Cameron grasps at populism out of desperation

cuffleyburgers

Very disappointed by Cameron's recent performance.

Fact is the Tories seem to have some good policies, and in areas important to the more swivel eyed such as myself, both on the EU and AGW they could very plausibly be more volubly sceptical without alienating the centre.

For some reason they refuse to make a series of essentially cost free announcements which would shore up the core, and reflect the general movement in the political landscape.

Petrified of making some cock up which could cost him the election...best way of losing the election.

THX1138

If "burglars leave their human rights at the doorstep” " do you think Dave would mind if I kept one as a slave?

JB

Yes-Tony Blairs evidence this weeek at the Chilcot enquiry makes it plain how divorced from principle he was and is.
Gordon Brown shows cynicism beyond belief in his ratcheting up of debt in an attempt to buy votes for his useless party.
We know that we will not be voting for the worst government this country has ever had when we vote for Cameron.
Oh and the answer to how far we can go with burglars-if you break into someromes else home witha view to burglary you should not be able to complain if you are shot,stabbed,garotted, beheaded defenestrated or set on fire!

Dave B

Tosh. People are losing faith in the British justice system, Mr Cameron is trying to reassure people that the police are not their enemy.

hiro

Excellent Rod - and needs to be said.

hiro

"If "burglars leave their human rights at the doorstep” " do you think Dave would mind if I kept one as a slave?
"

You won't be allowed to, mate. The PC begrade will come down on you like a ton of bricks - the tofu eating, tree fcking, sandle eating guardian fckers! PC gone made that you can't keep your former burgler as a slave.

Wilhelm

In America, if the owner of the house shoots a burglar and kills him, the police give him a medal and a ticker tape parade down Broadway.

In England, liberal judges and liberal establishment cant staaaand vigilantes, criminals are ok, but people taking the law into
their own hands, they hate.

Rachael

Indeed, Rod’s sparring partner, Simon Heffer, is often ridiculed by the Cameroons, yet on the big picture, Mr Heffer is right. Mr Heffer’s forte is the economy. Aand what was Mr Cameron’s economic policy until the crash? Follow Labour. Pathetic.

Frittering public money away is never a good idea. It is wasteful in itself and fosters a culture of waste. Had Dave had a principle as firm as this, look at the credit he’d have collected now.

It wasn’t to be. He let the New Labour press stooges lead him in a merry dance and was left playing catch up.

As Mr Heffer warns him, if you don’t fight, you won’t win. Where was the fight on that?

‘Global warming’, too. Remember that?

Dave didn’t even have to lead the charge on that by, er, ‘denying’ it. All he had to do was point out that the science was not settled and as such it would be wrong to fleece taxpayers for billions to feed the corporate parasites now making money for nothing from the palaver.

Look at the credit he’d have got now for taking a principled lead on that.

But no. And on, and on and so on and so on.

Dave’s natural supporters are utterly exhausted with it all.

So how do I help to get rid of Gordon without fawning over Dave?

Wear a clothespeg over my nose in the voting booth?

One idea I have I want to launch today with as many here as will join me.

It is said that if the next set of statistics for gross domestic product fall below zero, Gordon is almost guaranteed gone. (I simply don’t believe the 0.1 per cent rise we were told of last week. It was so pitiful it sounded like massaging of the highest order just so Treasury people could say we were out of recession.)

So we collectively, if we so wish, can help to drag Britain back into recession for just this next quarter. It gets rid of Gordon while giving Dave no real mandate. How about it?

If you have any purchases you can delay for a couple of months, then do so. The snow has apparently already given us a head start on reducing GDP so let’s delay buying anything that will wait until April and it will be we the people who finally knock the Brown terror out of his bunker.

Dave isn’t up to the job, so it’s down to us.

For Britain’s sake, spend as little as possible in the next two months and let’s collectively deliver the jawbreaker to Brown The Terrible. Once more unto the dip my friends, Once more.

C Powell

"If you vote for Cameron on May 6 will you have the slightest idea of what you are voting for?"

