Goodbye and good riddance

“I love this country and I feel honoured to have served it,” said David Cameron, his voice cracking, during his resignation speech, “And I will do everything I can in future to help this great country succeed.” Oh how the politicians, journalists and pundits sighed mournfully. “What a dignified speech!” they harrumphed. I had tears in my eyes this morning, too, but not because another politician’s career has ended in failure, they all do. I had tears in my eyes because of what we have lost, but more than that, what the next generation is said to lose by way of opportunity and their dreams of a better world. But that’s enough about Brexit. I want to train my guns on the prime minister.

Cameron loved this country so much that his government presided over a culture whereby the sick and disabled were targeted and demeaned as scroungers and skivers.
Cameron loved this country so much that his government brought in the Bedroom Tax.
Cameron loved this country so much that he slashed the number of frontline public sector workers, undermining the police force, hacking away at the armed services and when he had finished doing that, he cut their pensions, making them pay more, to work longer for less.
Cameron loved this country so much that his government raised the retirement age, stealing thousands of pounds from ordinary people.
Cameron loved this country so much that he attacked the trade unions that protect workers.
Cameron loved this country so much that he forced a million people to use food banks last year.
Cameron loved this country so much that he allows millions of people to sit in endless NHS waiting lists and condemn millions of people to suffer with mental illness because of massive underinvestment.
Cameron loved this country so much that charities are having to carry out vital functions for vulnerable people because his government has slashed spending in social care.
Cameron loved this country so much that he has slashed the number of Sure Start centres after promising he wouldn’t.
Cameron loved this country so much that he tried to cut tax credits for low paid workers and when people rose up, he slyly moved the cuts into the up and coming Universal Credit.
Cameron loved this country so much that his government tripled university tuition fees, condemning mainly working class young people to a lifetime of debt.
Cameron loved this country so much that he continued the Thatcher tradition of flogging off everything of value to rich corporations.
And Cameron loved this country so much, he held a deeply divisive referendum in the EU, purely for political reasons, to try and stop the arguments in the Tory Party and to head off Ukip at the pass.

I could go on. And on. And on.

If this was a man who loved this country, imagine being ruled by someone who hated it? Cameron became PM promising to detoxify the Tory brand and by any means of measurement, he has failed. Six years of deeply damaging policies that have deepened inequality and denied opportunity for all except the rich and powerful.

David Cameron’s miserable long term legacy will be of a deeply divided country, almost straight down the middle, bathed in deep uncertainty for years to come. His short term legacy will be a three month long Tory Party leadership contest throughout the summer, as Britain struggles to find a way forward.

It is pointless complaining about the actual result. The people have spoken and by a clear majority have signalled they wish to leave the European Union and go it alone. The Leavers have won and now it is for them to plan a way forward outside of Europe.

But don’t shed a tear for Cameron. He has played a major part in making this country a more divided and unequal place and leaves us more divided and unequal than before. He was emotional in announcing his resignation, of that there is no doubt. But my feelings are with those millions of people in insecure low paid zero hour jobs, the sick and disabled, the lonely and the vulnerable and those many young people who have little prospect of meaningful employment and zero prospect of owning their own homes. He will resume the luxurious life of your everyday multimillionaire living in the Cotswolds, dining out with Rebekah Brooks and Jeremy Clarkson.

History will remember Cameron as a prime minister who took the country our of Europe and paid for it with his job. But I will remember him every time I visit a food bank, or an old person abandoned to a lifetime of loneliness and isolation or to help a disabled person leave their home for the first time in ages, as a prime minister who didn’t give a toss about ordinary working people.

That things are likely to get much, much worse in the months and years ahead is a matter for another day. Cameron spoke about ‘Broken Britain’ in the run up to the 2010 election, saying that he was the man to fix it. That didn’t work too well, did it?

Goodbye, Dave. And good riddance.