Cameron's sentence

ollie

How about this one -

"He saw, He conquered, He came"

Keith Wilkins

I rarely read such perceptive commentaries as this. You have taken several paces back and looked at an historical perspective. The beauty of your suggestion is that it is only 7 words long, would be truly historical and reflects what we all long for. Is DC up to this?

Alf Tupper C.R.O.F.

'If he follows through'?

Ooh I wouldn't recommend that. It's very uncomfortable and they won't let you back in even when you've been home and sorted things out.

Unixman

Sadly it might be as simple as "at least I am not Brown" ....

Steve

He saved us from Gordon Brown.

steve

the sentence:
"He destroyed the Labour Party and Cultural Marxism".

Englishman Abroad

He freed us from Gordon Brown.

Simon Stephenson

He made us feel like people again, privileged to belong to society, but no longer subservient to it.

peter

He's the "Heir to Blair".

:(

teledu

He trusted the people to vote on Europe

golfwidow

He got it.

Colin

He was more of the same...

Battle 2807

I would hope that it would be: "he gave us the referendum we were promised on the EU constitution" but I am afraid that I am not holding my breath.

Stephen

How about 'He lifted us out of a great recession and preserved the Union'. I know, a bit derivative, but it would be a good ambition.

David Phipps

May I offer the following from a letter to me dated 18th June 2008.

"I believe our future lies in Europe"

Not!!!

Kipling

He rolled back the power of the state, gave people the self-responsibility and ability to govern their own lives

Austin Barry

Perhaps:

'He listened, he understood and acted without fear, without self-interest, to implement the voice of the people'.

It would address the great disconnect between the electorate and the patronising bien-pensants who seemingly despise us as we them. But I suspect that in Cameron's case it may be more:

'He listened, he pantomimed understanding and acted in the interests of the Conservative party'.

Irene

I think if he is really bold and decisive while he is initially hated and condemned because of what he will have to do to get this country back on track - then I think he could be Great for Britain!

Kit the Ex-Pat

Yet another career politician

or is that too cynical? .. how about

Not quite as bad as the other bloke

Neil Turner

Cameron cleansed the system to give the British people the democratic freedom to determine their own future

Boudicca

I was going to say 'He destroyed the Labour Party' but actually, Blair, Brown and Mandelson have done that.

So instead 'He made it impossible for a socialist party to ever again form a UK Government.'

And by the way - the bottle of champagne I won for my last contribution (The Stones - This Could Be the Last Time) has never arrived.

HFC

He freed the English from a future of certain socialist serfdom.

Andrew Zalotocky

Given the state of the public finances, we'd better hope that Cameron's sentence is "He faced the facts."

smurf

He set up the Office for Budget Responsibility, and gave it real teeth.

The rest follows....

Julianlzb87

"Chop me a line."

Stronghold Barricades

He relieved the burden of quasi-socialism from the British people

Alex Fisher

He trusted people to shape their own lives.

Steve Garner

He reversed the decline in British society and restored its peoples belief in government.

Andrew

"He saved Britain from having its future stolen".

Ric

Gordon Brown's would clearly be:

"He saved the world."

Edmund Jerk

He slayed the orcs and put the ring into the fire.

Tony Bolsie

He saw the future and prepared Britain's economy for it.

John Page

Once people get real power, it will be politically difficult to take it back from them.

But "he implemented The Plan" doesn't resonate!

David Cameron, please note......

He regained Britain's independence from the EU and in doing so returned the governance of Britain to its citizens.............

mitch

He fixed labours bust.

He tried blair/brown for war crimes.

He was the man we hoped he was.

tick tick tick boom

He mended Broken Britain.

Peggy wrote Reagan's superb speech for D-day in 1989. Pity Obama and Brown coudn't match it.

Moraymint

I paraphrase of course, but how about:

"He installed wise and frugal government, restrained men from injuring one another, left them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and did not take from the mouth of labour the bread it had earned."

dearieme

He was the last PM of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

TrevorsDen

He destroyed New Labour.

This is of course very negative but then the premiss put forward by Noonan is baloney anyway.

FDR for instance did not win WW2 - if anyone did Nimitz and Marshall did. In fact he appeased Stalin and set up conditions for the cold war. His New Deal did not help stop the recession - thats where WW2 comes in.

