I think it's been a pretty defining week in the history of this Government.
It started with all that nonsense over Easter when it emerged that while people up and down the country were worried about their jobs, homes and futures, one of the Prime Minister's main advisers was busy cooking up lies to spread about me, my colleagues and our families. After five days, the Prime Minister finally took full responsibility and said sorry. But, in many ways, that's the easy part. The hard part is what comes next - addressing the culture of spin and smear in Downing Street. As anyone who works in an office knows, it's the boss who sets the culture - so Gordon Brown's got to ask himself some serious questions.
And it ended with the Director of Public Prosecutions chucking out the charges against Damian Green. Let's be clear what happened here. An Opposition MP was arrested, and he and his family put through hell, for simply doing his job. It was wrong. He's been vindicated. And the Home Secretary's got to ask herself some serious questions.
Taken together, these episodes demonstrate clearly the need for change. Not, as Gordon Brown would have it, change in some advisers' code or a review into police operations. But a change in leadership at the very top. This lot have been in power far too long - they're out of touch, forgotten who they're serving, what they're in power for and how they're meant to behave. To bring some integrity back to Downing Street, the only answer is an election and a change of government.
More please.
[cue a***licker accusations]
25 comments:
I would love to believe this and if I were a Tory I'd be delighted to hear Cameron saying it. But this is just the sort of stuff that Blair was spouting circa 1995/6. Like him, Cameron is a genius at knowing which way the wind's blowing and saying the right thing. That is no guarantee, of course, that he will do the right thing when he is in power. Like I say, I would love to believe this but I expect Cameron and his colleagues will turn out to be no better than the current mob. On this, and nothing else, Guido is right.
A change of government means no more than new faces playing the same political games; the same spin and obfuscation; the tiresome success claims and denigration of opponents. We haven't heard from Cameron what he intends to do about that. Could we have some answers
Gordon Brown is a Joke of a PM. He seems not to be able to control any facet of his government or is the most duplictous PM ever to have stepped into Number 10.
I know which I think it is! Just go to the Brown blog indicated by Mr Draper in an office i created for him! LOoooooooooooOL!
So the boss sets the tone? I look forward to the next vacuous PR-driven principle-free Conservative government...
Hear hear! We are all sick of it. Roll on the election!
Such a pity that only now are people beginning to say that the culture of self-exoneration has had its day. In fact it should never have started. I am sufficiently decrepit and ancient to recall that in my time the boss carried the can and set the examples.
The only Minister in the past decade who has done that has been Estelle Morris. She'll always be remembered for her courage and dignity in resigning. What will these others be remembered for?
Arselicker....pmsl
Cameron is right. Just a shame he doesn't shout it from the bloody rooftops a bit more often.
Well said Mr Cameron, absolutely right in every regard. Well done Mr Dale for republishing this excellent Blog Post by Mr Cameron.
I hope we now have a period free of personality driven stuff.
Weak.
Politicians and the lobby have stolen our freedom and we want it back. We will not let politicians breathe on the internet if they do not hold themselves truely accountable.
The lobby has let all things we hold dear fall into entropy. They have not protected our freedoms. The lobby hides political failure and our country is now failing.
The lobby is innately corrupt. The system cannot be fixed. As long as humans are involved we cannot trust it. We the public are sick of them. We are sick of the troughing, lieing corrupt politicians and their lobby cohorts.
We want our freedom back. We want the truth again. We do not want to live in the shadow of darkness of New Labour. Democracy only works when there is freedom of information. Democracy is failing because the lobby exists. Smash the lobby.
Eric Pickles has just given a very poor answer to a question on the Damian McBride Affair on Any Questions on Radio 4. He allowed Caroline Flint to dominate with repeated claims that Brown couldn't be held responsible for MacBride's behaviour and that Brown had immediately done the right think in getting rid of MacBride and apologizing.
