{"id":3161,"date":"2020-01-28T16:06:50","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T16:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/?p=3161"},"modified":"2020-01-28T16:12:48","modified_gmt":"2020-01-28T16:12:48","slug":"the-worst-british-prime-minister-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/?p=3161","title":{"rendered":"The Worst British Prime Minister Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At a recent lunch, discussion turned to the question of who\nhad been the country\u2019s worst ever prime minister. The usual suspects were\nrolled out: Lord North, the PM \u2018who lost America\u2019, and Neville Chamberlain. The\nAmerican colonies, however, would have been lost sooner or later, and while\ntrying to avoid war only twenty years after the end of WWI may have proved\nnaive, it was at least understandable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No such excuses can be proffered for David Cameron, whose memoir For the Record<\/em> is out now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cameron was directly responsible for Brexit \u2013 the biggest\ncrisis in post-war British history. It was a crisis entirely of his own making\nsince relations with the EU had not dramatically changed, nor was there was a\nmassive, or even a minor, social movement demanding exit from the EU. In fact,\nas is evident in this half-baked and boring book of self-pitying memoirs, even\nthe hardest Eurosceptics had not dreamt there was a chance of leaving the EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The worst British prime minister ever?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

For the Record<\/em> is full of admissions of failures, but whenever Cameron fails, which is often, he trots out the mantra: \u2018It was the right thing to do\u2019 \u2013 without ever explaining why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, Cameron is happy to have prevented Gaddafi\n\u2018slaughtering his people in Benghazi\u2019. The outcome is not what he would have\nliked, yet \u2018What we did was right\u2019. Those who suffer the indescribable\nnightmare that is Libya today should ponder Cameron\u2019s calm philosophy: \u2018Why\nshould we expect modern transition from dictatorship to democracy to be instant\nand painless?\u2019 Actually, most recent transitions have been relatively peaceful:\nGreece, Portugal, Spain, the USSR, most of Eastern Europe, and so on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Sayeeda Warsi, the first Muslim female cabinet member,\nresigned in protest at the government\u2019s one-sided response to the crisis in\nGaza in 2014, when Israel massacred thousands of Palestinians, Cameron, who\nadmits that Israel \u2018does not always do the right thing\u2019, is amazed that a UK\ncabinet minister could resign over a \u2018distant war\u2019 in which Britain \u2018played no\npart\u2019. No part? Two pages later he writes that the \u2018chaos\u2019 in the Middle East \u2018had\neverything<\/em> to do with Britain\u2019 (his\nemphasis). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Egypt\u2019s Hosni Mubarak was kicked out during the Arab\nSpring, Cameron immediately started meddling, thinking that Egypt\u2019s future was\nBritain\u2019s business. He ruled that the Muslim Brotherhood could not be involved\nin the transition to democracy. Why? Because he did not like them -\u2013 though\nMubarak had, reluctantly, legalised them, aware of the support they enjoyed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first ever democratic elections in Egypt led to the\nclear victory of their leader, Mohamed Morsi who was soon replaced by the\nbloodthirsty dictatorship of General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Cameron\u2019s\nhumanitarian concerns (and those of the rest of the West) evaporated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the record: \u2018a Berkshire boy\u2019<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Cameron\u2019s early years are condensed in a chapter called, mock-pathetically, \u2018a Berkshire boy\u2019. A Berkshire lad who went to Eton, whose father went to Eton, and whose grandfather and great-grandfather went to Eton. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before going up to Oxford he worked in the House of Commons\nfor his godfather, a Tory MP. Then he went to Hong Kong where, thanks to family\nconnections, he got a job at Jardine Matheson. After Oxford he \u2018hunts\u2019 for a\njob and, miracle, he finds one immediately with the Conservative Research\nDepartment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was soon special adviser to Norman Lamont, chancellor at\nthe time of Black Wednesday. Lamont would pester him with phone calls wanting\nto know what was in the papers. Samantha, not yet his wife, had the right\nattitude (she is the unsung heroine of the book): \u201cTell him to fuck off and buy\nthem himself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following a period of support for Ian Duncan Smith, who\nthought abortion should be restricted, capital punishment restored and that an\nunmarried couple should not be allowed to adopt, Cameron fell into line behind\nMichael Howard. The \u201cgrown-ups were back in charge\u201d he exults, only to discover\nthat Howard\u2019s 2005 general election campaign was right-wing and mean-spirited.\nPerhaps Cameron should have noticed since he had written the manifesto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Michael Howard gone, Cameron writes that \u201cslightly to\nmy surprise….I found myself running for the leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his premiership, Cameron increased tuition fees, cut\nbenefits, pursued austerity, (\u201cwe probably didn\u2019t cut enough\u201d) and saw an\nincrease in poverty, homelessness and food banks. He cut nursing training in\nresponse to the NHS recruitment crisis. In his speech to the Conservative Party\nconference (March 2011) this great reformer announced that he was going to take\non \u201cthe enemies of enterprise\u201d: Civil servants, town hall officials and public\nsector procurement managers. How original, how Thatcherist. Steve Bannon said\nthe same things and so did and does Dominic Cummings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Cameron’s greatest achievements<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

His great achievement, Cameron constantly boasts, was to have legalised gay marriage. Yet he had been \u201con the wrong side of section 28\u201d and abstained over gay couples\u2019 right to adopt. As late as 2010 he was against gay marriage. By 2012, when same-sex marriage is legal in most of Western Europe, he was for it. Cameron simply went with the trend, while the law was passed thanks to Labour MPs \u2013 134 Tories opposed it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for Europe, he claims that it is wrong to assume that\nthat he called a referendum because of internal party politics, or because of\nthe threat from UKIP, claiming \u201cI made the pledge because I genuinely believed\nit was the right thing for Britain.\u201d By page 406, however, he admits that it\nhad to do with the Tories in parliament. It had nothing to do with the country\nand everything to do with petty party politics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This appalling book ends with low-level pop patriotic\nchants: \u201cwe are a small island…. with a prouder history, with a bigger heart,\nwith greater resilience. This is the country that cleared the European\ncontinent of fascism, that took slavery off the high seas.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Russians are unaware that the Red Army played only a\nsupporting role in WW2. The descendant of the slaves should be grateful that\nBritain abolished the slave trade having played the leading role in it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Never mind: \u201cBritain is the greatest country on earth. Our greatness is derived not from our size, but from our people \u2013their decency, their talent, and that special British spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the Record, by David Cameron, is published by William Collins. 732pp. \u00a325.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A longer version of this article will appear in the<\/em> Political Quarterly journal<\/em>. <\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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