We need to talk about Dave (again)

Ed Miliband was asked at the non debate on Sky and Channel Four last week whether there were any aspects of David Cameron’s premiership of which he could be proud. Miliband replied that he should be proud of his efforts in legalising equal marriage (also known as ‘gay marriage’ by the Daily Mail) and for keeping to his pledge on overseas aid. It was reassuring to hear this tone of comment, especially considering the abrasive, not to say abusive, start Cameron has made in his campaign. And what’s more, Miliband was right.

Cameron must have been under enormous pressure from the ‘Tea Party’ wing of his party to ditch any suggestion of equal marriage. As leader of a party with an average age of 68 and with no obvious history of support for gay issues, this must have taken some courage indeed. Similarly, Cameron’s commitment to maintaining overseas aid spending is to be praised, especially at a time when the likes of Farage would like to abolish it altogether. Cameron knows that it is right to spend what we do on the very poorest people in the world. When states fail, populations get on the move and, to put it cynically, they often move here. That’s not the main calculation but it’s a truism nonetheless.

It is very odd then, given Cameron’s genuine and plainly sincere actions with equal marriage and his principled leadership on overseas aid, he has been such a piss poor prime minister in so many different areas. There are almost too many to name, but I’ll make a start.

For a short while after the fall of Libya and the death of Gaddafi, Cameron was on the streets of Tripoli, being cheered by the victorious people who were finally free from a dictator. A few years on, Libya lies in ruins, a failed state terrorised by ISIS. Cameron also tried to take us to war against Syria, stopped by Miliband, thank god. He probably wanted his own war – most prime ministers do – and he didn’t get his own way. And what about the Russia/Ukraine stand off? Can you imagine major international talks in the past being held without Blair or without Thatcher? Love them or hate them, they would undoubtedly been on the top table. Cameron is not even asked for his advice and why should he be? The world’s leaders know he is a PR man, a manager, a minor tactician who knows how to talk the talk, but that’s all.

I honestly think Cameron’s government is even more right wing than Thatcher. This is despite, or perhaps even because of, Nick Clegg’s Lib Dem useful idiots, who claim laughably that they have “anchored this government in the centre ground”. Jesus – if Cameron’s government is in the centre ground, how bad would a right wing government look? This is a government hell bent in flogging off the NHS and everything else it can lay its hands on, it has been dramatically reducing the role of the state for purely ideological reasons and it has made life much harder for the working poor to the benefit of the idle rich.

I don’t think Cameron really stands for anything. He is a party manager and a not very good one. He has said, quite arrogantly, that he will not run for a third term as PM, before the campaign has even started for a second. The truth is that by saying he will not run for a third term, he cannot serve a full second term, in the event he is elected. Iain Duncan Smith, of all people, has said as much. Cameron decided long ago to kick his problems with the EU into the long grass by promising an ‘in/out’ referendum by 2017. That is two years away and barely halfway into a Tory second term. Imagine the jockeying for position in the Tory party before that referendum, with the anti-Europeans ramping up their ambitions before the poll to manoeuvre for position in the ensuing leadership ballot. And it wouldn’t be long after the referendum: it couldn’t be. It’s all ‘if’ but if Cameron wins in May, he would be gone by 2018 at the latest, especially if a referendum he called was lost and we left the EU. There is no way on earth Cameron could go into the 2020 campaign when everyone knew that he would then promptly resign and then have the Tory party hold an internal ballot for a new Prime Minister!

Cameron is an insubstantial figure, a manager and tactician, but no strategist. There is no grand design and there is certainly no ‘long term economic plan’; more a short term housing and debt boom just before an election. Thatcher may have been a seriously unpleasant woman who helped wipe out our industrial base as well as all but destroying schools and the NHS, but she was a seriously important politician. He may look good in a suit and talk the talk but he deserves an early retirement and hopefully in May he will get one.