I know that I will be voting out the most incompetent, illiberal, authoritarian and useless government we have ever had in my lifetime, which is good enough for me this time. Then I will see whether Dave is worth voting for again.

ed hall

Even I've noticed that every time Cameron shows his face or opines in his fruity voice then his standings drop. Surely everyone in the Tory party except the Notting Hill must realise Cameron is next to useless.

Personally after he bottled the Lisbon treaty referendum I would never vote for him.

wrinkled weasel

All depressingly true.
But it is time that the meaning of "human rights" was reassigned to "I can do anything I like, I can, and you can't do me. Not only that, you can pay for it, so now f off."

Sir Graphus

C Powell describes my position perfectly, too.

The current lot have cocked up every single thing on an absolutely grand scale. It's the other lot's go, now.

Cameron seems to be doing everything wrong; on the plus side, this'd be a good election to loose.

Grunchlk

@THX, This could be a breeding money spinner! You could mate 'im your home help with the dubious immigration status.

Vulture

You are right, Rod.

Time to take a leaf out of the Aussie Tories' book when they found they had a Green loony leader and oust this useless, flabby-faced fool who adopts more positions in a shorter space of time than the fake windmill he has on top of his Notting Hill gaff. Ditch Dave now!

Baron

Wilhelm @ 12.35: you are a star, you’ve nailed it in two short paras.

The statistics reveal neatly how violation of property has progressed since the pseudo-liberal loonies took over here. In the mid-60’s, burglaries ran at a level of 30,000 pa. In our enlightened age, the number of ‘successful’ burglaries stands roughly at 10times that level (the total – successful and failed - 20times higher), and some 30,000 of us suffer harm in the execution of house breaking.

One could, of course, argue that burglaries fit neatly into the category of wealth redistribution tools, leveling societal inequality that under the current bunch that governs us got glaringly worse. Why should a banker with multi-zillion bonus mind if a needy drug addict removes a thing or two from his property and kicks him abit in the process. For that matter, why should anyone object to an act of thieving that swiftly and without the need of any red-tape leads to an adjustment of the unfairness in a society anchored in private property. Thievery is a fruit of labour, too, requiring ingenuity, courage, and often the use of considerable muscle power. If the victim suffers physical or emotional hurt, the NHS is ready to step in. You see, my American friend, one can justify everything if one puts one’s mind to it.

If Cameron and his bunch get in, our lives will get better at best marginally, and not only in the domain of law and order, I reckon.

Burlington Bertie

I remember some years ago taking to a Police Inspector about burglars.

His advice was that if one came into your house, and did not immediately run away, then kill him. The worst thing you can ever do is injure them - they will sue. Their lawyers will have a field day.

If however they are dead then YOUR version of events cannot be disputed.

It's not funny.

Years ago my sister-in law woke up to find a man in her room, robbing the place, she nearly died of shock.

Those bastards don't deserve rights.

If you enter someone's property with the clear intent to commit a crime then you have CHOSEN to set aside your rights.

Thankfully I live in France. I have the RIGHT to self defence and the use of force - including the use of a gun, taser, flashball or knife.

I have never heard of a burglary around here - I wonder why?

I do agree however that should the Tories gain power the UK will still continue down the present path of crime, terrorism, social collapse and community breakdown.

It's already gone too far.

Carl

Tough on airbrushing, tough on the causes of airbrushing.

paulg

You make it sound like populism is a bad thing! I can’t understand why David Cameron would not respond to concerns and worries of his natural constituency in light of the terrible injustices that homeowners defending their homes have had to endure.

If David Cameron decides to restate a simple premis that is the corner stone of conservative belief; considering that he is the leader of the conservative party, this hardly constitutes sacrificing your principles.

I think your being bashful because rational self-interest says you’ll be voting conservative just like the rest of us, I think all your bridges with the left have been burnt etc etc.

David

Desperation? He's 10 points ahead.

"Please forgive the facetiousness"

No- since he didn't say anything like that at all, and you are indeed conflating two seperate issues.

Sounds as if you are worried he's going to win.

Old Slaughter

Exactly Rod.

The heir to Blair indeed.

The candidate of tomorrow became yesterday's man the moment Lehman Brothers collapsed.

Instead of a leader we have a performer. Again.

