MIP Perspectives
Dave in a cold climate: The PM should remember what happened to the dinosaurs
written by: admin2
Is it bad, very bad, or very very bad?, ask bewildered Government advisers as they struggle to comprehend the "omnishambles" that has engulfed the Coalition over the past few weeks.
And what's gone wrong?
Perhaps climate change holds the key.
Dave, after all, believes in climate change. The rain lashes down and the wind drives us back into our winter coats, but the PM believes in climate change.
He may not believe in Conservatism very much, but he sure does believe that squirting a bit more good old British carbon dioxide into the atmosphere explains why the world is getting colder - sorry, I mean warmer.
That's why he keeps slapping more green taxes on our gas and electricity bills, which are going up anyway because the world is getting colder, no warmer.
But if Dave were to think a bit harder about climate change, he might begin to understand the pickle he is in.
Cameron's problem is that his political strategy was crafted for a warm political climate, the balmy days of 2005-7 when the economy was growing, Tony Blair was beaming down on us all like a Sun God, Europe was a nice place for a holiday and not an economic warzone, and spending on health, education and credit cards was shooting up like an Indian space rocket.
But as luck would have it, he has wound up governing in a political ice age
- the worst recession for 100 years and one that shows no sign of abating.
And if he is not careful, he will go the same way as the dinosaurs.
In his first conference speech in 2006, Cameron even said: "Let sunshine win the day."
In a particularly batty intervention in the same year, he suggested that we should worry less about gross domestic product, and concentrate more on general wellbeing - an observation that later led him to waste £2 million on creating a national happiness index just to confirm how miserable we have all become.
Dave needs to realise that all the soft, fluffy stuff about huskies, hoodies, handouts to African dictators and countries with nukes and space programmes just won't hack it any more.
He should forget about fripperies like gay marriage and stopping grown adults lusting over packets of Marlboro Lights in supermarkets and focus his attention - and that of his ministers - on the vital task of getting the economy out of second gear.
Cameron is right. The climate has changed. Not the one that gives us snowdrops one day and snow the next. But the political climate. His challenge is to recast his leadership to adapt to the land of perpetual winter.
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