm more likely to vote UKIP still.
The libertarian camp don't have a clue. Their penchant for quoting the works of an emotional cripple writing 150 years ago as definitive is astoundingly naive and the basic foundations of their ideology are what led us into this state in the first place. I expect the vast majority of politicians in this country consider themselves to be libertarian and influenced by JS MIll (to some degree or another), but have no response to the collapse of morality and order that has occurred as a result of their beliefs other than to increasingly resort to surveillance and monitoring every aspect of our lives.
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