By Elliott West
“I want to help him to deliver the security and prosperity our country needs and be part of the strongest possible team that serves the United Kingdom and that can be presented to the country when the general election is held”.
David Cameron
Introduction
I have lived through many trials and tribulations in British politics in my 52 years and like the dying days of the John Major government in 1997, this current Conservative government looks like it is preparing itself for the opposition benches in the next 12 months when a general election is called. Many Conservative MPs are saving face and have announced their intention to not stand at the next election. With five Prime Ministers put up to lead the party, none have enriched this country in any shape or form, failing to understand how real society ticks. Instead, they continue to put power and personal ambition above what matters, fixing the nation. These posh boys only know what is going on in the tea rooms and bars in Westminster or the lavish surroundings of the private members’ clubs such as the Carlton Club. A party whose members have an average age of over 60.
I have never voted Conservative and never will. I have been a Labour Party member since the age of 17 and have stuck with them through the good and bad times. Yet it is equally important to hold whatever government of any political persuasion to account and I am sorry that these 13 years have been full of pain. From Cameron to Sunak, the British electorate has been inflicted with austerity, Brexit and Covid regulations that were broken by the Johnson government. The Cost of Living Crisis has been dealt with by giving payments that just scrape the surface and many in the public sector have felt the need to strike, just to try and get a half-decent pay rise. So Sunak’s slogan of a time for change is farcical. This is just repackaged Tory politics under a new leader. Sunak only appears to the media when has to and makes a farce of politics by having been given the position by a section of his party without the Conservative membership or the general public through a general election having their say.
Desperation Street
The comments by the now-former Home Secretary, Suella Braverman left her in extremely hot water with the Prime Minister under extreme pressure to sack her. His solution was to spend almost a week keeping the media and the public in the dark. On the Monday morning, an imminent cabinet reshuffle was rumoured and as per a well-rehearsed stage show, Braverman was sacked, citing her comment on homelessness, describing it as a “lifestyle choice”, forgetting all the other offensive comments she has made. Sunak then replaced her with James Cleverley, moving him from the Foreign Office to the Home Office.
The cat of the bag decision, not the Downing Street cat, Larry was to bring David Cameron back to the cabinet. A Prime Minister who had to resign because of the Brexit referendum and still tarnished with his involvement in the Greeensill lobbying scandal from 2020. A scandal where the former Prime Minister lobbied Rishi Sunak, then Chancellor of the Exchequer to allow Greensill to join the Covid Corporate Financing Facility. Cameron can’t appear in the House of Commons to be questioned and scrutinised by MPs. It will be up to his number two, Andrew Mitchell to do this. The former Prime Minister can only answer letters, and emails and appear before Select Committees and in the House of Lords. Greensill was enbroiled in a government loan scheme was initiated to support companies during the pandemic-related economic recession. A man who admitted recently that he stashed £30,000 in his Dad’s tax-free fund in the Bahamas.
Cameron who left government seven years ago and is neither an MP nor a member of the House of Lords, accepted the post after a deal brokered by William Hague. Given a life peerage to allow him to take the position, Cameron joins a whole list of people who come from a public school education and have enlisted because they are allies of Rishi rather than potential thorns in Sunak’s side. The last roll of the dice from a Prime Minister who knows his days are numbered either ousted by a late leadership challenge or a bruising general election defeat.
The Same Old Ways
The Conservative Party just seems to lurch further and further to the right, hellbent on sending illegal immigrants to Riwanda, a policy that can only be deemed unlawful by the Supreme Court. A decision that many in the party think they may lose. This probably why Sunak sacked Braverman early to stop her going on her own terms. Rishi is frankly a wooden politician who make odd decisions with odd timings, standing against a red wall where the bricks are crumbling, eroded by numerous by election defeats. By bringing back Cameron, he risks being dwarfed by his predecessor, a man who loves to bask in the media, who loves to cosy up to China and failed to bring peace in Libya and Syria.
This centre-left takeover of the Conservative party is like getting in a Tardis and going back a decade. Brown politics that is frankly bland, appealing to the shires and the home counties of the South to vote for them again in their droves. The Labour Party can sit back for now and watch the government implode but they will have to present a concrete, credible alternative in the next months if they are to pull off the sizeable victory that the opinion polls keep predicting. The Labour Party has buried the ghost of Jeremy Corbyn and rebuilt the party but it still has to prove that it is not one of borrowing and the division that tore it apart in the past. It is united for now because even the left of the party wants to win the election. Keir Starmer is their best hope but he has to define himself and show what he wants to achieve. A party that embraces the working class, supports trade unions and gives a brighter set of policies that are bold and progressive.
Afterthoughts
I don’t think this rejig will work and is just heading for the political buffers. The Conservative Party is like a bath where the plug has been pulled out and the water is slowly going down. Frankly, all these new appointments are people who have played their part in past visions of the Tory dogma. All tainted by the same brush and no new visions for exciting and radical policies. The recent State Opening of Parliament revealed a list of forthcoming bills that will increase the smoking age, a minimum service bill during industrial action for certain industries and more stringent prison sentences for the more heinous crimes but on the whole was a programme that much of the proposed will not happen in the tight parliamentary timetable that exists before the next election.
With an Autumn Statement in the offing, it seems unlikely that tax cuts won’t happen for many and just for businesses. Little can happen to improve peoples’ lives because of the fragile state of the economy and even if Labour do win the next election, they will be constrained by any bold policies they may announce between now and the election. It will take a different way of working before any of those affected by the economic pressures, feel the benefits. The electorate are sick of broken promises and manifestos that not worth the paper they are written on. We need change and a type of politics that produces results rather than half-baked solutions.