So these glib sentences are fallacies anyway ... Mussolini did not get the trains to run on time.

And in winning the civil war Lincoln appropriated draconian powers to himself that make Guantanamo Bay look liker a kindergarten.

Steve.W

“I've had my bike stolen, twice”.

mac

He paved the way for Boris.

porkbelly

He was the PM before Hannan.

drakes drum

Brown = "Ended boom and bust, brought only bust"

Blair= "Liar"

Cameron " Old etonian, new tory, ended Britains sovereignty"

biggestaspidistra

'he was the people's princess'

Walt Whitman

He was a bit of an arse

Verity

John Page, out of all the silly, aspirational entries above, yours was the most baseless: "Once people get real power, it will be politically difficult to take it back from them."

Oh, really? People had real power for centuries before Blair and his fascist cohorts and helpers took over our country in a bloodless coup.

If you think Cameron would restore our stolen freedoms, you are wrong. He has no burning love of liberty; just burning ambition to be PM and then up at the top table in Brussels.

TrevorsDen

Political Betting are pointing to a YouGov poll where - 77% thought it was “possible to cut spending by 10% by running public services more efficiently, without reducing their quality or cutting the level of welfare spending..” against just `14% who said it wasn’t.

So its clear that Browns epitaph will be - 'not half as clever as he thought he was'

William Church

"He knew what was important and he got it back. He was a Conservative."

john

How is preserving the union giving power back to the people? Why not give power to the English with a referendum on separating from the Scots. How do the English benefit from subsidising Scotland?

Jim

His inability to cope with Labour's debt crisis paved the way for the rise of the BNP.

donald fraser

Generations awoke to the dream of post-retro-digital industrialism and his fat-pipe eco-towns laid the beginnings.

He paved the way for a renaissance of micro-manufacturing in the north.

He initiated the benevolent bureaucracy by devolving power to electronic AGMs.

He undid the malware state.

His low-carbon emission, energy rich vision won over opponents and his nuclear electricity program freed the data storage hungry masses.

Diogenes

He tried to hold back the tide on Obama Beach.

wizard of oz

He's not Goliath, he's just a naughty David

J H Holloway

Could I offer a reverse thought?

This Labour government summed up in one line?

A few weeks ago, Lord Lamont was asked by a Scottish newspaper what Mrs T would say about the UK's current position.

Lamont said he knew very well what she thought, because he'd recently spoken to her about the state of the nation.

Mrs T summed up Labour in one line.

'They've done it again'.

Genius.....

Major Plonquer

David Cameron will be known in history as 'William Hague's Predecessor'.

Or perhaps 'He carried the UK for Daniel Hannan'?

JFK, of course went on to be known as 'Another dead Catholic'.

Verity

I am heartened to see how many people here have understood the malignity of the people, like Blair, Brown, Mandelson, who have grabbed power for their own advancement, but am depressed in equal measure by the people who just don't see it and sincerely believe we're playing on a level field.

William Church's little benediction is endlessly depressing.

Tramp

He didn't give me a pound.

Lee Jakeman

Like Sarkozy, he was a great disappointment to those who elected him.

Alan Phillips

He killed the disease and provided fertile ground.

Rush-is-Right

"He lifted us out of a great depression and helped to win a World War."

Fiddlesticks. How about... "He exploited the depression for political advantage thereby prolonging it, and he kept the USA out of the world war until such time as his nation was attacked by Japan."

Great Big Billygoat Gruff

Couldn't score in a Political Bordello

Roger

He despatched the Labour Party to histories dustbin.

strapworld

Cameron. The man who would be king..and wasn't

The Man of Straw who sacked and kicked out backbenchers, but kept his inner circle expense cheats in their jobs.

WHY. was the big question,
SHOULD the British people replace one corrupt cabinet with another?

The answer came at the General Election. Prime Minister Clegg and BNP Official Opposition. Labour Party got 26 MP's and the Conservative Party 72 MP's

IT will not happen? Canada proves it can and will be done!

Cameron, by allowing those cheats that sit around the shadow cabinet table, has legitimised cheating and given a two finger salute to the British people. What an utter fool. What a massive misjudgement.

