Cameron: an apology (Photo: Rii Schroer)
In the latest Spectator I have written an open letter to my old university mate David Cameron. Here is a companion piece: the letter I’d like to see him write to the nation, having at last recognised the gravity of the crisis we’re in.
He won’t write it, of course.
Dear Britain,
If you realised just how totally stuffed we are you wouldn’t waste time getting to the end of this letter. You’d already be outside Number 10 with pitchforks demanding my head on a spike – and you’d be quite right to do so, for I have failed you. My cabinet has failed you. My Coalition government has failed you. And it’s no good our trying to blame the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown administrations for having failed you even more. We are where we are – and where we are is about as dire a place as Britain has ever found itself in in its entire existence.
That includes, let me assure you, even the darkest days of the Second World War. Back then, however bad things might get, we were cushioned by an empire, by America, by a sense of unity and purpose, by a national character defined by resilience, self-reliance, patriotism, decency and an absolute determination – even unto death – never to surrender to tyranny in any form.
Today, none of this applies. Our empire is gone; the US – read Mark Steyn’s brilliant After America – is now owned by China; our national character has been diluted by waves of unchecked immigration and by the sapping of moral and intellectual purpose which comes with decades of ingrained “progressivism”. As for tyranny we’ve already long since surrendered to it. It’s called the EU – and the fact that it has a caring, sharing, equality-loving, nurturing, “communitarian” face does not make it any less dangerous or anti-democratic than the kind of regimes that Louis XIV or Napoleon or Hitler or Stalin were trying to impose on Europe’s once-sovereign peoples. It just makes it more subtle, and sly, and ultimately more effective, that’s all.
Some people will laugh at me for telling you this. They’ll say that I’ve lost my head; that I’m panicking you needlessly. Oh really? And which one of the problems facing us, would you say, was overstated: the fact that the European economy is on the verge of collapse; that Britain currently has a £4.8 trillion debt, which it is nowhere close even to beginning to shave off; that our best ally, America, is in worse shape than we are thanks, not least, to the reckless spending of President Obama; that one in five children have parents who have never been in work; that, thanks to our abysmal, dumbed down, low-expectation schooling we have two generations without literacy, numeracy, or even the beginnings of an understanding of what it might involve to pursue a career which doesn’t depend either on crime or state handouts; that we can no longer afford an effective military; that our police force is so hamstrung by political correctness it is incapable of protecting people or property; that our political class is so utterly remote and ineffectual that voters can scarcely see any point in going to the ballot box any more, for wherever they place the X it won’t make the blindest bit of difference. First came Blair; now you’ve got the Heir To Blair. Nothing has changed; nothing will change until a politician of principle stands up and says: “Enough is enough.”
And that’s why I’m writing this letter to you now. I want, first, to apologise for the disaster I have been since “winning” – or rather “not quite losing” – the last General Election for reasons which were almost entirely the fault of myself and my political advisers.
We took the view – the cowardly, defeatist and wrong view, I now admit – that Britain had grown so irredeemably socialised under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown that the only way a Conservative administration could ever regain power was by offering still more of the same (only with a green-tinged blue rosette instead of a red one, to give the punters the illusion they had some kind of democratic choice). The problem with adopting this attitude of “managed decline” – as my ideological soulmate Ted Heath found in the 1970s; and I’m finding now – is that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
So what’s to be done? The good news that what needs to be done is very, very simple: the exact opposite of what got into us this mess in the first place. And what got us here, is excessive taxation, regulation, and government spending. We need to remember that there are only two kinds of government money: the kind it rips off from taxpayers in the productive sector of the economy; and the kind it borrows at rates of interest which mean it either has to borrow still more money or take still more money off the taxpayer. Either way the result is the same: an economy in which it becomes increasingly difficult for entrepreneurs, traders, small businessmen – the backbone of an economy – to go about their work. If they can’t go about their work then the economy cannot grow. And if the economy cannot grow, the government will need to take still more money from the taxpayer, or borrow still more money (at possibly even higher rates of interest) merely to maintain its current spending levels. The inevitable result is a spiral of decline.
But while the good news is that the remedy is very simple, the bad news is that it will be extremely hard to apply. One of the main reasons for this is the nature of the political class: whether on the Left or what currently passes for the “centre-Right”, its instincts are much the same – always to ask “what more can the Government do to help?” This is the wrong question, for the answer is always the same: more stifling bureaucracy; more parasite-like layers of administration; more regulation; more spending of money that the government simply does not have.
The other main reason is you, the British people. Far too many of you, for far too long have got far too used to the idea that government’s job is to wipe your backsides for you. And it’s not. Not from now on, at any rate. For one thing we can’t afford the paper. For another thing we can’t afford the staff to do something which most of you are perfectly capable of doing for yourselves. It’s a scandalous waste of other people’s money – taxpayer’s money – and the very last thing we need if we’re even to begin to hope to compete in a global economy against places like India and China and Brazil where the work force are perfectly capable of putting in 12 hour days and wiping their own backsides without any expectation that the state’s role is to do their dirty work for them.
