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Cameron’s religious ramblings: if this is leadership God help us
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18 April 2014
Not that long ago David Cameron was comparing his religious faith to a fuzzy radio signal in the Chiltern Hills. Now it is The Big Thing. It seems to be the driver of his life and his politics and he is suggesting Christianity should be a bigger driver of the country's life and politics too.
We had the warm up act with his 'Jesus invented the Big Society' and now the full Monty as Easter nears.
If he really believed all this, then despite my 'don't do God' approach to life, I would have no problem with it. My 'don't go Goddery' was never anti- faith, it was more a reflection that unlike in the US British people are suspicious of politicians who seek to tie their religion to their politics. TB's faith was real, but his rare public discussions of it while Labour leader and PM were inevitably misinterpreted.
But how are we to believe Cameron believes it all when so recently he was twiddling the knobs on the radio trying to find his faith at all, and admitting he was a Christmas and Easter, send the kids to Sunday school, bog standard middle England Churchgoer?
Like so much of what he does it feels like a tactic in search of a strategy. It reminds me of the trip to the Arctic to pose with huskies and announce he would lead the greenest government ever (this the man who as Prime Minister is yet to make a single substantial speech on the environment and has allowed the climate change deniers the upper hand in his party)
Think of some of the things he could have done with his time, influence and power this Easter weekend. Alex Salmond and his planned break-up of the country he leads could do with a bit of attention, for example. The European elections look like being a disaster of his making, his tactic of a referendum having given a nice strategic gift to his new director of European strategy, Nigel Farage. For all the occasional data points, economic recovery is failing to deliver rising living standards for the many. Meanwhile Putin marches on, and we seem not to be on the diplomatic pitch, let alone influencing the game.
But it's Easter, there was clearly a hole in the 'grid', the need for a new talking point after the Maria Miller fiasco, so someone said 'I know, let's get Dave to do God.'
If this is leadership, God help us.
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I’m deeply suspicious of anything Dave does and I’m also very wary of religion as politics. Given his propensity for announcing one thing and doing the opposite I can only assume this means he’s actually atheist. I’d take this as a plus point if it weren’t for the breathtaking hypocrisy. At best the man’s a cynical bundle of greed driven unpleasantness. At worst, he’s the kind of irrational, hate driven religious zealot that has done so much damage the other side of the pond.
Spot on as ever – cheap but effective strategy as Cameron reflects what so many voters think and do themselves. We have to find ways in which our man can come across effectively with his honest atheism that resonates with many more folk
“admitting he was a Christmas and Easter, send the kids to Sunday school, bog standard middle England Churchgoer”
The obvious inference being that there is something inherently wrong with anyone who could be described thus.
Why are you still so full of spite?
Wow, what a tag …. inhale before using a big fat LOL at the pretentiousness that ends in a big fat whinge 😉
Don’t think God was too impressed, sent a jellyfish down as his messenger.
If he’s a Christian, then I’m mother Theresa.
Jesus helped the poor, did he not.
Didn’t he also suggest contentment in this life was admirable because of the promises to come post-mortem …. aha …… Dave has a new motto (I wonder if Jeremy Hunt shares it?).
‘Meanwhile Putin marches on, and we seem not to be on the diplomatic pitch, let alone influencing the game.’
It’s “thanks” to the EU and US meddling and instigating the recent coup in Ukraine, that it is now in the mess that it’s in.
Put yourself in Putin’s shoes for a moment. When the old Soviet Union fell apart, the west in the form of NATO promised not to encroach around Russia. Unsurprisingly they broke that promise and have been doing exactly that.
Poke the Russian bear once too often and he will quite justifiably bite back.
I’m not under the illusion that Putin is an angel, but he has a right and a duty to look out for his country and its people.
Russia have a case Gillian… I have looked into it…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiB5l1gd9VU
I agree with this; I have no problem with Cameron being a Christian, but he is now verging on evangelism, if of a fuzzy, vague kind; he has crossed a line which a PM should not cross; and it follows an equally concerning statement by Eric Pickles, that “we are a Christian country, so get over it”. Is the Tory Party discovering that it is a Christian party? But, of course, with caveats designed not to scare people “of all religions or none”. What the heck is going on?
Jenny McCartney wrote this …… “While Cameron’s former career has undoubtedly handed him some advantages, not least an easy charm and a Teflon-like ability to withstand criticism, the instincts it taught him could yet prove a terrible liability.”
I don’t think it was his past career that made him so sl/snide-y, he’d been so all along, it’s what equipped him for that PR career itself, it was inbred. The whole of his childhood was (and doubtless that of his own progeny is) about securing the certainty that one is simply better, above others, need not ever worry about suspicion from those that are not quite (one) of ‘US’ anyway.
It reeked out of his early ‘swipe’ at Harriet Harman about how his mother the magistrate would deal with her.
I’m sure that Christianity asserts that all humans are created equal and for me (happily outside of any religion) that means they remain so whereas for the ‘Dave’ types it means only till they leave the womb.
Politics are the only philosophies that matter.
Cameron is the construct of his own internal focus group. Oh, to be privy to the internal ramblings in his own mind. The man struggles to find definition when clearly he has none. That’s fine. Lots of people are shallow and not particularly engaging – just don’t put yourself up to become prime minister, eh?
