Charming But Pointless (Call Me) Dave

[Khandro]

I too, never really understood what he was for does Peter Hitchins have a point?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3794780/PETER-HITCHENS-Charmer-Cameron-slippery-slope-disaster.html

[ichkeria]

'I did not know the half of it' he writes.
Well, he's right there :-)
Peter Hitchens' job tho is not to inform but to appeal to Wokenham and Little Snoring (remembering they ad from a few years ago) and doubtless he does it well

[Zacs-Master]

As Mr Hitchens is a Labour supporter, I'm sure there are countless other instances of him saying that Cameron wasn't doing the right thing. To do an article which basically says 'look, look, I told you he was wrong to do this' is hardly surprising nor unique.

[ToraToraTora]

how prophetic: "Or will you learn that there is no such thing as 'the centre' and that those who claim to stand there are driven by nothing but personal ambition and vanity?"

[Khandro]

I don't think it was a question of even Right or Left, he didn't ever appear to me to have a cohesive policy, he was like an actor searching for a play. Whatever happened to "The big Society"? When it didn't catch on he just turned to something else, gay marriage for example.

[mikey4444]

More to the point, what is Hitchens for ?

He is a dyspeptic right-wing Journo, and seems to have no purpose other than to moan and complain. He would argue that clouds are green and the water is dry, if he thought someone would pay him to do so.

I am far from being a Cameron supporter ( ! ) but he won two consecutive Elections for the Tories and should be accorded some respect at least.

[mikey4444]

" Mr Hitchens is a Labour supporter "

Really ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hitchens#Political_views

[Hopkirk]

Respect to you Mikey for the balanced view you take.

[mikey4444]

Thanks Hoppy !

[ichkeria]

When discussing Hitchens I don't think 'balanced views' are relevant :-)

[Zacs-Master]

Mikey, thanks for the link
'He joined the Labour Party in 1977, but left it in 1983 when he became a political reporter at the Daily Express'

[mikey4444]

Zacs....from same link :::

"Hitchens mainly comments on political and religious issues, and generally espouses a social conservative viewpoint"

Here is another quote ::

"The left's real interests are moral, cultural, sexual and social. They lead to a powerful state. This is not because they actively set out to achieve one," Hitchens writes.

"It is because the left's ideas – by their nature – undermine conscience, self-restraint, deferred gratification, lifelong marriage and strong, indivisible families headed by authoritative fathers"

To be frank, Hitchens has been all over the shop in his life time. He may not be the Tories best friend, but if this man is a Labour supporter, then I am Queen of the May !

[ichkeria]

Weren't Trotskyites actually joining Labour around that time ? :-)
He's always had extreme views one way or another.

[jno]

I can well believe Hitchens disdains the centre; he's one of those people who can only be extreme. (His brother Christopher was too, variously attacking religion and backing the Iraq war.) Paul Johnson was another, former New Statesman editor, going from lefwing firebrand to fightwing firebrand, presumably to give himself new things to rant about. I wouldn't trust any of them.

[jno]

"fightwing", lol, not wrong but I did mean rightwing

[Khandro]

Instead of shooting the messenger is anyone prepared to address the question please?

[Jackdaw33]

I never knew what Cameron stood for. He didn't strike me as a traditional 'Tory'. The party might have been better off choosing David Davis back in 2005.

[mikey4444]

I will have a go at answering your question Khandro !

After the disastrous choice of Major, Hague, IDS, and Howard, I think that the Tories knew that they had to have somebody who was electable, as yet another failed Leader would have been completely unacceptable.

Cameron won on a popular vote of 67%, so at last the Tories felt that they had indeed made the right choice. He was going to unite the Party, rather than antagonise it and divide it as the previous incumbents had done. He beat the Labour Party not once but twice, the last being less than 18 months ago, and was widely supported here on AB.

I have said this many times before, perhaps it won't matter if I say it again.
I am a committed Labour supporter, but it was obvious that if we were going to be defeated, Cameron stood the best chance of doing just that. He wasn't one of the usual "Nasty Party" lot, and he was, and still is, a basically decent chap, and
I for one am sorry to see him go.

Especially so now as we appear to have the beginning of one of the most rabid and regressive Tory regimes for a long time.

[Jackdaw33]

I don't consider Hague to have been a disaster. God himself could not have won the election for the Tories back in 2001.

[mikey4444]

Jack....you could probably say that about 2005 as well, and it could also be argued that if Blair had not stood down in favour of Brown, Labour may very well have won again in 2010.

After all, the result was so close in May 2010, that the LibsDems had to come in break the logjam.

[Zacs-Master]

I'd no idea God was a conservative.