That’s why I’m writing to you now to tell you like it is. What I’m hoping is that I’m straight with you, you’ll be straight with me in return. You’ll never again take the soft, easy, head-in-the-sand path of voting for which ever political party offers to bribe you the most with money it doesn’t have. You’ll vote for the one which acknowledges the scale of the problem facing us all and which has the courage and the will to deal with it.
That political party ought, by rights, to be the Conservatives. And perhaps – before I embarked on my misguided quest to “detoxify the brand” – it would have been. But as you may have noticed recently this is no longer case. We have a Justice Secretary more interested in the rights of criminals than law-abiding citizens; we have a Home Secretary who believes that policing should primarily serve the interests of Britain’s senior police officers rather than the citizens they’re supposed to protect; we have a Foreign Secretary – formerly a principled Eurosceptic – who has since done a Portillo and decided that his post-politics employment prospects are better served by selling British interests down the river at every turn, for that way a comfy future on the Euro gravy train lies.
And if you think the Conservative wets in my cabinet are a liability, imagine what it’s like having to govern with Liberal Democrats. We have an Energy and Climate Change Secretary whose primary purpose is to bomb our economy back to the age of the wattle and daub and the coracle; we have a Business Secretary who loathes business; we have a Deputy Prime Minister who doesn’t know what he wants except that it has to be the opposite of whatever Conservatives want otherwise he’ll get torn to pieces by his own party.
This is no way to run a country. It is especially no way to run a country on the brink of a precipice. That is why today I’m going to offer you a clear political choice. I’m scrapping the Coalition, because 2013 is far, far too late to start out on the rescue package which needs to be initiated now. Instead, I’m going to stake my political career and the future of Britain by calling an immediate general election.
After that it’s up to you: liberty or the soft, enervating tyranny of the Left; growth or stagnation; future or no future; jobs or no jobs for your children and grandchildren. You choose.
Cameron is really deluded. A deluded toff, with too much money to give a damn about the consequences of bailing out the Euro – which we will have to do AGAIN sooner or later if we remain in the EU even if we keep sterling because of the economic side effects.
We should get out of the EU altogether. EU membership is like being chained to the Titanic. We have nothing to gain because we import more from other EU countries than we export (this is the trade deficit), we can only lose more and more by having anything to do with it.
Answer; talking about the timing conveniently allows him to sidestep the issue of why a referendum is not his policy.
It would appear that the government’s worries are financial (we will have economic problems if we leave) and political (we will have less power in the EU if we leave).
In 1939 the UK declared war on Nazi Germany, in doing so it realised that there would be huge economic problems and that millions would die. However it was judged that freedom and democracy were worth any suffering to protect.
Staying in the EU whatever the deal means we continue to have no democracy in the UK. The people of the UK can not vote out of office the people who make most of our laws.
There should be no sacrifice too great in recovering our fredom and democracy.
That’s the key.
http://tabloid-watch.blogspot.com/2011/09/bbc-bans-bcad-lie-continues-to-spread.html
The BBC isn’t forcing CE/BCE on anyone. There is no big Marxist conspiracy. Your pathetic, overblown, paranoid article in the Mail is an embarrassment to journalism. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Just a heads up.
“This article is the MOST IMPORTANT one printed in the Mail for weeks. Yes ALL TRUE – wake up people, James is right!”
In the future, please try not to base your writing on pure, steaming bullshit just because it fits in with your agenda.
Funnily enough, “frothing” and “psychotic” are two adjectives I’d use to describe the article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2041518/JAMES-DELINGPOLE-How-BBC-fell-Marxist-plot-destroy-civilisation-within.html
The World Service ran yet another dishonest article on Malaria a week ago peddling the lie there’s no cure, peddling another PR job for the globes greatest software monopolist, Bill Gates, charity work and peddling yet another advert for GlaxoSmithClyne (how much garbage can the BBC pack into one news article???)
The bent BBC journo claimed Glaxo had aa drug that could cure “up to 90% of Malaria” (nice advert for Big Pharma) but never mentioned DDT spraying almost enirely eradicated this preventable (by DDT sparying) killer disease.
The bent BBC then ran yet another ‘news’ story on Bill Gates charity work and giving $billions to stupid ways to stop Malaria. How many times is telling viewers of Gates donation ‘news’ to them? Do the BBC have to plug him and this old news as new ‘news’ 20 times before everyone gets it?
The BBC have not mentioned in 60 years the truth about Malaria and that the DDT ban has caused 60-100 million preventable deaths.
So much for investigative journalism eh? So much for being a ‘public service broadcaster’ eh? So much for the BBC’s devotion to truth eh mate?
Before you throw stones in greenhouses make sure you’re out of them pea brain.
You will join me in not defending the Bwent Broadcasting Corpse, but in demanding this toilet of corrupt journalism be shut down and off the drip feed of public (and EU and corporate) money won’t you?
