Is Cameron a born-again waste cutter?

THX1138

Dave you got me at dumping connecting for health & Id cards.

No more meetings/junkets sponsored by Accenture, Fujitsu, EDS or Crapita at the next Tory Party confrence then.

Markie Mark

Let's hope so! It is beyond staggering that the Labour Government spends and wastes money on such a gargantuan scale and, er, nobody seems to give a toss. Get cracking Cameron ...

wonderfulforhisage

I am wondering how much could be saved by leaving the EU? If one added together our net contribution and the savings in red tape and the cost of implementing ludicrous EU directives........one can but dream.

RMH

Attack mode is a must.

Get this Nulabour fools out asap

Nicholas

This fisking of Mandy (at Labourlist) on Guido:-

"First, let me make something clear. In government what matters above all else is not what you say but what you do. That is why Gordon, Alistair and myself have been, with our colleagues, working around the clock to put in place the measures we need to get through this downturn in the best and fairest way."

So how come you have the time to write this piece of trite propaganda then? Shouldn't you be busy doing things?

"People remain, of course, worried about their jobs and homes but they see, I believe, that their government is doing whatever it takes to protect them. Unlike the Tories who, to coin a phrase, plan to “do nothing”."

You believe, eh? Hmm, so it might not be so? Get the swipe in at the Tories. If you are so busy and they are "doing nothing" why so keen to discredit them?

"Soon, Barack Obama will announce a fiscal stimulus that will further underline quite how isolated the Tories are. He, like us at today's jobs summit, is making jobs and investment the priority - you can read in detail about his approach here."

Ah yes, the Obama link. We thought that was coming. Why would the President of the United States want to underline how isolated the Tories are? Is he a Labour Party member?

"Yet the Tories reject the action that is required to ensure that this downturn is shorter and shallower than it otherwise would be, and, as Yvette said last week, they are proposing the “economic madness” of spending cuts in a recession."

Er no, they are proposing to cut the mountains of profligate waste your government is responsible for. All those officials going off on £1,000 per person junkets to discuss how to spy on us and our waste bins and the £200,000 of taxpayers money you and you cabinet cronies spent on your little Liverpool jaunt.

"This message - that their response is inadequate and amounts to nothing - and that their judgement is flawed is one that we will, rightly, be repeating in the months to come."

Yes, of course, it is the propaganda mantra soundbite that reveals you are more interested in punch & judy party political campaigning than governing the country. Irresponsible, negligent, self-serving and cynical. The "Do Everything But Govern Properly" party, eh? Don't you think it is a bit rich using government time and money (your fat salaries) to conduct an election campaign before Der Fuhrer has even announced a GE?

"Voters know that it is right to plan and invest for the upturn: ensuring that future jobs and growth come from new innovations in areas such as environmental technology, high-tech manufacturing and the creative industries. I am glad that, at least when it comes to the latter, the Labour party itself is now moving to the forefront of new media and online campaigning. I am glad to be a part of that, even if it is with my tongue in my virtual cheek."

So far, Mandy you devious, fork-tongued old snake-queen, it reads like a piece of the worst kind of patronising, puerile statist national socialist propaganda. If that represents the sum total of your political intellect and discourse I shouldn't bother. Go back to your mirror, mirror on the wall and poisoned apples.

"I have blogged before, when I was a European Commissioner at the WTO Doha Ministerial meeting in Geneva last July, and I enjoyed it. But in this, my first UK political blog, I want to say something about how we get our message out in these modern times. Because the world has changed since 1997. Now, no-one has been more identified with message and campaigning discipline than myself, something that makes me rather proud, I have to say because, during the 1980s I saw the Labour party repeatedly let down its voters by failing to win the battle with the Tories and the media. Back then we were in hand-to-hand combat with an almost universally hostile press but sometimes we were our own worst enemy."

Blogged before or blagged before? Or something else before? But now you have the BBC in your pocket, so to speak, echoing your propaganda and party line at every opportunity.

"This must, of course, never happen again, and so we will still need loyalty and discipline, and that crucial other component, focussed, hard work. But when it comes to new media we have to recognise that the days of command and control are over. Instead we need to learn to embrace and engage. That is why I am writing this blog and will be at LabourList's launch blogger’s breakfast on the 12th February. It is also why I will be returning here to respond to your comments in the days to come."

What must never happen again is that this country must never be blighted by a Labour government. The "Work Towards Freedom", "Strength Through Joy" soundbites are interesting faux-Nazi retro soundbites though. Brainwash enough of the little people and the hordes of illegal immigrants you have presided over to undermine our language, culture and history and they might become the stormtroopers for your New World Order.

"So, in the spirit of openness and, dare I say it, comradeship, let the conversation continue!"

You wouldn't know anything about the "spirit of openness" if it jumped up and bit you are on the arse. But anyway, in the spirit of that openness, comrade, tell us about everything you and the Russian oligarch discussed about aluminium?

Verity

Nice sting in the tail, Nicholas. I hope it didn't give Lord Rumba a thrill.

Verity

Matthew Parris is good, but the only national journalist who regards the Labourites with a cold, unemotional, uncompassionate, frosty eye is the wonderful American Janet Daley. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/janetdaley/4218071/Return-of-the-Blairites-spells-trouble-for-David-Cameron.html

To those who are for girding loins, this is your battle cry.

For the rest, go and have a cup of latte with Lord Rumba in the House of Lords to which he is, inexplicably, accorded entry.

