Osborne
Bye bye Dave - traitor!
I always quite liked David Cameron. He might not have been an intellectual heavyweight or very convincing conviction politician but he was a safe pair of hands and pretty slick. I was very much on his side. However I think he made a grave mistake the way he handled Brexit. Not only for the sake of the country but also his own career. He made a spectacular miscalculation and paid for it with his job and the outcome he never wanted thrown in.
He had to call for the referendum. UKIP forced that upon him. He had no choice. Half the people of Europe were against the EU, maybe more. Democracy had to be seen to be done and he thought he could win in any case. He had won another election against the odds and was riding on the crest of a wave. What could possibly stop him? He made all the right noises but was very Pro-EU, no doubt he could see the gravy train heading on a useful route for him in the near future having already said this would be his last term. He did accept there were challenges and the EU needed reform, but we were influential and maybe the unrest caused by UKIP and the upcoming vote could help him get a ‘better deal’ from the EU into the bargain as well. This was a win-win for Dave. What could possibly go wrong?
For me his first mistake was to go around Europe with his cap in hand asking for very, very modest concessions and getting far less. He returned like Neville Chamberlin waving his own piece of paper and no one was impressed in the slightest. Far from bolstering his argument he undermined it and proved just how little influence we had and how little the EU machine valued their second biggest financial contributor. As I had always believed we were taken very much for granted. As the rich fool who didn’t want to rock the boat whilst the Germans and French used their positions to build their industrial base and protect their farmers respectively. We were the nice retirement home, the place people could always escape to if necessary and get looked after if they were to suffer ill health. We would not vote to leave the club. Dave would do his bit and his friends would all scare us to death. We wouldn’t dare vote to leave.
Secondly I believe Dave should have acted far more as an even handed broker. This way he could have still discussed both sides of the argument without nailing his colours to the mast and tie his own future to a particular outcome one way or another. Why he didn’t do this I don’t know. If he thought he could lose I am sure he might have taken this option. He must have been so cock sure that he didn’t think it was necessary. He also would have had far more chance of gaining concessions from his Euro-Pals if he had any idea how to negotiate - more of this later - but he was already ‘all in’ and had nowhere to go. But he had his team behind him. Boris, etc. Only that swivel-eyed, racist Farage to worry about. When the worm turned, for whatever reason, the task was far tougher than it would have been with the backing of the universally popular Boris Johnson - but by then it was too late to change tack.
The worst thing however was the betrayal of the British people and his immediate resignation within days of the result. He had promised to stay. Many on both sides hoped he would and I felt myself he should carry through the wishes of the people as he had promised. He went and soon resigned as an MP too. That was his end. One he could hardly have predicted but largely deserved for failing so spectacularly with Brexit. He let the country down not once, not twice but thrice. Ironically his failure was one of the few things that people on both sides agreed upon. If he were a bigger man maybe he could have carried through his responsibilities as he promised. Stories about his motives appeared in the press. Surely it can’t be true that he was simply passing the buck and giving someone else the headache on triggering Article 50 which we are now just starting to hear about for the first time? Months later it looks very, very like this was precisely the plan and he sacrificed himself as a final card to maybe dodge democracy and allow the UK to remain in the EU Dream State. Let’s hope it’s the final error he will have made…
He had to call for the referendum. UKIP forced that upon him. He had no choice. Half the people of Europe were against the EU, maybe more. Democracy had to be seen to be done and he thought he could win in any case. He had won another election against the odds and was riding on the crest of a wave. What could possibly stop him? He made all the right noises but was very Pro-EU, no doubt he could see the gravy train heading on a useful route for him in the near future having already said this would be his last term. He did accept there were challenges and the EU needed reform, but we were influential and maybe the unrest caused by UKIP and the upcoming vote could help him get a ‘better deal’ from the EU into the bargain as well. This was a win-win for Dave. What could possibly go wrong?
For me his first mistake was to go around Europe with his cap in hand asking for very, very modest concessions and getting far less. He returned like Neville Chamberlin waving his own piece of paper and no one was impressed in the slightest. Far from bolstering his argument he undermined it and proved just how little influence we had and how little the EU machine valued their second biggest financial contributor. As I had always believed we were taken very much for granted. As the rich fool who didn’t want to rock the boat whilst the Germans and French used their positions to build their industrial base and protect their farmers respectively. We were the nice retirement home, the place people could always escape to if necessary and get looked after if they were to suffer ill health. We would not vote to leave the club. Dave would do his bit and his friends would all scare us to death. We wouldn’t dare vote to leave.
Secondly I believe Dave should have acted far more as an even handed broker. This way he could have still discussed both sides of the argument without nailing his colours to the mast and tie his own future to a particular outcome one way or another. Why he didn’t do this I don’t know. If he thought he could lose I am sure he might have taken this option. He must have been so cock sure that he didn’t think it was necessary. He also would have had far more chance of gaining concessions from his Euro-Pals if he had any idea how to negotiate - more of this later - but he was already ‘all in’ and had nowhere to go. But he had his team behind him. Boris, etc. Only that swivel-eyed, racist Farage to worry about. When the worm turned, for whatever reason, the task was far tougher than it would have been with the backing of the universally popular Boris Johnson - but by then it was too late to change tack.
The worst thing however was the betrayal of the British people and his immediate resignation within days of the result. He had promised to stay. Many on both sides hoped he would and I felt myself he should carry through the wishes of the people as he had promised. He went and soon resigned as an MP too. That was his end. One he could hardly have predicted but largely deserved for failing so spectacularly with Brexit. He let the country down not once, not twice but thrice. Ironically his failure was one of the few things that people on both sides agreed upon. If he were a bigger man maybe he could have carried through his responsibilities as he promised. Stories about his motives appeared in the press. Surely it can’t be true that he was simply passing the buck and giving someone else the headache on triggering Article 50 which we are now just starting to hear about for the first time? Months later it looks very, very like this was precisely the plan and he sacrificed himself as a final card to maybe dodge democracy and allow the UK to remain in the EU Dream State. Let’s hope it’s the final error he will have made…