He set out his vision for a fairer Britain by saying of fairness that it isn’t about the ‘size of cheque you give people’ but by ‘the chance we give them in life. In my opinion, this sounds like the Conservatives of the 1980s again, and after what the Thatcher years did for Britain goodness knows what sort of life chances folk will have under this coalition.
What is worrying is that it appears the PM will turn his attention on the public services to pay for the economic crisis, resulting in the people who need changes in life being left behind by yet another Conservative government this time being propped up by Liberal Democrats.
David Cameron is a slick salesman but was putting the gloss on what has been a terrible week for the Tories and I’m waiting to see what the painful decisions will be.
But you know there is an alternative way to tackle the economic crisis and that is being articulated by people like Ed Miliband, Yvette Cooper and Ed Balls. I wonder how many Lib Dems in the coalition agree?
My first thought upon hearing “Your country needs you” was ‘which country?’. There were 9 mentions of ‘Britain’, ‘British’ 6 times and the ‘United Kingdom’ 3 times. He even refers to Britain as “the country I love” and “our country”. My country is England but Cameron leaves the question of England unaddressed, without a vision of an English future – Unimagined. The aspirations of the English nation, English identity, England’s future and England’s democracy, disregarded in favour of a glib and insincere anecdote about watching football with a German, from a man who doesn’t even like football (and possibly England). By contrast Annabel Goldie urged action in “Scotland’s national interest” and David Mundell wanted to “take Scotland forward”. Why don’t politicians speak for and to England?
People managed to stay awake during this plethora of lies? At least Clegg’s lies had greater gusto. Did you note the blank uncomprehending faces of the massed Tories as Cameron prattered on about the ‘Big Society’? Clearly, a Leader misunderstood by the majority of his own troops whereas those that do have some vague inkling of what it might be about are rather loathe, being Tories, of handing any sort of power over to the masses. Also, looking at all those Tory faces, yet again, I still wonder why people actually want to be a Tory. Where’s the ‘cool’? That is different, of course, from understanding why people vote for them but being one…