GeoffH

As soon as anybody writes in praise of Janet Daley then I know beyond peradventure that the writer is off his/her rocker.

Daley is a poisonous, ignorant trollop.

Ian C

Cameron was good on MArr and Daley is unanware of the strategy that is needed to get into power first which is to 'not frighten the horses'- then get radical once in power. Thatcher had to do it, Blair had to do it. Obama has had to do it (he very nearly frightened the horses but was put clear by the Lehmans crisis).

It is about getting past the finishing post so the real game can begin. As the recession deepens, I would argue, Cameron can move to the the more radical agenda sooner rather than later as Labour slop around in their own mess. It is the impatient right who want it now.

JONNY

But has he got the cojones to bring back Ken? With all this venomous mudslinging going the rounds about 'traitor' and suchlike.
He'd lift them right up and into government. (If that's what they want which I'm coming to doubt).
But the minnows are out there sharpening their baby hatchets.
Mainly because he's a big performer and they're pathetic.
If we can't have Ken forget about a Tory majority.

stephendc

A few points:

(1) He definitley didnt say he was dumping connecting for health. So those of you salivating at that prospect are just being misled. In fact it would cost way more to dump it than to implement it.

(2) Was a good interview, but a bit embarressing that some of his apparently off-hand remarks were so heavily scripted that he said them several times because of the link-up.

(3) Thought the carefully placed ipod was just a little too much - but i liked the fire.

Verity

"What must never happen again is that this country must never be blighted by a Labour government."

Agreed, Nicholas. And I do not believe David Cameron has the fighting spirit to vanquish them decisively. National socialism is an evil that must be evaporated. John Redwood as Prime Minister and Ken Clarke as Chancellor with some current members of the Shadow Cabinet, plus David Davis, could do it. I don't see any killer women floating around the top ranks of the Tories at the moment, so political correctness (which in any case must be declared a mental condition) would have to go out the window. A cabinet of the ablest and most focussed is what must be assembled.

Jeremy

He is not confronting the two key subjects. Slashing wasteful and extravagant expenditure - probably 15 billions worth and then slashing taxes.

It can and should be done but sadly it is evident that Cameron is not the man to do it.

TGF UKIP

Ah, the missing post I couldn't find last night by a fanzine hack giving his take on the Cameron/Marr interview.

Nice try, Peter, but this interview should have finally exploded those illusions carefully nurtured by some unfortunates, hacks and Coffee Housers alike, that Dave is really some sort of conservative. He ain't.

Consider how careful he was to stress and stress again to Marr how there would be no reduction in spending. Just a very small cut in the increase of spending growth. Indeed, very unusually for Dave, he was actually able to quote figures. Tory spending he said would grow from £620bn this year, not to Gordon's £650bn but to Dave's £645bn. WOW! a cut in growth of a whole .77%!

But then we come to the absolutely priceless "I now see just how unaffordable Labour's spending plans are and perhaps we could have seen that earlier."

At that I almost feel off the chair laughing. All those Tory hacks (including it must be said most of the fanzine hacks) and all those economists saying since at least mid 07 that so much spending and so much debt is unaffordable and now Dave at the beginning of 2009 says "perhaps we could have seen that earlier." Sorry guys, this has to be one very perverse or one very stupid Cameron Clique.

So much for the influence of Fraser Nelson and I hope "Squandered" at least made David Craig pots of money otherwise he really was wasting his time manufacturing ammo for a political party unwilling/unable to make even the slightest use of it.

But then it got better/worse depending on your point of view. Marr: "And if people are thinking, I'll vote for that David Cameron and his Conservative Party because they'll slash public spending and cut my taxes, that's wrong isn't it?"

Dave: "That's not what they should be thinking. What they should be thinking is that this will be a responsible government that lives within its means."

So in short, what you'll get from Dave is "responsible" social democracy instead of irresponsible social democracy from Gordon.

No voter wishing to see social democracy dead and buried in Britain for the foreseeable future should even contemplate voting for the Cameron Tories.

JONNY

All this talk of getting rid of Cameron is a no-brainer.
Now let's gird our loins (yours too Verity) for the Election.

DSS

TGF - genuine question - what is One Nation Toryism, if not a form of social democracy?

THX1138

stephend- You sure it would cost more to dump connecting for health?

I thought the contracts were more flexible this time around, in fact Accenture paid big bugs to get out their contract & Fujitsu are struggling through the courts right now to get any additional money after they were fired.

TGF great post still don't agree but a great post.

For a bit of fun & Dave baiting you need to watch Peter Hitchen's rant Toff at the Top, I believe it's still on YouTube.

Verity

From what I have read, although the podcast wasn't available outside Britain, the interview wasn't a storming success. I read Quentin Letts' piece in The Daily Mail, and, in his considered opinion, Andrew Marr was dwarfed by the commodious armchair he was placed in. Most amusing it was to be sure. I was particularly taken with the report of the blackbird hopping around outside the window.

Someone had written in the comments column that Cameron made Tony Blair look sincere.

I do not know why the political class - and I include the media - are so taken with David Cameron when the voters seem to sense something insincere about him.

TGF UKIP

DSS, you've hit the nail on the head. That's exactly what Dave is - a good old fashioned, patrician, paternalistic, interventionist, True Blue, One Nation, SocDem and one of these days the delusionists on this blogsite who like to believe he is at heart a conservative will, too late, wake up to that.