Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

Apparently David Cameron intends to be an active back-bench MP, so he might dispute the idea that his political career has ended, never mind in failure.  However, he must know that a prime minister’s term in office has rarely imploded so quickly, or so spectacularly.  Barely one year ago, he confounded the pollsters and became the first Conservative leader to win an outright majority in the House of Commons for 23 years.  Now he is set to hobble out of Number 10 in the Autumn, leaving behind a party divided by a bitter leadership contest.       Mr Cameron was the moderniser who became Tory leader on the back of a pledge to stop “banging on about Europe”.   Yet, first he put a referendum on membership at the heart of British politics and then he lost a campaign to keep the UK in the EU, with the odds stacked heavily in his favour.  While Mr Cameron looked to have secured the country’s constitutional future whe...

So the DUP and Sinn Féin are ‘furious’ (to use the journalistese) that David Cameron won’t constantly listen to their special pleading.  They're learning that this is a hands-off Prime Minister who allows his ministers to run their own departments, hence the government's go to man in Northern Ireland is Secretary of State, Owen Paterson. Ed Miliband, who visited yesterday, claims in contrast that he would operate an “open door” policy (revolving door?) for Stormont’s top politicos.    Mark Devenport points out that the Labour leader is not so quick to communicate with his own supporters in Northern Ireland.  When David Cameron comes here, his followers are the first to know. The chief difference is that Cameron always visits, in part, as an active Conservative politician seeking backing for his party and its allies in this part of the United Kingdom.  That doesn't make us exceptional enough for quasi-statesmen like Peter Robinson or Martin McGuinness.

In yesterday's Belfast Telegraph I asked whether the current debate in Great Britain includes lessons for a region just starting out on its experience of racial diversity.  Pop over to the BT to read the full article . In Northern Ireland, we're late-starters on the politics of race. That could actually be an advantage. There's an opportunity to learn from experiences elsewhere.   If we get it right, we can enjoy the cultural richness diversity brings, while also making newer arrivals feel integrated and at home.   To date, we've had few high-profile racist incidents in Northern Ireland. Only the attacks on Roma during the summer of 2009 were serious enough to command attention outside the province.   There's no indication that casual racism, or occasional outbursts of violence, are set to harden into a mood for far-right politics any time soon.   If the BNP decides to field council candidates in Northern Ireland, it's likely to get short shrift.   For th...

I thoroughly loathed the type of hectoring, preaching foreign policy practised under the Labour government.  David Miliband, an FCO minister prepared to offer his self-righteous and often deeply ignorant tuppence-worth on almost any internal matter, affecting almost any country, typified that approach.   I also had some misgivings, therefore, about David Cameron’s decision to scold China for its lack of political freedoms and human rights abuses.  It should be a cornerstone of conservative (small c) foreign policy that every country is different and that those differences should be respected.  It isn’t the role of the UK government to judge whether each and every state has ordered its own affairs correctly. William Hague set out his template for foreign policy, preferring genuine diplomacy to the megaphone variety and placing British interests at its heart.  The watchwords were realism and trade. Sure enough he's overseen an instant improvement and there ...

The NI Conservatives have unveiled a  new website , which is currently being knocked into shape. In the news section you can read about a delegation from Northern Ireland which visited Birmingham last week for the Tory party conference.  Irwin Armstrong (chairman) and Dr Paul Megarity (vice-chairman) engaged in high level discussions about future Conservative involvement in Ulster with party co-chair Andrew Feldman and Secretary of State, Owen Paterson. All parties seem to be agreed that the Conservatives are here for the long-term.  Whether that means standing candidates in the forthcoming Assembly election remains to be seen.  I detect a gathering sense that there is that possibility. In parallel with the local Tories’ deliberations, Tom Elliott has been asked to place his proposals for future involvement between the Conservatives and the UUP before the Prime Minister by the end of the month.  Cameron, for his part, will consider whether his party is pr...

