Adrastos, British Politics, Political Crack

Barefaced Cheek

The British general election campaign is in its first week and Dr. A told me she was astonished that I hadn’t posted about it yet. Here’s my initial take as a semi-savvy foreign observer: the voters seem to like David Cameron but dislike the Tory party. In contrast, the voters dislike the Prime Minister but like the Labour Party. The Liberal Democrats who are now a step to the left of Labour are led by Nick Clegg who is their Tony Blair knockoff(think circa 1997 Blair) as Cameron is for the Conservatives. In short, the whole thing is such a mess that it might result in a hung parliament, which has naught to do with porn. Get your minds out of the gutter, people. It means a minority government governing with the tacit consent of another party, the only combination that’s possible is a Lab Lib pact. Hmm, sounds like a dog to me. Here, Fido. