Posts tagged David Cameron

Cameron should scrap NHS bill and drop Lansley, says influential Tory blog

The Guardian:

Tim Montgomerie, the editor of ConservativeHome, said in a post published on Friday that Lansley, the health secretary, had failed to win public support for the legislation and that, if the Tories did not back down, every problem with the NHS over the next three years would be blamed on the bill.

Even if everything in the government bill is not a bad idea, the bill has now reached such epic scales of disapproval (some justified, some less so) that it seems folly to press ahead. The political damage from a u-turn will be far less then pressing ahead with a bill which clearly doesn’t have the level of support from both health professionals and the general public. Come on Cameron, show yourself to be a true leader and change course.

Cameron Does God

This is a good post addressing some of the over-the-top, negative reaction to Cameron’s comments on Christianity.

Any PM would have done as Cameron did

John Rentoul in The Independent:

The Labour argument is that the Prime Minister has bought short-term popularity with Eurosceptic backbenchers and the press at the expense of Britain’s long-term interests. That may be right. There is a danger in isolation, but it seems more likely that, over the next three to 10 years, Cameron will be vindicated. I cannot see the fiscal compact ending happily. I cannot see it starting happily, come to that.

Interesting piece, highlighting that it’s not just Euro-sceptics who think Cameron made the right call.

Euro crisis summit: The night Europe changed

Gavin Hewitt, BBC News:

Last night most of Europe’s governments gave up a chunk of their sovereignty. In the future, tax and spending plans will be shown to European officials before national governments.

There will be automatic sanctions against those countries that overspend. A monetary union has moved towards being also a fiscal union.

Good article looking at the implications of last nights events in Brussels.

The night before the chancellor’s autumn statement

Pretty funny (in and economic in-joke kind of way) piece by Tim Harford. Here’s how it starts out:

In an act of last-minute desperation, the prime minister decides to replace his chancellor George Osborne with a figure judged to have broader political appeal: Santa Claus. (The decision was approved by a committee of Liberal Democrats.) The FT can now present a transcript of the conversation the night before the chancellor’s autumn statement.

Follow the link to read the transcript.

David Cameron explains why we should continue to offer international aid

David Cameron:

In the time it takes to read this article, 15 children in the world’s poorest countries will die from a preventable disease like diarrhoea or pneumonia. We would not stand for that at home. And we should not stand for it anywhere, especially as Britain has the tools, the expertise, and yes, the money, to stop it happening.

I’ve said it before, but I’m a full believer in the importance of maintaining and indeed increasing international aid. We can afford to do something and it is right to do what we can. Of course we have needs here in the UK, but we are also an incredibly priveledged nation with so much more than so many others in poorer parts of the world.

Ed Miliband: "It is not that he is terrible, just that he is completely ill-defined"

Interesting piece in the Guardian picking up on Ed Miliband’s really poor performance at Prime Ministers Questions this week and exploring whether he was the right choice as Labour leader:

It was a day on which the cards had seemed stacked in his favour: David Cameron’s coalition had just performed two big U-turns on health and criminal justice and were all at sea on policy. It seemed as good as it could get for an opposition leader at PMQs. But Miliband failed to land a single serious blow and it was Tories who roared the house down.

The line which I’ve used as the title of this post rally nailed it for me: “It is not that he is terrible, just that he is completely ill-defined”. I’m just not sure what he stands for and as a result he inevitably comes across as weak.

David Cameron hits out at world leaders over international aid

I for one am very pleased that Cameron is keeping the commitments that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown made:

The UK contributed £8.5 billion last year, which is 0.56 per cent of gross domestic product. That compares with Germany’s £7.8bn, which is only 0.38 per cent of GDP; America’s £18.5bnm which is 0.21 per cent.

…

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We made a clear commitment that we wouldn’t balance the budget on the backs of the world’s poorest. We’ve made promises and we need to stick to them.”

It is sad to see that the Daily Mail is deriding the fact that Britain tops all the countries in the world for international aid as a percentage of GDP. It’s something we should be proud of.

Liam Fox challenges David Cameron's overseas aid spending targets

From The Guardian:

In a letter to the prime minister, Fox argued that creating a statutory requirement to spend 0.7% of national income on official development assistance (ODA) from 2013 will open the government up to legal challenges.

I really hope Cameron doesn’t buckle on this one.

Simon Jenkins on David Cameron

Simon Jenkins at The Guardian:

While much is promised and little as yet delivered, the coalition has begun a slaughterhouse of sacred cows that have been meandering across the public sector munching gold for half a century. For Cameron to have attacked them head-on, and in the first term of a minority government, is to his credit.

Fascinating profile of David Cameron.

David Cameron: No party has a monopoly on caring

David Cameron writing at ConservativeHome:

We also believe in compassion. No party has a monopoly on caring, but I think as Conservatives we should be particularly proud of some of the commitments we have stuck to this past year. We are protecting the NHS from cuts because we know that for so many people it is literally a lifeline. And we have also protected our aid budget because, likewise, for so many people it is a lifeline too. And this party should be proud that because of the decisions we have taken in government, in four years’ time we will not have just paid down the deficit – this country will also have vaccinated more of the world’s poorest children than there are people in the whole of England.

I know that the Tory haters will be in uproar about statements like this but, if nothing else, I think Cameron is absolutely right that no party has a monopoly on caring. Linked with this, it’s scary how many people seem to seriously think that all Tories hate the poor. The arrogance of some people to view an entire political grouping of people in such a prejudiced and blinkered way is shocking.

Do the Tories always get it right of issues of poverty and social justice? No. Of course not. Are there some on the far right who couldn’t give a damn about the poor and only think about themselves? Sure. Just like there are on the left too. But I have no doubt that at the heart of the Tory party is a core of people who believe in compassion and want to create a country that brings opportunity to everyone. (Just to be clear, I believe the same is true at the core of all the leading political parties too.)

What if our political debate started from this place? A place where we believe the best about the majority of peoples motivations rather than tainting the majority on the basis of a few on the fringes? What if instead of hating, we chose to embrace the reality that in most instances our politicians from all parties are sincerely wanting to make the United Kingdom a better place? They - and we - might disagree on both the methods and indeed the desired outcome, but if we could at least recognise the shared motivations, maybe, just maybe, there could be a much great civility to our debate.

One year on: Interview with David Cameron

The Sun gets an interview with Cameron to mark one year since the forming of the coalition government.