After his appalling performance on MPs second houses on Question Time I think Tory Central Office should really think again about putting him forward for these high profile programmes.
After five days, the Prime Minister finally took full responsibility and said sorryBut did he say "I am very sorry for what has happened under my command, and the damage it has done you" to those who were smeared? No. As an afterthought, he mumbled a hasty sentence to a TV crew and then ran away. Not the same thing at all.
The Peter Brookes cartoon in the Times puts it very well.
Will make a great PM cant wait for the next election.
Time to get rid of brown and his merry men.
It has to be "Time Out of Mind" from the vastly underrated Gaucho album.
About time cameron called for an election. personally I beleive he should call for a confidence debate. Not much hope of winning i know but it would be a bloody good chance of airing all the issues including the e mail scandal, DGs arrest, cock ups at home office, porn on the tax payer etc etc etc. it would be a good chance to showcase Cam V the dour son of the manse.
The piano piece in the previous post was absolutely beautiful. Is this man's work available to buy in the shops?
"David Cameron writes on the Blue Blog (which, incidentally, has improved beyond all measure)..."
Well if this vacuous drivel is any guide, I shudder to think what it was like before.
Again, it encouraging to see he accepts a need for change.
Again, it is disappointing to see him avoid actually spelling out what means in real terms. The will appears to be there, but does he know the way?
I certainly hope he does and is simply keeping his cards close to his chest. After all, it doesn't matter if you lead opinion polls if you give away your best ideas and then lose an election. The Tories are 10 points up even though we know very little about them. I just hope the stuff he's hiding is good.
Time for a change..yeah shutting Westminster down would be a good start..no point in just changing the Boss of the family thats only business as usual.
'one of the Prime Minister's main advisers was busy cooking up lies to spread about me, my colleagues and our families.'
Not 'vacuous drivel', but a huge political story.
@ anon @9:32
Cameron called for an election in his first public statement concerning Smear-Gate.
Cameron is weak and greedy. He's not going to win an election for the Conservatives no matter how Labour has abused the voters, and no matter how determined the voters are to get them out. People don't like him.
There is no enthusiasm, anywhere ... to repeat ... anywhere for David Cameron. I have never seen a single post on any blog that says, in effect, "Dave, my man!". Nada.
He's a nobody who stands for nothing.
Phil Spectorish, he is currently protected by the Westminster Village wall of sound.
"Not 'vacuous drivel', but a huge political story."
Actually as so far as I know no-one has previously suggested McBride authored the stories (and plainly in at least some cases cannot have)rather than merely passed them on, then it's Dave Lightweight here who is "cooking up lies".
Saves him having to talk about the grown-up stuff I suppose.
Glad to see Verity back here.
I am hoping (it is one of those folorn, life-affirming hopes) that the only problem with Cameron is that he is a Toff. Toffs get their legs cut off in the Serengeti and say things like, "Got a plaster Jimmy, got a bit of a bleed". Toffs can rustle up a cordon bleu meal out of twigs and rat droppings. Toffs say things like, "a bit of an off chap" when they mean "The f**king wa*king c**t"
Let us hope that David Cameron is just being himself, so that when he says he is a bit upset, it means he is very upset indeed.
WV pooted wi
Since, as David Cameron says, "it's the boss who sets the culture", what culture is he setting, and what culture would he set as Prime Minister?
We know that he has at least once had cause to visit a "sexual health clinic". If he was the victim of some sort of assault, then fair enough. But he would probably have made the whole story about that specifically.
We know that he was a member of an organisation dedicated specifically to the criminal offences of drunken and disorderly conduct, criminal damage, and assault.
And we know that he refuses to deny that he has used Class A drugs.
@ David Lindsay
So, visiting a 'sexual health clinic', eh? What's your source? And is it true that you, too, have done so?
So, Cameron 'refuses to deny' something?
I'm sure you'll be able to 'deny' that you were once found fornicating with a donkey, though.
Clown.
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