Hague really should have bided his time.

Dixon

I hear Kenyans are bloody good at fixing things that are broken!

Noa Zrk

Careful Rod.

This kind of loose talk will earn you a midnight visit from the Millbank gaulieters.

Lee Jakeman

Cameron will be Britain's last prime minister.

Haven't figured out yet who will be England's first.

DougS

'...On the same day as his stuff about burglars he softened the Tory line on spending cuts; actually there won’t be swingeing cuts, he said, far from it....'

Only politicians believe that we can go on spending money we don't have (it's called more borrowing). Like the £1.5 billion that Gordon Brown boasted about giving away at Copenhagen. I'd make a start cutting out anybody whose salary is paid out of taxes, that has 'Global Warming' or 'Climate Change' in their job title.

Ed Miliband would be my very first cut!

Jack Sprat

David Cameron did say that he wouldn't make 'swingeing' cuts in the first year of his term. Nowhere did he say he wouldn't introduce them at all. Perhaps he'd prefer to have time to see where they're most needed... Of course at this point he has to tread carefully, especially with the media sharks circling underneath, ever ready to put the boot in. Seems like you might be the spastic windmill, Rod. Lashing around looking for a story where none really exists.

rod liddle

David - I'm not conflating the two issues, I'm reporting them. With comment, obviously. How about this for a new Tory PM, with apologies to Philip Larkin's unpublished ouvre:

Lower all taxes
Bring back the cat
Close all the quangoes
How about that?

Edward McLaughlin

A structurally impaired windmill if you please.

jon ryan

Rachel suggests:

“One idea I have I want to launch today with as many here as will join me.
It is said that if the next set of statistics for gross domestic product fall below zero, Gordon is almost guaranteed gone. (I simply don’t believe the 0.1 per cent rise we were told of last week. It was so pitiful it sounded like massaging of the highest order just so Treasury people could say we were out of recession.)
So we collectively, if we so wish, can help to drag Britain back into recession for just this next quarter. It gets rid of Gordon while giving Dave no real mandate. How about it?
If you have any purchases you can delay for a couple of months, then do so. The snow has apparently already given us a head start on reducing GDP so let’s delay buying anything that will wait until April and it will be we the people who finally knock the Brown terror out of his bunker.”

British GDP is $2.674 trillion (2008 est. nom.) 0.1% is $2,674,000,000.

Good luck with making a dent!

Verity

Wilhelm - Why cannot the British understand that the United States are 50 different jurisdictions? If you shot a burglar in The People's Republic of Massachusetts, for example, you would be tried for murder or manslaughter.

BTW, Cameron said that the minute a burglar enters someone else's home, he leaves his human rights at the door. Well, no, that's not true, and Dave knew it isn't true when he said it. The EHRA ensures that the burglar will be just fine and can sue the householder if said householder lays a hand on him.

Dave knows this.

He knew it when he said it. If he'd said he'd dump the EHRA, then his statement would have had some ballast. But he didn't. And he won't.

Both William Hague and John Redwood are seasoned enough politicians to be able to step into the role of Party Leader at a moment's notice.

David Cameron is a vote loser - and this makes him hazardous to the health of the nation. He has to go.

Radgie Gadgie

......which is why I say dont vote for any of the big 3. If they arent taking us seriously or treating us as sentient beings, their phony manifestos should be flung back in their faces with the message. Try again..must do better especially the Tories who are evading their responsibilities with regard to reversing the failure and poison of liebour's administrations.

Baron

Jack Sprat @ 4.39:

One cuts when one’s in number 10, not before an election when it frightens voters, who may feel to be the potential victims. Elementary, really.

One focuses on issues that bother every and each voter such as crime, the global warming scare, the EU, immigration. Common sense, really.

