Britannist

An article has been written about David Cameron, the anti-UKIP and pro-EU leader of the Conservative Party :shock: :

George Walden, the former Conservative MP for Buckingham, wrote of Conservative Party leader David Cameron (in an article entitled ‘I’m a fake – vote for me’) in the Guardian on 22.9.2006 (brief extract) “Our present prime minister is a posh man pretending to be common. Our next prime minister (Cameron) may well be a posh man pretending to be common. Why do we love being patronised?

Cameron is, to some extent, the political expression of the Princess Diana phenomenon. Diana was the patron saint of these new elites, and Cameron has clearly learned a lot from her. They not only look a little alike (it seems to me) but, it has been written, may be distantly related. Both are upper-class figures who nevertheless contrive to lay claim to victim status: Diana exploited her difficulties with the royal family to gain public sympathy, and Cameron, somewhat distastefully, makes political play with his disabled son.

Who would have predicted that (Cameron) an Etonian of three years' parliamentary standing (whose experience of life had been predominantly as a PR executive for a TV company notorious for its low standards) would be elected leader of the Conservative party?

While in power, the Conservative party - lamenting low educational standards and intoning in a sombre way about family values - had been happy to endorse the increased commercialisation of television.

The profits would go largely to friends of the party, while, for reasons too obvious to recite, their own children would be spared much of the cultural squalor that crudely populist television programmes would encourage.

The cant of the new elites emerges with numbing shamelessness in his (Cameron's) public declarations.

Recently the one-time PR man for ruthlessly profitable trash TV (the now defunct Carlton Television ITV London regional broadcaster) made a heartfelt speech in which he said that money wasn't everything, and that the quality of our culture mattered. In his more mawkish mode it is possible to discern in the Tory (Conservative) leader's political pitch a faint echo of Diana's Christ-like affectations.

What matters for the new elites is not loyalty, principle or the crumbs of decency, but personal success, even if it involves the debasement of everything the Conservative party is supposed to stand for."

“New Elites: A Career in the Masses” By George Walden is to be published on 29.9.2006 by Gibson Square (To order a copy for £9.99 with free UK p&p go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0870 836 0875).

* Richard Reeves wrote in the 2006 Labour Conference edition of the leftist New Statesman on 21.9.2006 that David Cameron is in touch with the ‘Waitrose’ shopper. Reeve said “Cameron is tapping into a growing unease about the state of our communities and the still-tattered state of our social fabric. He is making all the right noises about work/life balance, well-being, corporate power and the environment. People do not generally feel that their problem is poverty, or lack of individual freedom.”

Christina Speight, the anti-EU campaigner and anti-Cameron Conservative, said on 21.9.2006 “Categorising voters by supermarkets is batty.”

Another Conservative commented “There is a lot of smugness that comes from some Waitrose shoppers. A classic case in point is Waitrose at Canary Wharf one of London’s business centres). I've been there ! Round they go on Sunday mornings sipping their lattes, maybe stopping at the Sushi bar- feeling good about themselves and all their organic shopping. There is a uniform "middle class chic" (if that is not a contradiction in terms !!) amongst the men 30-50. They try to look a little arty by not shaving at the weekend and wear some kind of Combat trousers together with flip flops. There's probably a semi-designer t-shirt with some "unusual" Canadian location referred to. If there's young children in tow, there's probably a large pushchair (preferably 3 wheels) that could give a Land Rover Discovery a run for its money. A copy of the Observer is tucked into the netting at the back of Pushchair. The women are largely wearing the same as the men ! All about Smug liberalism and people who are so self-satisfied."

Britannist adds: The problem for David Cameron is – Waitrose has hardly any branches in England north of Melton Mowbray (Leicestershire) and by amazing coincidence - according to the results of the May 2006 local elections - gains for the Cameron-led Conservatives were almost non-existent north of Melton Mowbray in the first major electoral test for David Cameron.

** Alan Johnson, Education Secretary in the discredited europhile Blair Labour Government, said in an article he wrote for the Guardian edition of 21.9.2006 that Labour has moved British politics to the left – and Conservative leader David Cameron is following them. Johnson (tipped as, possibly, the next leader of the Labour Party) claimed “The great achievement of New Labour was to move the political centre ground to the left. David Cameron is paying us the tribute of imitation. He has realised that he can only win by occupying the new centre ground that we have established; he is hoping that we will vacate it for the political wilderness that we consigned ourselves to in the past. New Labour has shifted the political mainstream to the left.”