Christopher Bowrig

When it was lost to Europe, he restored Britain's sovereignty

Free Thomist

‘He gave power back to the people.’

It isn't his to give. Liberty is ours to sacrifice; perhaps if we'd remembered that we wouldn't have let the political class steal it from us.

I prefer:
"He restored the English constitution"

Paul Huxley

I'm pretty sure I can do Cameron in a word: Zeitgeist.

Jon S

'He was a safe pair of hands.'

Neil McEvoy

He de-nationalised society.

David Ossitt

On Blair.

A liar; who never told the truth.

On Brown.

Coward; bit his nails to the quick.

On Cameron.

Was the wrong man for the job.

JONNY

He proved Verity wrong.

Neil Morrison

He rid Britain of the socialist experiment - permanently.

Disorganised1

His promise was broken under the yoke of debt.

oldtimer

He implemented "The Plan: twelve months to renew Britain".

I should like to know from you, James, and your colleagues how closely Cameron`s policy and action annoucements have reflected the proposals set out in the Carswell/Hannan book. On a superficial look there seem to be similarities.

My recollection is that the localism agenda has been around for some time. I recall a Rachel Sylvester(?) article in the D Telegraph around the time of the 2005 election expressing the disquiet of the Notting Hill Consevatives about the emphasis on certain topics in the Tory campaign. Yet the manifesto itself offered many worthwhile ideas that achieved little or no prominence. We need a political exegisis - preferably undertaken by yourself and colleagues. This might well reveal significant clues about future policies and actions.

The Bellman

"He did a passable Tony Blair impression, and was always ready with a kind word for a dead celeb."

David Parker

He became the first Regional Governor of Britain.

Battling Brummie

What about he drained the swamp that had become the welfare state?

Tony E

'He forced us to live within our means'

se1man

He finally reversed the expansion of the state and made government smaller

DM

I like Neil Mc Evoy's.."He denationalised society.' - says a lot about how this country's gone wrong.
Unlike many others, I do think Cameron has the ability to make a difference rather than be heir to Blair and more of the same.
Being in Opposition is not the best way to prove oneself. It's only one part of the long term history of the man.
However, I think politics is a different game now than Cameron could ever have predicted for himself. The next PM now has to be a crisis leader to save the country from itself, not one who can indulge his pet projects.

Tiberius

"He re-trained the British people to run in the human race".

Michael J Mullins

"I could not dig, I dared not rob
And so, I lied to please the mob"
(Apologies to Hilaire Balloc"

TGF UKIP

"Just as his Great Mentor, when he came to be removed from office it was a toss up as to who was more pissed off with him, his own party or the electorate."

David Barnett

He gave back to his country its self respect and virtually cut the ties with Brussels.

Andy

I'd like it to be "he set the people free" - free from the EU, 42 days, various bans, nanny state, political correctness, h&s, victim culture, state client base, thought police, crime on the streets, etc. I am not, however, going to hold my breath.

The Three Little Pigs

He got unemployment moving down from 3.75 million, inflation down from 8 %, quashed the race riots , got the national debt below 100% of GDP, oversaw a forgettable Olympics and chopped the number of MP’s , which meant there were fewer for the public to mistrust.; trains didn’t improve though.

Maid Cameron: cleared up some of the mess.

Verity

I endorse Strapworld's dismissive post. "sacked and kicked out backbenchers, but kept his inner circle expense cheats in their jobs." Quite. Mr Decisive Chief Executive among the cannon fodder, but oh, my, does he guard his own clique.

I think the Speccie writers will be dismayed to find how little enthusiasm there is for public relations director David Cameron among the electorate. People don't want their government run along the lines of marketing campaigns. They want vision, love of country, principles ... which Cameron hasn't got until he's consulted a focus group.

What is truly astounding is all the wishful thinking above.

The Bellman, well said!

SCS

"Oddly, he bore a passing resemblance to Grommit, a placticine dog."

Verity

Besides, the notion of placing the ineffective Leader of the British Opposition party in the same category as great American visionaries and patriots like Abraham Lincoln and FDR, or even Richard Nixon, who ended the Viet Nam War and opened up trade with China, thus changing the international trade landscape forever - and the brave, decisive Harry Truman, is absolutely ludicrous.

JONNY

Whatever his merits, or demerits - his many detractors always stumbled when asked to name a credible alternative.