You who stands up for truth (unlike the BBC) will demand this sewer system be shuttered.. won’t you mate?
I can only speak for myself but I always find James’s writings to be well-written, stimulating, thought-provoking, often tongue-in-cheek (which could be missed by readers such as yourself) but with a high degree of accuracy overall.
And please don’t patronise me by claiming that “readers such as myself” might have missed the tongue-in-cheek element. Read the article. Is it tongue in cheek? Perhaps even more importantly, is it being perceived as tongue in cheek by its readers? No it isn’t.
His criticism of the BBC obviously upset you. You don’t think they’re guilty of crass political correctness and propagating their own, frequently one-sided, pet subjects and theories from their hallowed position, then?
All I can say is that I applaud writers and commentators who draw attention to what amounts to subversive activities and alert readers to what seems to be going on.
Thank heavens for the relative freedom of the internet.
Cameron yesterday: “If your neighbour is a dictatorial EUSSR money squandering tyrant whose house is on fire, you should help him put out the flames by getting yourself further into debt. If the EUSSR doesn down, so will slavery to Brussels in the UK. We cannot risk freedom. We have an enormous trade deficit with the EUSSR, importing more of their products than we import, so we stand to lose this imbalance in trade if they cease trading with us in revenge. The UK does not have the Euro but it must defend it because we want a say in Brussels. Just as Churchill said in 1940, we must stand shoulder to shoulder with Hitler and Stalin (comrades in 1940, before Hitler invaded Russia) in the interests in unity, trade, dictatorship, contempt for the citizens, and the power of despotic regimes disguised as free democracies.”
I (Velocity) told Danny Boy Hannan the ‘leader’ he much admired was behind the curve, ‘Call Me Twat’ Cameron and a liberal (socialist in dripping wet rags) and was going to be an absolute disaster in Govt. But D’Boy would not listen.
Hannan ‘fell’ for Obumma. And sure as eggs he ‘fell’ for Cameron.
I take no joy in my vindication. I just want to point it out and rub it in.
Danny Boy is an idealistic, well-meaning but delusional windbag (like Ron Paul).
He is the best of a bad lot (politicians). but he should still never lead anyone anwhere.
Politicians along with bamkers are the 2 of the 3 worst professions ever to walk the Earth (No.3 is the judiciary and lawyers)
There’s no such thing as a good politician… Obumma proved it, Cameron proved it, and Danny Boy in his own ignorant backing losers way proves it thrice
The BBC (Bent Broadcasting Corpse) is “an embarrasment to jounalism” every friggin day.
This State shithole of journalism is a non-stop propaganda clearing house.
I watched their pitifully boring Saturday morning slots a while ago and no less than 3 bent news articles on climate change ran in the space of 2 hours (i had to switch the trash off). The harder these bent scum try to con the British public AGW is real the lower the public regards the threat. The BBC have been trying (and failing miserably) for 10 years. Nobody believes them or anything the State peddles any longer.
The BBC are past it. Utterly corrupt. Disturbingly out of touch (have you seen their pitiful World Service?).
You defending the Bent Broadcasting Corpse is a mark of the man you are. Stick your moral sevitude up your puckered backside toe-rag
Also I don’t really want to have a discussion with someone invents hilarious little acronyms to describe the organisations/people he doesn’t like and who probably giggles to himself every time he types them.
Labour shat out 2,400 of the turds during their bankrupt crooked reign, it’s hard to keep up!
The BBC deserves all the sleighting it gets (and some). This organisation of socialist shams and establishment crooks is already down the sewer, only pblic money keeps this pile of crap afloat
any imposition on the free market operating and businesses free to maage their business how they see fit …from employment law to Min Wages to Elf & Safety …there’s a few more hundred turds of the socialist agenda thrown into the ‘free’ market
how about the smoking ban? This Blair-Brown vandalism of the greatest institution in Britain, the great British Pub, has caused the pub closure rate to more than double, from 3 a week to 7 a week since its intro (against Labours own manifesto, an in writing lie) and over 50,000 Pub staff to lose their jobs
the free markets greatest enemy is Govt intervention. Govt is the enemy of freedom and free markets
Once you’ve swallowed and cumped on that lot of socialist law/junk i’d imgine you’re going to look like a 70 stone socialist pig…. or an 18 stone patahlogical liar like Gordon Brown pumped full of anti-depresants and diet pills just to stay alive
Socialism: turns every country in history into a shithole
When is Cameron going to realise that “pulling together” isn’t sensible when pathological socialists are involved? Let’s see now, maybe Cameron will announce Britain is going to take over Greek debt, so they can go back to paying millions of state sector jobsworths to riot against bad government decisions five years too late, and to enable France and Germany to get away scott-free with their bad decision to let Greece join the Euro in the first place? Maybe Cameron will move 10 Downing Street to Brussels, so he can join all his fascist pals in dictating to Britain from the Continent?