In Thursday's Belfast Telegraph (not online) I argued that the Conservatives must not allow their deficit reduction programme to obscure more positive policies. David Cameron delivered a keynote speech to the Conservative Party Conference for the first time since the formation of a coalition government, at the ICC in Birmingham yesterday. The Tory leader was eager to emphasise his credentials as a Prime Minister for the whole of the United Kingdom, claiming that its four constituent nations are “stronger together, and together is how we must remain“. The Conservatives formally ditched their pact with Ulster Unionists this week, after a disastrous showing at the general election, but Cameron remains keen that Northern Ireland should play an active role in national debate. The Tories are unpopular outside England, and the Prime Minister knows that he cannot simply ignore the competing regional interests which devolution has unleashed, if the United Kingdom is to remain st...

At Ultonia, Lee is dismissive .  At Northern Ireland Centre-Right, Seymour Major is still in the throes of ecstasy .  My take on Cameron’s conference speech is somewhere down the middle. Certainly I didn’t feel that this address featured the rhetorical pyrotechnics which the Tory leader has occasionally produced.  It felt a little laboured, it didn’t depart substantially from the script, and given that it was delivered by the first Conservative prime minister since May 1997, it wasn’t even received that rapturously by the Tory faithful. In today’s Belfast Telegraph, which is not yet online, I consider Cameron’s references to Northern Ireland.  The headline ’Fine words, true.  But do you really get us, David?’ is not really an accurate reflection of the article's content. As a commentator, rather than a politician, I’m not restrained from saying that the Conservatives don’t need to ’get us’ and if they do finally 'get us' it will be to our detriment. ...

The Bosphorous Straits: Where Europe meets Asia David Cameron’s recent remarks in Turkey aroused some interest in my household, because we are currently planning a trip to Istanbul.  In preparation, various books with a Turkish theme are strewn here and there. Our hastily assembled reading list is often, unsurprisingly, preoccupied with competing European, Central Asian and Middle Eastern influences which are brought to bear on the country.  It is the territory of Orhan Pamuk’s fiction and a recurring motif of his memoir, Istanbul: Memories of a City . Burke’s Corner has hosted a debate on Turkey’s European credentials in recent days.  Brian is insistent that the country’s cultural and religious heritage sets it apart from the rest of the continent, but his contention has met stiff resistance from some commentators. In Christopher de Bellaique’s Rebel Land , which examines Turkey from the wilds of the south-east, bordering Iraq, the author concludes that it ’...

There won't be too many posts on the blog this week, but I will briefly draw your attention to another Belfast Telegraph article , which considers the Megrahi mess.  The edit lost a little of the thrust of the original, so the text below is a little different to the published column.   I consider the chain of events which set in train the bomber's release and conclude: [It's} Hardly surprising that after the release took place last August, opponents alleged Labour was secretly delighted.  The party had secured its preferred outcome without getting its hands dirty.  A nationalist Scottish Executive, flexing its muscles and styling itself a ’government’, was more than happy to boast that it had reached its decision independently. When Kenny MacAskill appeared in front of the world’s press to deliver a crowing speech about the unique ’humanity of the Scottish people’, he didn’t expect that his ruling would cause the SNP to crash in the polls.  Nor could he an...

In today's Belfast Telegraph I wonder whether the social cohesion which saw Britain through previous crises has gone for good. Are people today unwilling to make sacrifices for the greater good? It can certainly seem that way. The debt crisis has not been greeted universally by steely determination to sort out our collective financial woes. Although most people accept that the deficit should be cut, or everyone will suffer the consequences, the blame and the buck are too often passed elsewhere. The attitude is that someone else, anyone else, can take our share of the pain. Don't touch my water rates, my pension, my pay rise or the services my family use. Another sector, another department or another region can foot more of the bill. Even modest economies are fiercely contested. The message that a little restraint today will ensure a brighter future tomorrow cuts little ice. It's a trite comparison, but one wonders how the United Kingdom would have defended itself had the ...