Barbara

He unshackled Britain.

(Well, we can hope, can't we?)

Simon Stephenson

The task is to find a sentence that encapsulates what you think "Cameron ... should be aiming for"

not

"how you think Cameron will go down in history"

At least, that's what I gleaned from the invitation.

JohnAnt

How about the proud boast:
"He championed the cause
Of his wealthy in-laws."

Edward

He trimmed public sector spending as if it were but mere wisteria.

But it was all within the rules.

Verity

In fact, this post infuriates me. How dare you, James Forsythe, take it upon yourself to confer the mantle of great American (elected) presidents - men of stature and achievement every one; men who made their mark on the history of the world - on a British MP who currently heads up the British Tory party and has accomplished absolutely nothing in his life except to get slotted in, through connections, as the PR director of a TV company?

As Iain Dale would say, how very dare you?

Alf Tupper C.R.O.F.

'He was one more in that shameful clutch of Prime Ministers, who, when the nation was sliding toward the calamities of the Civil War, sought refuge from their duties in an ever more desperate pursuit of expedience'

Susan Hill

Yours is still the best. Award yourself the champagne

Carly May

Thatcher's was, 'She made Britain Great again and changed the country forever'. I'm hoping Cameron's is going to be 'Freed the UK from EU tryanny'. I'm not holding my breath, though.

TGF UKIP

84 comments so far at 6 pm (mine of course got "lost" again and what a story is being told of Dave's "leadership."

On this most Tory of websites he is damned, not by faint praise, but by low expectations and the cynicism he provokes.

Tiberius

Verity; it's so arousing when you get on your high horse.

Jo

'Allowed Britain to determine her own destiny'

Rhoda Klapp

"I could not dig, I dared not rob
And so, I lied to please the mob"
(Apologies to Hilaire Balloc"

Apologise all you like, the line is Kipling, I believe.

Verity

Yes, Carly May, we can tell how strong Cameron feels about the EU from all the impassioned speeches he has made about it. And his heavily hedged promises of perhaps a referendum and perhaps not. It'll depend ...

Peter Reddington

How about.
Two faces, one man.
or, It's the way I tell em.
or, Some people will believe anything.

Simon Stephenson

Edward : 4.00

Slightly unlikely, I fear. I know it doesn't scan so well, but yours might read:-

He spent public money to employ someone to trim public spending as of it were but mere wisteria.

strapworld

Johnny 2.37.

CREDIBLE ALTERNATIVES TO CAMERON!

Iain Duncan Smith - An honest and decent man.

William Hague- an honest and decent man.

Michael Portillo- an honest and decent man.

Teresa May - an honest and decent woman.

Daniel Hannon - an honest and decent man.

Geoffrey Cox- an honest and decent man.

Iain Dale- an honest and decent man.

There are so many that could be the REAL leader of the Tory Party- who would stand for real Tory Policies and would NOT tolerate what Cameron is tolerating from his shadow cabinet.

Stop thinking that Cameron is the answer.

Sadly, he isn't!

Cottage Pie

He had a fascination with peace and wealth

James

He defeated the Union (European)

Verity

Oi, Strapworld!! Both Derek Davis and John Redwood should be up at the top of your list.

The notion of the fussy, county-councillorish, dim Theresa May as prime minister is one that had never occured to me. And to think this was suggested one day after Michael Jackson died .... hmmmmmmm... Eerie.

field

What was Kennedy's?

Bob

He paid off the nation's credit card.

Roger Thornhill

"I'm not him"

Frankly, that is as good as DC gets.

Anyone who thinks DC is a new dawn is on something that, if not illegal already, DC will ban.

Stephen

Verity: forgive my ignorance - Derek Davis?

Alf Tupper C.R.O.F.

Simon Stephenson.

You're right technically, but hell this is so much more fun.

Diswiss

He got the country up off it's knees.

David Ossitt

Stephen

I think Verity meant David.

Simon Stephenson

Alf Tupper : 7.39am

I'm not just "right technically", I'm "right".

More fun it may be, but it's not what was asked for. There's plenty of bar-room abuse boards about, without commandeering those that aren't.