Simon Denis

I'll have a very clear idea of what I'm voting for, Mr Liddle - the expulsion from office of Mandelson and Brown. Like many on the right, I hold out little hope that the problems of society can be put right; all we can usually do is to prevent them from getting worse. Labour, in my view, brings instant, widespread and accelerating deterioration whenever it attains power and the task is therefore to get in its way as much as possible. Cameron appeals as the most likely impediment to the left's ambition. A dynamic force he ain't. Of course, there are those rare and freakish occasions when progress takes place and capitalism is acknowledged and restored. The eighties were a prolonged and glorious moment of precisely this sort of good sense - at least in this country. As such, they spoiled us. We came to imagine that leaders were honest and competent and brave - because Lady Thatcher was all those things. After the poisonous years of New Labour, I don't suppose I shall ever again believe that politics can achieve a positive outcome. This is not merely because of the way in which the Blair/Brown administration has behaved, but because of the way in which it has stitched us up, even to the point of restricting the right to complain about it. Did most of us yearn for demographic transformation? Were there crowds demanding the cession of sovreignty to Brussels? We got 'em all the same. In this election, therefore, with a cynicism of which I once thought myself incapable, I shall support the major party which I regard as the least nauseating of the three - and perhaps the degree to which the current Conservatives will irk my stomach is merely a matter of time.

Dixon

I dont know about hug a hoodie. He might misunderstand my intentions.But when will Dave declare its OK to hug a hijab! I see plenty huggable ones down the shops. Especially the Somali ones! Wow, the legs on them! Come on, give us the get go Dave!

Daniel Heslop

Fed up with Coke? try Pepsi... sigh

David Ossitt

“But has there ever been a leader so divorced from even a semblance of principle or ideology? Has a leader ever flip-flopped more cynically?”

The answer to your first question Rod; is, without doubt a resounding yes, the man who has proved time and again that he has no principals what so ever, that master of subterfuge, our very own Anthony Charles Lynton Blair.

Yes to your second question; the man who has made an art form of the flip-flop, our present World Leader, Gordon (the bastard) Brown.

Please set harder questions in future; these two, were far too easy.

Fergus Pickering

Ah Rod, and if we were to vote for you, whatwould we get? Well, I know you are just a scribbler and you can say one thing on Monday, another thing on Wednesday and take them both back on Friday. Come on Rod. You don't even have the nerve to quote what Larkin ACTUALLY said. A vote winner, I'd say. But, to tell you the truth, I don't altogether approve. I think dave's a decent stick and flip-flop to me sounds fine. Pragmatism, don't you know. Chuchill, bless him, flip-flopped like anything.

Baron

Radgie Gadgie’s idea at 5.50 appeals the most.

The materiality of the right to vote allows for the withholding of the vote. If policies of the big three on any of the troubling issues fall sufficiently outside one’s convictions, that’s the proper and morally defensible way to go. The argument that if one doesn’t vote one mustn’t grumble doesn’t cut it. If cars manufactured by all the makers were crap, would one have to buy one to be critical of the abysmal performance of what’s on offer by any of them?

To vote Tory, vacuous of deep convictions, strategy that inspires and already wobbling when out of office, to get a differently coloured replica of Labour’s polices seems to make little sense. It’s not nibbling at the edges here and there, it’s a wholesale change in the underpinning philosophy of governance that’s needed. One can sense a trace of it in people like Hannan (have a peep at his blog on the DT site), but not in Cameron and his merry men.

Dixon

"Simon Denis
February 1st, 2010 6:30pm
I'll have a very clear idea of what I'm voting for, Mr Liddle - the expulsion from office of Mandelson and Brown."

"
Simon Denis
February 1st, 2010 6:30pm
I'll have a very clear idea of what I'm voting for, Mr Liddle - the expulsion from office of Mandelson and Brown."

Two old proverbs you would do well to remember, Simon,:
1)The devil you know...
and
2)One demon out lets twelve demons in.

Verity

Baron - I, too, was very struck by Hannan's blog today in The Telegraph and recommended it elsewhere on this site.

Hannan is definitely part of the solution.

Baron

Verity @ 10.37:

it was your recommendation that I followed, and have now bookmarked his blog for regular visits. You’re spot on, the guy’s wasted in Europe, he should be standing for election in our little patch.

David Alexander

Don't vote for Cameron.

Let's go for the Nuclear option, let Gordon get in for another Labour term & flush out the faux Tories.

Graeme Thompson

Anyone would think Cameron is running for the editorship of the Independent!