In Saturday's Belfast Telegraph I examined the prospects of Cameron's government, successfully balancing the interests of Westminster, England and the devolved regions (no link yet available - I'm not sure Saturday's opinion pages actually reach the website). The prime minister has promised that his new government’s relationship with the devolved regions will be distinguished by ’respect’.  He envisages an era of cooperation and communication between London and the executives in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh. ’Daveolution’ received a cautious but cordial hearing when Cameron toured the UK capitals.   However, the four First Ministers’ substantive response emerged at a meeting in Stormont last Monday.  There they discussed forming a common front against spending cuts imposed by Westminster and demanded a slice of London’s Olympic regeneration money.  Cameron is acutely aware that he will have to govern with sensitivity if he is to be considered a prime minister for...

This article appears in today's News Letter  under the title 'Cameron needs to govern with sensitivity'. David Cameron has frequently emphasised that he wants to be a prime minister for the whole of the United Kingdom and not just England.  The outgoing government‘s devolution experiment has complicated what once would have seemed a self-evident aspiration.   Labour’s time in office saw haphazard distribution of power to assemblies in Northern Ireland and Wales, and to the Parliament in Scotland.  The dynamics of government in the UK have changed utterly since 1997.  Resurgent separatism and rampant regionalism require Cameron to perform a perilous balancing act. While the Conservatives’ power base lies in England, the Tories failed to recover electoral ground in Scotland.  Their challenge to Labour’s ascendancy in Wales didn’t materialise either and in Northern Ireland, of course, the party’s link-up with the UUP won no seats. Competing centres of ...

David Cameron visited Northern Ireland today, for the first time since becoming Prime Minister.  Not quite within the week, as he promised , but pretty close. Significantly the coalition government also set out its position on Northern Ireland in its 'Programme for Government' today.  It reiterates previous Conservative policy and hardly represents an abandonment of the principles behind UCUNF. We will continue to promote peace, stability and economic prosperity in Northern Ireland, standing firmly behind the agreements negotiated and institutions they establish.   We will work to bring Northern Ireland back into the mainstream of UK politics. So the Liberal Democrats too, are now officially signed up to Northern Ireland at the heart of national politics.    Perhaps they should start advocating a similar approach for their sister party, Alliance. After all, developments in the UUP could reward David Ford if he were to reposition his party as broadly support...

Already there is a theme emerging in David Cameron’s treatment of the devolved regions.  The government is keen to allow the institutions in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales plenty of leeway, on the understanding that they take responsibility for their own decisions. The emergency budget has been announced and, naturally, each nation and region is expected to do its bit.  However, the new Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury, David Laws, has emphasised that the two devolved Assemblies and Scotland’s Parliament can defer any cuts. It is an ingenious and eminently fair solution which neatly sidesteps the argument that budgets for this year have already been set.  Although, as New Right points out , it also allows parties to avoid getting their hands dirty before 2011’s elections. David Cameron, as he had promised, quickly added trips to each of the UK’s capitals to the hectic schedule of establishing a new government.  He understands that devolution has c...

So good sense has prevailed and David Cameron, finally, becomes Prime Minister . It has been a long wait to get Gordon Brown out of Downing Street. Yesterday Fraser Nelson caustically observed that special forces would be required to dislodge Brown from Number 10. That hasn't quite been necessary, Nick Clegg put the outgoing PM out of his misery. O'Neill has outlined the reasons that the putative 'traffic light' coalition, or 'coalition of losers', would have spelled disaster for the United Kingdom. The Conservatives certainly realised this, a growing chorus of voices in the Labour party, to be fair to them, pointed out the same thing and the Liberal Democrats have apparently come to the same opinion. Nick Clegg's party is in an extraordinary position. It has acquired political responsibility and leverage far beyond its mandate. But the Lib Dems moment in the sun could yet prove their undoing. Had the party gone into power with Labour and a coterie of...