Stephen

David - perhaps you're right. But a politician who is prepared to waste taxpayers money on an unnecessary election is hardly a man to turn to when public finances are in such a parlous state.

Peter Botting

Fantastic article.

Rhoda Klapp

"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss"

JONNY

Thanks Strapworld (8.19)
We're both in agreement. There doesn't seem to be a serious credible contender

Ian Garton

"He took the state off people's backs"

We defined ourselves historically against our continental neighbours by our freedom. We should regain that distinction, by killing of such stuff as socialism (obviously), and the 1001 other institutions and -isms that protect us from ourselves.

Kennedy's was "I get migraine if I don't get fresh ass every day".

And keeping his cronies, well, not to just to go along with the current expenses hysteria, that would be silly. Taking advantage to get rid of some dead wood seems sensible.

Ian Garton

Verity, of course we're all pygmies now compared with the USA, though the blessed Maggie had some leverage with Ronnie. I would define a great British leader as one who the Americans noticed (in a non-irritating way).

Verity

David Ossitt, I did indeed mean David. Thank you.

Dixon

"Transformative leader know [sic] where they are trying to take the country, what their mission is. "

Not only is that patently not a true sentence in any known form of the English language but is frought with multiple grammatical howlers.

Actually, pretty much a good metaphor for the Cameraon project!

Alf Tupper C.R.O.F.

Simon Stephenson.

Who is abusing anyone?

Amanda B.

He championed liberty as Britain's highest principle, thus restoring the nation's sense of dignity and purpose.

Amanda B.

'He championed liberty as Britain's highest principle, thus restoring the nation's sense of dignity and purpose.'

A trifle optimistic, but we're aiming for greatness here, and I'm afraid that anything less wouldn't qualify.

My friend and I had discussed a different second clause, one that had 'dismantling the worst of the nanny-state and putting self-rule back in its place', but he said: aim higher - think about a further benefit of greater liberty rather than just how it would be achieved. And I agreed with that. Liberty has been and should be our foundation (the Americans didn't invent it, even if they served it best), but as a freer people we could rightly feel that we have great gifts to offer our children and the world. Rather than feel some vague and confused guilt for sins real and imagined of the past, we could feel a proper sense of pride in our humanity and our achievements, many of which still lie in the future. Onward, upward!

Steve Tierney

>>I'm pretty sure I can do Cameron in a word: Zeitgeist.<<

You think he's a ghost that can move objects around the house?
: )

Verity

Amanda B writes, somewhat aspirationally, "He championed liberty as Britain's highest principle". Wrong. Cameron champions (quietly) Projekt EUSSR, the enemy of liberty.

I am at a loss to detect a meaning in your penultimate sentence.

Incidentally, David Cameron is light years and entire solar systems away from Abraham Lincoln and FDR and to mention him in the same context is simply grotesque.

Ruby Duck

Hopefully ...

When he felt the hand of history on his shoulder he quietly shook it and said "No thanks".

Hysteria

well I have been away for a week - and this is the first discussion I have read - great stuff - ! I side with the pessimists generally - it is men of vision we need - and you don't get vision in a focus group.

Walking through Houston airport I saw the fine display of NASA material and it reminded me of the JFK line "We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard".............

We have hard times ahead - DC is not our JFK....

Mr Commonsense

His patter from his alma mater doesn't really matter!He'll finish up in tatters.

Mr Commonsense

His patter from his alma mater doesn't really matter!He'll finish up in tatters.

the realist

He was the same as Brown, Blair and and all the rest, but with a different name, but thankfully he wasn't BNP!

the realist

He was the same as Brown, Blair and and all the rest, but with a different name, thankfully he wasn't BNP!

Peter Drummond

He shrank the State (starting with the Health and Safety Executive) reducing its headcount by 50% and handed back responsibility for teir lives to individuals.

Mister Christian

Surely it is a question of the 'one-eyed man..?
http://moralorder.mediumisthemess.com/

Tony H

"He looked earnest, frowned at the right time and made all the right vocal inflections."

Ian G

It's too early to say...

Think about it.

Richard Holloway

We romantise those figures that are far back enough in history for us not to remember them. A simple one line statement of dubious historical fact is hardly the best way to try and sum up our leaders.

David Short

"Transformative leader know where they are trying to take the country, what their mission is"

Duh?!