Cameron wanted to enter politics (something to do?) so he decided to stand. What he never really worked out, however, was what he was standing *for*.
Cameron rode into leadership off the back of a speech that was made up as he went along – in short, he winged it. He’s been doing it ever since.
Perhaps Dave is a numpty, but this I know for sure, that you are an insufferable prig. Stick to soccer and bicycling.
Des Currie
Change the cracked record Des. £1.4trill debt by May 2015, at least, twice what it was in May 2010. Austerity? For WHAT??? George Cameron are plonkers, of the high class quality.
I was talking on Dave being a Christian. On matters of finance I don’t give a toodly hoo. I’m hoping that the entire world will be kaput financially by 2015 and then we can put more value on life, (excepting Michele)
Des Currie
A click on your ID and a look at other posts here and elsewhere show such a pile of bile that the results of Xianity on you inspire another 4 letter word ending in ‘ile’ :-s
Xtianity? Lol. What is that? An X Christian?
Mr Currie.
It’s simple enough, your bloke was called something anglicised to ‘Jesus’ wasn’t he – but assumed yet another name that was in turn anglicised to ‘Christ’ (yes ?) and for that name to be symbolised by a cross. Admittedly it does make more sense for his movement to be named for we English speakers as it is rather than be ‘Jesusanity’ (but not because anybody would have realised that the Anglicising would have led to the inaccuracy of the last half of that title!).
There is no virtue in believing in something for the sake ot it, I have faith in certain things that are real and they tend to be secular.
You choose otherwise – should I think ‘well done you’?
Self righteousness is not an argument, it is a position. And you seem to balancing on a precarious position.
Des
Alistair, let’s be frank here: who cares what Cameron has to say about anything? Burnley getting promoted, now that’s what I call news. Our town! Our Turf! Our time!
[…] Campbell has done a brutal hatchet job on David Cameron here. It’s a neatly drawn but devastating pen portrait of Cameron as a shallow and venal […]
[…] warning that the Prime Minister’s remarks will cause ‘alienation’. Alastair Campbell has even blogged he doesn’t think the PM is being sincere about ‘doing God’. Cameron is still trying to defend […]
I don’t take Cameron seriously on anything he says. In contrast I think the article in today’s ‘Times’ (26/04/14) by A. C. Grayling is right from start to finish. Cameron’s probably worried about UKIP and the perceived threat of Islam – especially in Tory marginals – so I think his sudden conversion to some definition of Christianity has about as
much depth as that.
I like your ‘perceived’ – the threat is so abused.
I also wish that all the activists that email me about their online anti-FGM petitions would remember about perception ….. that it is not of Islamic origin and would let me know if their petition is about stopping it in ALL communities when being done for non-medical reasons. Then I would sign.
It’s also not dependent on the ‘cutting season’ nor on girls being taken abroad – it happens here in many communities and for ‘cultural’ not religious reasons.
The other version of it on days-old boys could also be thunk about – especially when practised without anaesthetic as if the baby is a badge of family ‘courage’.
[…] Other critics accused the prime minister, who admitted he attends church only irregularly and is “a bit vague” on his beliefs, of political opportunism in the run-up to the European elections, when the Conservatives fear an exodus of supporters to Ukip. “Like so much of what he does it feels like a tactic in search of a strategy,” writes Alastair Campbell, the former Labour spin-doctor, on his blog. […]
Oh what a tangle of ‘understanding’.
Charles Moore yaddering that Christianity will always be treasured in UK because of its links with the monarchy as if by definition Christianity means Protestantism.
He should write a leader correcting himself (imagine!).
I think even Cameron sees it as a wider thing than Moore seems to.
Hi Michele,
I think CM is actually a Roman Catholic. Not that that negates anything you write in your post, which I happen to agree with.
To be honest, I’ve given up reading articles by CM, or ‘old mother M….’ as some commenters refer to him as, (chuckle) because his articles are so long winded and it’s like trying to wade through treacle.
Ps. I expect you’re looking forward to some nice pram pushing days this summer. I have such happy memories of those times, with my son and two grandchildren. Those days are over so quickly though and to be treasured. Which I believe (know) you will 😉
Thank you Gillian 🙂 yes the experiences so far are lovely, babies these days all seem so calm. I babysat for about 5hrs yesterday while the happy couple went menu-tasting (posh eh?) and she didn’t even whimper once.
Back to ‘the’ news! Glad the Pfizer bid was refused and can’t believe shareholders are brazen enough to want a resumption of talks. The attempted acquisition was about nothing more than short-term gain by under-paying for what exists and long-term ditto by paying lower taxes for years and years to come. Want a bet that Pfizer will start poaching AZ’s intellectual ‘property’ aka personnel?
Post not about Cameron’s new mantle but yes it’s on ‘religion’ vs politics.
I hope all those celebrating Mr Modi’s win are not thinking only about the overdue break in the Gandhi dynasty which could/should have been tackled by the party long before now.
Mr Modi’s history within sectarian viciousness and a possibly-inate belief in Untouchability make me less than joyous.
Let’s see what he does for the supporters of Mrs Mayawati and their children.