Gransnet forums

News & politics

So: what will Cameron's Legacy Be?

(128 Posts)
gettingonabit Sat 16-Jul-16 14:34:21

So-he called an arguably unnecessary referendum, a tactic which ended in personal failure. He highlighted the need for the Big Society, which fell into oblivion. He styled himself as a normal bloke and rode a bike to work, only to be ridiculed when it was noted that his car was following him behind. He was an Old Etonian who surrounded himself with toffs and was accused by a fellow MP of not knowing the price of milk.

He promised change but, on his watch, the gap between rich and poor grew bigger. He oversaw the introduction of gay marriage. He was classed as an articulate speaker but (in my view at least!) was regularly outclassed by "weird" Ed Milliband at PMQs.

That's my take on Cameron's incumbency: what's yours?

Parliament100 Tue 19-Jul-16 10:29:45

WilmaKnickersfit, Britain has had the right wing free market agenda rammed down our throats since Thatcher over 30 years ago, resulting in food banks due to cut in welfare.

After over 30 years of privatisations, a rich and poor divide that's getting worse, I would be ashamed to be a right winger, totally ashamed.

Parliament100 Tue 19-Jul-16 10:35:24

gettingonabit, Cameron has been full of soundbites that can only appeal to the dead from the neck up brigade of which there are millions in Britain.

What Cameron really means is that his party have been happily ripping apart all the Social improvements built up by the Labour Government after WW2. In short its been a 30 odd year Agenda of a right wing attack on the State and everything attached to it, which the English havent the balls or the political solidarity to appose........

nigglynellie Tue 19-Jul-16 10:44:33

I'm not, ashamed to be a right winger!!!wink

Elegran Tue 19-Jul-16 10:55:10

I am confused now. maddyone said in one post that she has joined GN and found it to be a club for ageing socialists, then in another thread she agreed with durhamjen that there are too many right-wingers. Are these right-wing socialists, then? Or are there just too many pontificators in the club, from right or from left?

Someone thought there seem to be a lot of new left-wing posters. Have they followed p100 from another forum site?

Elegran Tue 19-Jul-16 10:56:06

Sorry, Wilma, should have acknowledged it was you.

rosesarered Tue 19-Jul-16 12:01:45

Wilma yes...... Has team Corbyn been up to it's tricks and parachuted infiltrators into our threads? ?

Anniebach Tue 19-Jul-16 13:36:51

Would someone please explain to Parliment100 the UK is four countries not one , I have tried several times

Anya Tue 19-Jul-16 14:02:35

Some people don't listen AB

WilmaKnickersfit Tue 19-Jul-16 14:07:10

P100 I'm left wing, not right wing! grin

Anyway, I don't think there's many more of one than the other on here. smile

Elegran Tue 19-Jul-16 14:08:40

There's none so deaf as those that won't hear.

Parliament100 Tue 19-Jul-16 14:10:31

Anniebach, yes and I believe in the UK. I do not believe in devolution.

Parliament100 Tue 19-Jul-16 14:11:41

rosesarered, you come across as a Blairite, are you ?

Anniebach Tue 19-Jul-16 14:14:13

Then why Parliment do you refer to the English ? the other three countries do vote too

Anniebach Tue 19-Jul-16 14:15:58

So true Anya. Hope you noticed I am defending the English grin

Elegran Tue 19-Jul-16 14:21:25

You'd think that after all this time, everyone would know that when you say "England" you mean the bit of land that doesn't include Wales, Scotland, or Ireland, just the land from the Channel to the Cheviots, and from the North Sea to the rivers Severn and Dee, and the inhabitants of that stretch of land.

Anniebach Tue 19-Jul-16 14:57:19

True Elegran, and it seems the English are too blame for all the ills in the UK smile

nigglynellie Tue 19-Jul-16 15:09:08

There is no such thing as an English parliament. The Parliament in London is made up of the four countries that collectively make up the UK. All four countries despite having different needs are as important as each other, and in fact can and do enhance each other. The fact of having devolved assembly/parliament recognises these differences and the fact that people with an understanding of particular matters need to be able to discuss and decide for themselves the best way forward, not just be told by a faraway government that has little or no knowledge of another country's issues. Not to believe in and respect the devolution of Wales Scotland and Northern Ireland is not to believe in democracy.

Anniebach Tue 19-Jul-16 15:34:36

Stand by niggly ready ? I agree ?

nigglynellie Tue 19-Jul-16 15:46:54

This is going to my head ab!!!!! grin It is without any doubt truely what I think and believe, so let's hope Parliament100 doesn't need further explanation!!

nigglynellie Tue 19-Jul-16 16:17:42

Sorry, truly!!!

varian Tue 19-Jul-16 19:20:12

David Cameron will go down in history as an irresponsible gambler who thought he could use referendums to his and his party's advantage without any care for the consequenses for our country.

The AV referendum was a con. This country needs to replace the ludicrously undemocratic first past the post system with proportional representation. As part of the coalition agreement a referendum was promised but instead of being offered PR we were offered AV which nobody believed in and Cameron (after assuring Nick Clegg he would remain neutral) actively campaign against. He won that one and so-

Next we had the Scottish Independence referendum. This was a very serious constitutional issue and should never have been allowed to rest on a simple majority of the turnout on a single day. There should have been a minimum requirement for a two-thirds majority on a 75% turnout (as would be required to change the constitution of your local gardening society). On top of that he allowed the SNP to chose the question so that they had the advantage of "Yes". The question should have been should Scotland remain in the UK? The timing of the vote also gave the advantage to the separatists - Bannockburn anniversary, Glasgow Commonwealth Games (when athletes have a saltire on their vest not a union jack). Of course Cameron wanted to bend over backwards to help the SNP as they could damage the Labour party. He narrowly scraped through that referendum but at the expense of damaging so many relationships, including creating divisions in many British families.He should have learned from that near-miss.

But no, his final folly was to risk the future of the United Kingdom on the utterly foolhardy EU referendum. He obviously thought he could easily win but in the end was defeated by an unholy alliance of right wing extremists and poor disadvantaged people who wanted to protest against Cameron and his awful regime (not the EU) and were persuaded by the right wing press that they would be much better off by "taking back control" (subtext it's all the fault of immigrants)

We have had some pretty disgraceful politicians in our lifetimes but David Cameron has been the most reckless and destructive of them all.

WilmaKnickersfit Tue 19-Jul-16 19:52:37

I'm still giggling at P100 thinking rosesarered is Blairite! grin ?

Anya Tue 19-Jul-16 20:23:30

Anniebach good on you but I'm not English grin

durhamjen Wed 03-Aug-16 17:01:18

www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2016/08/03/no-more-children-should-die-trying-to-reach-family-in-the-uk

It would be nice if this was Cameron's legacy.

Smileless2012 Wed 03-Aug-16 17:09:58

I think you've summed up both the man and his legacy perfectly gettingonabitsmile.