If you want to know what I think about politics, what approach I think government should be taking, and what I would like to hear from the lips of the Prime Minister of this country, go and read this.
The link is to Cameron's speech today. I heard snippets during the day, and liked what I heard. So I've now read it in full, and wholeheartedly support it.
I heard during the afternoon that this had been the introductory music:
So, just for fun, before I set off home from the office, I downloaded a copy and put it on the iPod for the journey home. And what an inspired choice it was by the Tories:
The link is to Cameron's speech today. I heard snippets during the day, and liked what I heard. So I've now read it in full, and wholeheartedly support it.
I heard during the afternoon that this had been the introductory music:
So, just for fun, before I set off home from the office, I downloaded a copy and put it on the iPod for the journey home. And what an inspired choice it was by the Tories:
"Mr Blue Sky, please tell us why
You had to hide away, for so long, so long
Where did we go wrong..."
And then it hit me. I realised what has happened to me over the last 12 years. Initially, I disliked Labour. I thought they were wrong, misguided. But slowly, surely, I grew to hate them. Now, that is not a word I use lightly, but here I mean it; I really do. I hate, viscerally hate, what they have done to our country and its institutions. A government founded on lies, on hypocrisy, on vanity, on idiocy. A government that I hate.
Worse, it is a government that has insinuated itself into every nook and cranny. Every part of the life of this country has been touched by their hypocrisy, their incompetence, their idiotic controllery. Only last Sunday, I looked at the note inviting Master Patently to a local boys' event, and saw the apologetic comment that, sadly, the organisers could not arrange lifts. Everywhere I look, I now see Labour. In every part of the public life of this country, I see the object of my hatred.
And that has meant that, slowly, I have grown to hate this country and what it has become. I am not proud of my country; I am not proud of what we have done or what we have achieved, because I do believe that we have done the wrong things and achieved little.
How sad, to hate the country of your birth; the country that, when I was young, I wanted to fight for, to offer my life for. What a lonely place to occupy.
So the imagery of a blue sky opening up ahead did not just strike me as clever (which I think it was), it told me that there is now a chance to start to like this nation again. A chance to feel proud of my homeland, proud of what I am, proud of what I stand for.
Hope is a very powerful emotion.
I drove home in tears of joy. Which means I'm glad I didn't go to Conference...
Worse, it is a government that has insinuated itself into every nook and cranny. Every part of the life of this country has been touched by their hypocrisy, their incompetence, their idiotic controllery. Only last Sunday, I looked at the note inviting Master Patently to a local boys' event, and saw the apologetic comment that, sadly, the organisers could not arrange lifts. Everywhere I look, I now see Labour. In every part of the public life of this country, I see the object of my hatred.
And that has meant that, slowly, I have grown to hate this country and what it has become. I am not proud of my country; I am not proud of what we have done or what we have achieved, because I do believe that we have done the wrong things and achieved little.
How sad, to hate the country of your birth; the country that, when I was young, I wanted to fight for, to offer my life for. What a lonely place to occupy.
So the imagery of a blue sky opening up ahead did not just strike me as clever (which I think it was), it told me that there is now a chance to start to like this nation again. A chance to feel proud of my homeland, proud of what I am, proud of what I stand for.
Hope is a very powerful emotion.
I drove home in tears of joy. Which means I'm glad I didn't go to Conference...
It is a great song. It conjures up carefree days, sunny weather and a ride in a car with the roof down.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it was an excellent, well measured, speech. The more I think about it, the more prepared, grounded and focused I think Cameron is and the more encouraged I am about the prospects for this country.
'His hand is on your [Cameron's] shoulder' ..... I wish the Conservatives resounding victories in all the key marginal seats come the day, P.
I hope you are right. Unfortunately I fear that Cameron offers hope but an insufficient real change in attitude.
ReplyDelete"Initially, I disliked Labour. I thought they were wrong, misguided. But slowly, surely, I grew to hate them."
ReplyDeleteSnap, I'm sorry to say. I'm sorry, because hate is an unhealthy emotion.
In an ideal world, I wouldn't think about politics or the state of the nation at all. I'd be apathetic and carefree. But in recent years, I have found that difficult. Partly, because I found myself extrapolating from what we were in 1997, and wondering where we would be in 2020, and getting positively frightened.
And while I'm not sure that I had come to hate Britain, it was becoming obvious that every time I was abroad, I found myself thinking "they do things so much better here than they do at home." And I would talk about what I liked about the USA, or France, or Austria, or wherever. And my wife asked me what I liked about the UK, and I was stumped.
Like Blue Eyes, I hope you are right, but I'm not convinced.
However, I will say this about the Conservative Party Conference, and David Cameron's speech, in particular: For the first time ever, I'm beginning to hope that the Tories under Cameron might turn out not to be New Labour Mark II.
p.s. Mr. Blue Sky was one of my favourite songs of the 70s (though if truth be told, I was always more at home with a Brahms symphony!)
Yes, Blue and Mr B are spot on. Certain dogmas have been defined as de fide for the political classes under Labour. I am afraid that although Mr Cameron will be an improvement, I fear he lacks the real moral conviction to restore basic freedoms and human dignity against these dogmas. I worry that he is at heart a politican and PR man. But perhaps I will be proved wrong.
ReplyDeleteI don't hate my country, but I do feel increasingly that I am a "stranger and exile" here, and Cameron is hardly a new Moses to lead me home.
Certain dogmas have been defined as de fide for the political classes under Labour.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely right, Albert. The most telling line in Cameron's speech was this:
"And let's be clear: not everything Labour did was wrong. Devolution; the minimum wage; civil partnerships, these are good things that we will we keep."
Cough, choke, splutter.
I bet Catholic adoption agencies won't be allowed back either. Preventing Chistians (and others) from working in these fields and depriving children of the excellent services they offered - does Mr Cameron regard this as another "good thing" Labour did? And if he does think that's a good thing - how he can he be a good thing? At best he would then be only a less bad thing - than Gordon Brown! What a boast, what a hope!
ReplyDelete"I do feel increasingly that I am a "stranger and exile" here"
ReplyDeleteI feel very much the same. There is a lot of "consensus opinion" about, a mess of political taboos if you like. Hence the blog.
It's a pig isn't it Blue? There does seem to me to be a very destructive, nihilistic element to certain kinds of socialism. I wonder sometimes, if they actually want us to feel like a "stranger and exile" here, so that we do not love our country or our institutions, or anything else that is of value. Perhaps we should guard against such feelings becoming too strong within us, for if we don't, we may be letting them win; and by such cynicism become like them.
ReplyDeleteAlbert - socialism has always ended as a destructive force. In the end, equality is achieved by lowering everyone to a uniform state of depression.
ReplyDeletePR, You make some very astute observations about how New Labour have made a great deal of us feel but alas I cannot share your optimism for the future under a Cameron led Conservative government. I feel that most of the bad practises and laws brought in under the current Government will remain and I genuinely fear for the future. Too much damage has already been done, its a bit like a cancer that has been allowed to spread and now its too late to cure the patient.
ReplyDelete