Ed West

The trick is to have lots of pictures around your house of Spartan warriors painted in erotic style a la Saddam Hussein's wall painting, plus a couple of Mexican wrestling masks and handcuffs, and a Liberal Democrat membership card. That's as good a deterrent to the average yoof as any dog named after a boxer.

Adam

No is the answer to your question. i don't know what he believes in or what the party stands for!! In fact we are getting so many drafts of the manifesto that i don't think the chap writing it knows what the party stands for!

John Jones

It's pathetic stuff from Cameron

Ed

Graeme Thompson, February 2nd, 2010 10:10am
"Anyone would think Cameron is running for the editorship of the Independent!"

Yes, If you listen very carefully you can hear the sound of one hand clutching at straws.

ROBERT TAGGART

CAMERON = BLIAR... MARK TWO !

Wily Seatrout Cole

There's been a long period of silence from Mr Liddle.. hope he hasn't been set upon by angry Guardian readers/Indy readers/female MPs/...or is it interview time?

AngloWelshDragon

A soldier we know keeps a rolled up glossy magazine, pushed through a napkin ring, under his bed as a cosh for intruders. It is so tightly rolled it can do some serious damage but when the police arive you take off the napkin ring and say "I only hit him with Homes and Gardens - reasonable force officer!"

AngloWelshDragon

Dixon

How do you know the hijab wearing somalis have great legs? I have a vision of you mooching round the shops with one of those mirrors on a stick which bomb disposal experts use to look under cars!

Pete

OT.
I see that your good friend Dianne Abbott had a personal go at you on This Week - to the extent that Andrew Neil had to make excuses for her - nasty bitch isn't she?

Rupert Fotherington-Smythe

I do find it strange that the Tories (not my natural home, as it were) are not millions of miles ahead in the polls. They're pushing at an open door, for Gods sake. But I have got one gnawing question: what actually do they stand for, these days? You never get any policies of substance from them. (Obviously, we know the Form.)

Barry

AngloWelshDragon "Dixon - How do you know the hijab wearing somalis have great legs?"

He runs the new scanner at Manchester airport. How about putting a few pics on youtube? That should be good for a riot or two.

Bill Corr

Cameron-Kinnock is a leader totally divorced from even a semblance of principle or ideology.

Whatever will look appealing on tomorrow's front page will do just fine.

Meanwhile, focus groups are busy identifying issues so that Cameron-Kinnock can launch a bold new policy initiative at the opportune moment.

Amanda in America

Ed West: Yes, and a bunch of Samurai swords on the wall could be discouraging, as well -- but you'd better hope the burglar doesn't grab one.

I have a Boxer with a chest like Dolly Parton's (only without the cleavage!), and though she is little for a Boxer she loves us to death, and no doubt to the death, though frankly I am more concerned about sparing her upset than making her work as a guard dog. Nonetheless, she *is* a guard dog, with a huge bark and probably a bite that would spoil any burglar's tattoo. She sleeps with us so any burglar would have to deal with her before he could deal with us.

I'll just add that burglaries at night are extremely rare where I live (TX), burglars knowing that homeowners are very likely armed. If you break into my house I consider you capable of anything and all bets are off. As it happens I don't have guns nor know how to fire one, but I'm non-native, and I'm the exception in my neighbourhood.

When I was called up for jury duty last year, we were all asked during jury selection whether we possessed any guns (it was relevant to the case). I was amazed that in a room of about 60 potential jurors, over half of them had handguns, rifles, shotguns, or a combination thereof -- and only two or three were licensed. (For some reason they felt free to say in this setting that some guns weren't licensed; also you only need a license for a handgun).

Upshot: Texans are armed to the teeth. Criminals know it. They still commit crime, but they try to do it when the victim is not at home and not at night, when any resident is much more likely to shoot first and fill in the police report later.

Amanda in America

Hey -- I didn't realize this till just now, but I've got a funny in my post:

'Upshot: Texans are armed to the teeth.'

Upshot: get it?

Ha ha ha

Time now to get safe with my Boxer lovey.

