"I compare him to Winston Churchill’s definition of Russia – an enigma wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in a mystery. If you go right back to Macmillan you have a well-connected, wealthy patriarch, above the fray to a large extent. I think there’s a lot of that in Cameron. But I don’t think he’s a true blue conservative by any means. He’s more a Lib Dem at heart."
Sir Jimmy Young - Daily Telegraph, 20th September 2011
9 comments:
The beeb pushed Jimmy Young out because he liked Thatcher.
There is nothing complex about Cameron - he's just a rich kid who had it easy. Look at his family.....his father became a Partner at Panmure Gordon Stockbrokers - a firm his grandfather founded !
I mean, lucky sperm club all the way. Need a job, I know a friend...this is the Ultimate Spivvery......
He is a Cartoon Tory - exactly what people imagine - chinless wonder with trust fund - brother as barrister and himself as PR spiv.
Then again Blair had brother as Barrister and came from Communist-turned-Tory father and became Barrister himself - which requires money
That's why Blair could head the most-Left Wing Labour Government in history - because Tories liked him and thought he was one of them.....Cameron is simply a newer model and suckered the Tory Members.....whereas David Davis was probably a bit too rough with his Council Estate origins
The termination of Conservatism concluded with a throwback to its aristocratic roots in Cameron and the Ascendancy in Oblivious Osborne and the Magical Disappearing Economy Trick
I think a very large number of Conservative voters have already come to that conclusion and didn't need Sir Jimmy Young spelling it out for them.
YU55
He was put in place to de-toxify the Conservative "brand" and to make it more like New Labour. That says a lot about the thinking which installed him. What they didn't want was someone making statements on principle which would make him and them unpopular. They wanted a plastic character coming out with eye catching initiatives in the hope that people had short memories and they could change the subject by coming up with another eye catching initiative. They wanted their own Blair.
In that sense, the Tory Party has become more like the LibDems. The LibDems offer a dream world where everyone is happy and no one loses and the money comes by magic, all in the hope that they'll never be in power and forced to do these things and take responsibility.
The Global Warming nonsense, which the Tories discovered with Cameron, was popular at the time and before the costs were clear and the benefits obviously dubious. From the point of view of the short term success of the Conservatives, it worked by making them appear less nasty. Unfortunately, many of the facts of life are nasty and can only be held at bay by storing up bigger problems for the future.
I would say that Cameron was a product of his times and I've no doubt his missus has a large influence over him.
Macmillan and others of that era had much more of a sense of duty to something other than themselves and the narrow electoral interests of their party. It may have been something hard to approve of; their class, Britain's place in the world, the struggle of the proletariat etc.
I suspect Cameron really does believe in the Global Warming nonsense and was genuinely taken by surprise when it dawned that this was going to push up energy costs in the UK enormously. It says a lot about the shallowness of the man.
I can't say I was ever taken aback by Jimmy Young's political expertise or insight, however he is completely wrong about Cameron. He is quite correct that Cameron is not a Conservative, but nor is he a LibDem. Cameron, like the majority of MPs regardless of party, is a social democrat, again not in a social democratic party sense. As we know, the leaders of all three main parties are ideologically the same, all social democrat, thus the identical policies, more authoritarian, bigger state, more regulation, higher tax, etc. all of which translate into a desire for more personal power, a 'look, I'm in charge, you do what I say, when I say it 'cause I'm always right, got it?' attitude on the one hand and a flippy-floppy rubberyness at the first sign of opposition or dissent that could threaten their position on the other. They call it pragmatism, I call it disgusting.
The bleedin obvious, eh?
I thought he was dead. If not, he should stick to spinning discs and counting down (or was that Alan Freeman?) There's such an inane celebrity culture these days that they all think we want to hear their views on everything. What next? Kerry Katona being called before an MPs' Select Committee on welfare benefits? The media should stop encouraging this sort of nonsense. Young may be right but he should keep his opinions to himself - or start a blog - I don't want to read it in the msm.
Ian: Maybe, I forget...... (age)
TT: Cnm't fault that......
Anon: Sorry, you lost me.
DD99: I think you are with GV somehow....
c: A fair summation.
PC: Your last sentence sums it up neatly.
GV: Ouch! Not a little unfair, no? Or should I get back on the naughty step for having posted it?
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