2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumCameron has lost his job – his Teflon cockiness has finally worn off
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/24/david-cameron-resign-teflon-cockiness<snip>
Financial chaos, economic crisis, the likely breakaway of Scotland and possibly Northern Ireland: quite a mornings work for the Bullingdon Club.
Remember as the pound plunges and the markets slide that this entire referendum was called by David Cameron to fend off Nigel Farage and his own Tory ultras. There was no public outcry for a ballot but for the sake of a bit of internal party management, he called one anyway. He gambled Britain and Europes future to shore up his own position. With all the confidence of a member of the Etonian officer class, he thought hed win. Instead he has bungled so badly that the fallout will drag on for years, disrupting tens of millions of lives across Europe.
All this from a man who sauntered into the job of prime minister because I thought Id be good at it. He rarely showed any reason for such self-confidence. His plans to modernise the Conservative party crumbled upon first touch with the banking crisis, which forced him and Osborne to reheat the Thatcherite economics theyd imbibed as students. The big society turned almost immediately back into the Small State. At No 10, he launched an austerity drive that was meant to be over within five years, but is now scheduled to go on for double that. Other prime ministers handed power for a long stretch come up with ideas, policies, a style of governing that defines them: Thatcherism, Blairism. What was Cameronism, apart from a hectoring manner at PMQs and an inability to keep on top of detail?
Youll be reminded endlessly over the next few days how tight this referendum was that half the country didnt vote for this. Quite right and also serious evidence of the weakness of the PM. At the last referendum over Britains future in Europe, in 1975, Harold Wilson secured a whopping majority. Never a man to ask a question of whose answer he wasnt absolutely certain, he got a landslide. But when Cameron was handed the full resources of the British state to run this campaign, he still couldnt count on anything more than a small lead in the polls. A born member of the governing class, he simply wasnt able to govern.
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)Both sides say why they're right and the other side is wrong.
Then everyone votes on it.
It's to be commended that it went smoothly even though the vote went against the wishes of the government.
That's true democracy when the will of the people is represented.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Conservative Party would have replaced Cameron with someone from a more conservative anti-EU faction and "inevitably" lead to a referendum to leave the EU. Apparently there was indeed no real clamor for exit among the people when Cameron offered it in the belief that it would be easier to defeat now than later.
What a mess.
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,710 posts)What a disaster.
malaise
(268,931 posts)and now he'll get a cushy job fooling folks across the planet
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,710 posts)Calling for a referendum in a parliamentary democracy when you are not absolutely certain of the outcome is either vainglorious, stupid, or both...
In anything political I start from the premise that anything favored by the right is likely wrong and Britain leaving the EU is a right wing dream come true.
TheBlackAdder
(28,183 posts)msanthrope
(37,549 posts)Exilednight
(9,359 posts)Obama a Muslim Kenyan with anti-colinial view of GB.
FSogol
(45,476 posts)FSogol
(45,476 posts)Hopefully the Reagan/Thatcher disaster will end after Johnson implodes - he could be worse than this asshole.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)malaise
(268,931 posts)why he decided to hold the referendum