To quote those First World War Australian soldiers who had a habit of bayoneting Germans trying to surrender after initially refusing to do so – “You’re too late, mate!”. Five long, painful years of disappointment and betrayal and insult too late.
I won’t list – yet again – the countless ways in which the Conservative element of this wretched Coalition government has shown contempt for its traditional supporters. I’ve spent much of the last five years doing that, and there’s really nothing more to be said. I will resist the temptation to go off on a rant about the pathetic little sweeteners Dave and his pasty-faced chancellor have started tossing rightwards in recent weeks in the hope that we’ll be so cravenly grateful that all the snubs we’ve received will be instantly forgotten.
I’d prefer to concentrate on the words Cameron uses to mollify the dwindling band of grumpy Tories who still read the Telegraph and who are spitting mad with his lies, evasions and failures on immigration. Let’s be clear about this – immigration isn’t just about immigration: it encompasses multiculturalism and political correctness as well – it is the symbol of cultural Marxism. That’s why it’s such a key issue. Here’s how “Cast-Iron” Dave seeks to reassure us:
“I hear you, I hear your concern, I get your message.”I think we're supposed to tug our forelockas and mutter, "Thank ee, koind master. Much obloiged, I'm sure. Sorry to trouble ee."
Given that polls show the Tory vote stuck at around 29%-32% - enough to be the largest party, but not to win outright – I’m not surprised Cameron is finally "getting" our message. But what he doesn’t seem to realise is that it isn’t his hearing that’s the problem – it’s that he doesn’t share our instincts on this issue. Or on many others.
Most of we rightists aren't actually that stupid or unreasonable – we fully appreciate that being in a coalition with a pack of conscienceless, left-wing, benefit-loving, multiculti Euro-sluts like the Lib-Dems tends to limit one’s options. We hear you, Dave. We hear your concern, we get your message. But the problem is that you seem to share the Lib-Dems’ instincts rather than ours. You think mass immigration is a good thing, because it’s good for business, and you and your family and your friends don’t have to suffer any of the consequences – overwhelmed hospitals, over-crowded schools, housing shortages, the loss of national identity etc. You’re above all that, just as you’re rich enough to remain unaffected by the derisory returns we pensioners have suffered on our meagre savings: the loss of a few thousand quid a year matters to us in a way you can barely imagine. You assume that we’ll forgive you for that because good times are just around the corner – but we won’t forget that you sacrificed the interests of those who had scrimped and saved and gone without luxuries in order to put money aside for their old age so they didn’t have to rely on the state, and instead decided to help those who spent every penny they earned when times were good and consequently got themselves into debt – in other words, you've encouraged people to behave in the way that got this country into an economic mess in the first place.
Your problem is that you imagine that we turncoats – as you did – supported the Tories because it was in our interests to do so, rather than because (at least during Mrs. Thatcher’s glorious reign) the Party embodied political principles with which we instinctively agreed. You, Dave, don’t really do political principles, do you? That’s why you perform so well in the bully-boy college debating society atmosphere of the House of Commons, or when asked to defend this or that specific policy – but perform poorly when a toothless old inquistor like Jeremy Paxman scratches away at your veneer to find out which political principles lie beneath it. Goodness, how unconvincing you sound then!
And it’s that lack of core political beliefs, of an identifiable world-view based on heartfelt principles, that leads you so often to get things wrong. You may indeed have garnered a few more pink votes by championing gay marriage, which was no doubt the only reason you decided to push it through – but the way you introduced it, and the bizarre timing, enraged many of us, and will cost you more votes than you gain by it. When one rogue poll suggested that the Scots might opt for independence after all, you totally lost your bottle and promised the traitorous blighters the earth – and we might all end up paying the price of a Miliband government kept in power by over-excited, puffed-up Jocks strutting around the corridors of Westminster. If you’d had any political principles, you would have refused to promise yet more Danegeld in the form of increased devolution. Consequently, even though the tartan wretches lost by a whopping 10%, they could end holding the balance of power over English voters. How’s that realpolitik approach working out for you?
And, of course, a lack of political principles led you to defenestrate Michael Gove because he was annoying the education blob – and would have led to you demoting Iain Duncan Smith, had he not shown guts by simply teiling you to fuck off.
So, Dave, it’s not that we don’t appreciate your little gifts – including the choice of whether or not to cash in our own pension pots, the recognition of marriage via the tax system, even the meaningless, empty promise not to cut the Armed forces yet further, now that you’ve left this country virtually undefended. Every little helps, and all that. It’s just that it won’t actually help you on polling day, because you’ve spent the last five years demonstrating time and again that, to coin a phrase of Mrs. Thatcher’s, you’re not one us.
By the way, there's an excellent article by Janey Daley in the Sunday Telegraph, "Politics in now a puerile game - and we're not playing along", available here. She and Charles Moore are on such good form currently, I'm astonished they haven't been sacked by the clowns who now control the paper.
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