Sing along with Elvis (no I am not in wine: no, not much):

You ain't nothin' but a lamb-dog
Snugglin' all the time....,/i>

stephen maybery

It is not a question of what we will get if Cameron is elected to the premiership, but more of what we will not get. What we will not get is bum faced Brown and his entourage of town hall trots poxed to the eyeballs with political correctness. What we will not get is Harriet Harman insisting that the scrum half is a one legged lesbian and to get any sort of job you either have to be as bent as a corkscrew or common as muck and illiterate.

I could go on but my blood pressure is playing up to the extent that I must stop reading the papers if I am to avoid a siezure. I just look foreward to election day when I shall say "A pox on both your houses", then go out and vote for UKIP. This will not make any difference to the decline of the Nation but I am sure my health will improve thus rscuing me from the ministrations of a night doctor who can not speak English

Bill Corr

Cameron is beyond belief. Unless he has been totally misquoted, he is in favour of offering asylum to every African who can remember how to recite, "I am a homosexual fleeing homophobic persecution in fear of my life."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1248484/Cameron-Gay-refugees-Africa-given-asylum-UK.html

C Cole

Rachael, I like your style: a kind of general GDP strike with the aim of deposing Gordo. If we can persuade the bloke who got Rage Against The Machine to Christmas number one to start up a Facebook group, I think it might have legs.

Maybe I'm getting confused about how these things are measured, but when I heard about the 0.1 per cent growth, I assumed that Christmas must have had something to do with it and that as such the figures represented a false trend.

So it strikes me that there's every chance the economy isn't really growing yet, and that people are busy tightening their belts as they pay off the festive credit card bill even as we speak.

Verity

Amanda in America - I lived in Texas, and one night I had an intruder in my yard who was actually trying a window, and called the police.

When they came out, one of their first questions was "Where do you keep your gun?"

I showed them the drawer in the bedside table, and they said, "Well, best keep it out on top of the table for tonight."

They also cautioned me: "If you shoot him, shoot to kill.

Amanda, get a gun and learn how to shoot it. I wasn't a native either, but this is a privilege and a freedom that has been slid out from under you in Britain.

John H

Verity, you aint kidding. I recall a few years ago a visiting Glaswegian got lost in Houston, Texas and knocked on a door to ask the way. The householder shot him dead, through the door. The judiciary agreed this was a reasonable thing to do and let him off. It's not only burglars who lose their human rights when guns are freely available. But I'm probably going to vote UKIP, unless I can find a Tory candidate who addresses the issues which concern me - including a sensible attitude to human rights, racism' etc.

Verity

John H - Garbage.

No householder in Texas is going to shoot someone who "knocks at the door" -- by which I assume you mean rings the doorbell. Burglars don't "knock at the door" in Texas because the person on the other side of the door is likely to be armed. Geddit? The burglar in Houston knows this. He waits until a house is empty (and even then, is aware that the neighbours may be watching).

The householder knows that the burglar knows this. Therefore, burglars don't "knock at the door", to put it in pre-doorbell terms.

A Texan would answer someone "knocking at the door" because it could be their pastor; a boy scout collecting money - or someone collecting money for cancer research or giving out voting forms for the election for the schoolboard, or doing a survey on foreign morons.

Texans do not shoot these people. People who announce themselves as visitors do not get shot.

And why would your "Glaswegian" go into a neighbourhood and "knock" on a door when there are dozens of well-lit strip malls, gas stations and 7-11s to pull in to and ask? And don't try to tell me he was on foot. In Houston?

No Texas householder would "shoot through the door", you moron. That would be illegal. The perp has to have put a foot over your threshhold before you can shoot him. And you would have to prove that you didn't know this person.

Your post is such rubbish I don't even know where to begin, but one thing is sure, I would bet a million dollars you had never been to Texas in your life. In fact have you ever been out of England?

Or your county?

Angry, resentful, ignorant little people like you trying to denigrate freedom and self-reliance really irritate me.

JAH

Good old Dave, who needs a soap box on the run up to the election when he can just keep jumping from one band wagon to the next

Amanda in America

I just wanted to comment that Verity's rebuttal re: the shot Glaswegian is correct on all points. I say this as someone that lives in Houston.

And one day, Verity, I am sure that I will learn to shoot.