He claimed that at one point swimming trunks were called for, and Sir Reg Empey joked that it proves he can walk on water, but by hook or by crook David Cameron made it to Northern Ireland. The Icelandic volcano did all in its power to prevent the Conservative leader campaigning in Northern Ireland. Then Cameron’s helicopter broke down. Finally he managed to get here by jet-plane, flying under the ash cloud, in order to address a gathering at La Mon hotel. Cameron showed some tenacity when his travel plans went awry and, to be fair, the people who attended showed some determination too. His speech was delayed for some two hours. When it eventually arrived it was typically upbeat and centred on the national themes which UCUNF want to bring to local politics. There were special mentions for PMS investors, whom Cameron pledged to help, and a backhanded reference to Peter Robinson. Successful Conservative and Unionists candidates, he stressed, would never make a ’swish’ family of MP...

At the La Mon hotel waiting for David Cameron to arrive - rather late! Here are some extracts from his speech to keep you amused. Our two great parties have created a dynamic new electoral force for Northern Ireland. And it’s because we made that step that today we are not just saying that we are the party of the union... ...we are showing that we are the party of the union... ...the party of Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England – with candidates standing in every part of the United Kingdom. Nobody else can say that. Not Labour. Not the Liberal Democrats. And none of the local parties here in Northern Ireland. So why is this so important? It’s important because of our deep commitment to the union. So let me repeat the pledge I made to you in Belfast a year and a half ago. I will never be neutral on the Union. We passionately believe that England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are stronger together, weaker apart – and the union of our two parties strengthens...

With less than one week to go, David Cameron has given his party much needed momentum by winning the last leaders’ election debate. Most of the major pollsters agree that the Conservative leader was the clear victor, while one, Populous, put Cameron level pegging with Nick Clegg. Gordon Brown, fresh from his travails in Rochdale, trailed the two younger men in every poll. Seymour Major is sceptical , but Conservative supporters will be closely scrutinising tonight’s newscasts, and the Sunday papers, to discern whether Cameron will get a similar bounce when the polling companies survey voting intention. Although their accuracy is questionable, it would settle Tory nerves considerably if the party’s poll figures began to edge out of the mid thirties, towards forty per cent. And I believe that, as election day draws closer, support for the Liberal Democrats will soften, to the Conservatives’ advantage. In Northern Ireland we are accustomed to the distortion of opinion polls by a so-c...

Taking on Paxman in a no-holds barred, 30 minute interview was always a risk, but has David Cameron made a gaffe by singling out Northern Ireland and the North East of England as regions which are unsustainably reliant on the public sector? No. But he might have made the Conservative task here a little bit harder with his remarks. Because, however incontrovertible their content, he has given his opponents a stick to beat him with. The Belfast Telegraph, increasingly open about its left-statist bias, gleefully splashed this morning with ‘Cameron: I’ll target Ulster for cutbacks’. Of course, there isn't even the tiniest doubt that what the Tory leader said was 100% accurate. Anyone with a shred of interest in Northern Ireland’s economy agrees that it is a basket case and the imbalance between the public and private sectors needs to be addressed, urgently. But during an election campaign it is not enough simply to be accurate. Cameron must have known how a special mention for just...

It might be calculated to appeal to Guardian readers, as one 3000 Versts reader alleges, but David Cameron's 'Big Society' message is absolutely compatible with traditional Tory philosophy . Conservative means realising progressive ends. It is a message which will maintain the party's micro-resurgence. The 'centre ground' is not some insidious euphemism. It is the territory on which elections are won. The electorate has taken the benefits of Thatcherism, banked them, and added the Blairite benefits of public service investment. Now they want a reduced deficit and a continued commitment to providing excellent education and health provision. Modern Conservatives are committed to providing these essential services. They also want to squeeze out a centralised state, as if it were a toothpaste tube, enabling people who work in particular areas to take decisions for which THEY are best equipped. In order to win the election, David Cameron must emphasise this mes...