Cameron: What He Said And What He Meant

I have a commentary on David Cameron’s speech in The Independent today. Here is some more of it:

There are so many people to thank for this summer. Those that won the bid, those that built the stadia, that ran the Games, and of course: the man who put a smile on our faces, the zinger on the zip-wire, the Conservative Mayor of London: our own Boris Johnson. And those Games Makers, those extraordinary Games Makers. You know, I’ve spent three years trying to explain the Big Society – they did it beautifully in just three weeks. The Olympics, made possible by Labour and exploited ruthlessly by Boris, who is just a comedian, you know. Not that I am humourless, of course. I can laugh at myself. The Big Society? Useless idea.

We made a big decision to protect the NHS from spending cuts. No other party made that commitment. Not Labour. Not the Liberal Democrats. Just us – the Conservatives. I will mention Nick Clegg’s lot once, just to show what a bunch of hypocrites they are. That’ll teach him for scuppering our plan to redraw constituency boundaries.

For years people asked why we couldn’t get rid of those radical preachers who spout hatred about Britain while living off the taxpayer. Well, Theresa May – a great Home Secretary – has done it – and she’s got Abu Hamza on that plane and out of our country to face justice. Look: bad man on plane. Don’t look at Abu Qatada or any of the other ones who are still here.

Line one, rule one of being a Conservative is that it’s not where you’ve come from that counts, it’s where you’re going. We’ve been led by the daughter of a grocer, the son of a music hall performer, by a Jew when Jews were persecuted, by a woman when women were sidelined. We don’t look at the label on the tin; we look at what’s in it. Line one, rule one of image management is to deal directly with the fact that I come from a privileged family and went to Eton.

We don’t preach about one nation but practise class war, we just get behind people who want to get on in life. The doers. The risk takers. The young people who dream of their first pay cheque, their first car, their first home – and are ready and willing to work hard to get those things. While the intellectuals of other parties sneer at people who want to get on in life, we here salute you. That Ed Miliband is a bit preachy, don’t you think? And it is not his fault, but you know his father was – sneer – an intellectual?

If you don’t believe me, just look at the job creation figures. Since this government took office, over one million new jobs have been created in the private sector. That is more – net – in the last two years than Labour managed in ten years. I know you lot believe me, but I’m talking to the cameras. This is a good statistic, although I am not sure where the Treasury got it from.

Did you hear what Ed Miliband said last week about taxes? He described a tax cut as the government writing people a cheque. I hope you don’t mind: I just want to explain it for him. Ed, this is how it works. When people earn money, it’s their money. Not the government’s money: their money. Then, the government takes some of it away in tax. So, if we cut taxes, we’re not giving them money – we’re taking less of it away. OK? He goofed, so I’ll refer to him by name, and never mind that it draws attention to our tax cut for the rich, because I’m a Tory and I believe the benefit will trickle down to the poor.

If we’re going to be a winner in this global race we’ve got to beat off this suffocating bureaucracy once and for all. “Once and for all”? Who put that in? Governments can never win any decisive victories against such amorphous enemies. We Tories know that. But some fool said it was needed for the rhythm of the sentence.

I don’t want great schools to just be the preserve of those that can pay the fees, or buy the nice house in the right catchment area.I want those schools to be open to every child – in every neighbourhood. That should shut up some of those Labour people who go on about my school; they bought houses to get their children into good schools.

To all those people who say: he wants children to have the kind of education he had at his posh school, I say: yes – you’re absolutely right. I went to a great school and I want every child to have a great education. I’m not here to defend privilege, I’m here to spread it. You want to call me “posh”, Ed? Do I look bothered? I am too embarrassed to mention Eton by name, though.

Let us here in this hall, here in this government, together in this country make this pledge – let’s build an aspiration nation. Let’s get Britain on the rise. Blah. Platitude. Gurgle. Standard political boilerplate rhetoric. Bibble.

Recent Posts on Eagle Eye

• Will Angelina Jolie Help End Climate-Change Denial, And Help The Republican Party?
• "The Continuity of the State"
• Why the Treasury thinks the deficit rose last year
• Men of Secrets II
• Men of Secrets

• creggancowboy

  Bahrain, Burma, Cuba, Egypt, Gabon, Sudan, Vietman, Uzbekistan & UK all jail bloggers and tweeters. Now, lets have a hagiography of Yevgeni Lebedev on the Grauniad telling us what a beacon of democracy Britain is.

• ZacMurdoch

  ‘Those that won the bid, those that built the stadia, that ran the Games’

  ‘the preserve of those that can pay the fees’

  Those who, surely, grammar guru?

• merdrignac

  We don’t need intellectuals to get in the way with their ideas and knowledge. No, we’ll just carry on with our mindless destruction of of all those rights and services that the working classes of this country together with the Labour Party, fought so long to establish. The NHS for example was set up in the teeth of vicious opposition from the Tories and the BMA. Any attempted advance in social equity was met with the cry of ‘communist plot’, ‘reds under the bed’ and other such drivel (and still is). The Tories seek to return us to the conditions of a time before these reforms Conditions where the working classes are just fodder to be exploited for profit by a heartless, corporate, ruling class. Conditions where there is no fair return for labour, no provision for ill health or retirement, no hope of advancement, and just no hope. My parents who fought long and hard for their rights, would have been appalled at what this government has done and has yet to do. I’m glad they’re not here to see it, as it would break their hearts, as it’s breaking mine.

• http://www.yahoo.co.uk/ Firozali A.Mulla

  John, have you ever read the Rise and Fall Of The Third Reich. The rise of Germany and fall of the Germany? That is the true story I believe in as I have read this 1600 pages and it is true. Rest I have no comments I would rather say I do not know if the leaders do well but the they are in the limelight always for doing something drastically wrong and we as common men have to look for the solutions that are hidden with the leaders . They have become like preachers sinning all the time I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA

• http://twitter.com/JohnRentoul John Rentoul

  You are, of course, right, but it is more important that we fight the Prime Minister’s tendency to meet with people and to use grow and impact as transitive verbs.

• Pacificweather

  Did the LibDems scupper the boundary changes. I thought that bill passed. Have you got a reference for that?