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A letter to Mr Cameron shared on facebook

(83 Posts)
ayse Sat 09-May-15 11:59:29

Written by a younger person on face book. I thought I would share it with you all.

Dear Prime Minister,

I don't know if you will ever read this, but I have some things I wish to say to you.

You have won the General Election and command a majority in the House of Commons, and as such will feel you have a legitimate mandate to govern. However, you must also know that you don't command a majority of the British people.

Although our political views are very much at odds on many issues, I'm willing to believe that you are a good man, as sure of your ideals as I am of mine, and believe your plan is what's best for us all. You said today that you will govern for the whole country and bring back together that which has clearly fractured. I hope you will.

But Prime Minister, though you can obviously see your party did not win the confidence of Scotland and huge swathes of the north of England, I'm not sure your party quite understands why. It's not because we're all 'loony-left' or extremists and nationalists, it's because so many of us are scared. Scared of what your policies will do to our communities and families. Scared of what will happen to our health service and our schools. Scared of losing our family homes for the sake of a few quid saving from the bedroom tax, or not being able to heat our home and have enough left to buy food.

I don't disagree with you that the best way out of poverty is to work, nor do I think that people should get something for nothing and expect the the tax-payer to support people indefinitely if they are able to work. Who would think that that was ok and fair?

But your party's policies on these issues, couched in terms of reducing the deficit and balancing the books, don't seem to take into account the social and human cost of such actions. The country isn't a business, it's its people. All its people. And you are everyone's Prime Minister whether we voted for you or not.

You said today you will govern for everyone and unite the country. I hope you do. But to be able to do so you need to make it a priority in your first 100 days, to spend time in Scotland visiting people on zero hours contracts. Come to Manchester and talk with those who have been sanctioned for having a spare room, but have nowhere else to go. Go to Liverpool and meet people with disabled dependents who can't afford even one nanny, or to Newcastle and talk to people still living in poverty due to the demise of the coal industry. Spend a week or two living on the minimum wage, or volunteer in a food bank for a whole day.

Then Prime Minister you might begin to understand the cost of your policies from the other side, to see people as more than their net contribution to the economy, or as deliberate drains on the system. If you do that, then maybe you can heal some of the fractures in our society. Without this I just don't believe you can see just how crucial these issues are.

So please Prime Minister, leave Westminster for a few hours a week and truly strive to govern for all of us.

Rev'd Mike Walsh
The United Reformed Church

rosesarered Sat 09-May-15 21:29:34

Rosequartz........ Have you been imbibing?i know I suggested a glass of wine was in order for all of us, but don't have more than three!grin

rosequartz Sat 09-May-15 21:20:57

Oh ok now!

rosequartz Sat 09-May-15 21:20:35

My thread has gone upside down [ confused]

rosequartz Sat 09-May-15 21:15:54

I don't know how the builder got rid of affordable housing (social housing) djen. I thought it was a condition of building new houses. It still is here.

rosequartz Sat 09-May-15 21:12:35

Young, but possibly older than David Cameron?

I expect there will be lots of 'letters' like these and also to constituency MPs.

Are my DC young? If not then I must be ancient.
Oh, OK , I'm old!

Ana Sat 09-May-15 20:51:45

Even Mumsnet's getting fed up with the political vitriol. I don't post, but I do look in occasionally...

rosesarered Sat 09-May-15 20:46:30

wine

rosesarered Sat 09-May-15 20:45:48

Yes Ana, I think we all need a little recovery time.

Ana Sat 09-May-15 20:38:16

recovery

rosesarered Sat 09-May-15 20:38:13

Truly blessed?

Ana Sat 09-May-15 20:37:33

I couldn't give a damn about the IT aspect, but the other part of your reason for voting Tory is, I think, why many people voted for them jingl.

The alternative would have been Labour reversing a lot of policies just for the sake of it, introducing their own populist measures to please their supporters and threatening what little economic recover Britain is experiencing at the moment.

rosesarered Sat 09-May-15 20:36:57

Another Internet prob is that all nuance is lost, and mistakes can be made.

rosesarered Sat 09-May-15 20:34:07

hmm

jinglbellsfrocks Sat 09-May-15 20:31:04

What I actually said was:-

"Ok. I voted Tory mainly because of Cameron's promise to raise the Inheritance Tax threshold. But also because I think they are on the right track with the economy, which I want sorted out before my grandkids come of age."

I can see no reason why that should have been read as a joke.

jinglbellsfrocks Sat 09-May-15 20:24:42

confused I did mean it. Of course I did. It was a straight answer to Trisher's straight qustion, and she took it as such.

Don't bother to be sad on my behalf btw. You already have so many family troubles to feel down about. Thankfully I have none. I am truly blessed. smile

Tegan Sat 09-May-15 19:30:31

'Ok. I voted Tory mainly because of Cameron's promise to raise the Inheritance Tax threshold'
I apologise j; I read this and stupidly thought you'd written it because you meant it. Stupid and mean minded of me. Again I can only apologise for that sad.

Gracesgran Sat 09-May-15 19:00:39

JBF Perhaps he could put forward his answers to the problems. Realistic ones.

Hopefully those we have elected a government that can put forward ideas that don't put mammon in the place of a god and doesn't think that "the economy" is just about money. - I live in hope.

Does anyone have a Facebook link to the original of this letter?

jinglbellsfrocks Sat 09-May-15 18:32:06

minded

Sorry for mistakes. Feeling a bit cross

jinglbellsfrocks Sat 09-May-15 18:31:32

Mndd

jinglbellsfrocks Sat 09-May-15 18:31:15

Ideas. not Ida's

jinglbellsfrocks Sat 09-May-15 18:30:16

The writer of the letter referred to in the OP is a Minister in he United Reform Church. I know for a fact that that church is very concerned with the less-advantaged in society. They are very good at helping out people in need where they can. They are a lovely church. I have nothing against the letter except that I think it would be good if people put forward their own Ida's instead of just carping on about what the government is doing. The only reason I thought the letter was written by a younger person is because the original poster suggested it.

Tegan I did not "admit" anything. I have nothing to "admit". Your comment was stupid and sounded mean mind.

My "social conscience" is my business and I will do what I bloody well please with it.

V

Oops - finger slipped on keyboard.

durhamjen Sat 09-May-15 17:54:47

I agree that housing is important Mcem, but I asked what it had to do with housing as it didn't appear to be mentioned in the OP.
I think the way out of poverty is house building. However, the Tory manifesto policy on housing does not mention social housing apart from selling them. That's no good to homeless people on the council waiting list.
A builder has put in for planning permission to build 150 houses on two fields behind the estate I live on. He had so much opposition on quite a few counts, that he decided to withdraw. He then put in amended plans, getting rid of two houses, but increasing the size of many of the houses, and doing away with affordable housing. He got even more objections the second time.

Ana Sat 09-May-15 17:48:31

Not as much as you do, GT!

GrannyTwice Sat 09-May-15 17:34:52

Better get used to it Ana - and you like it really don't you?

Ana Sat 09-May-15 17:30:49

Oh, not another Tory-bashing thread! Just what we need...hmm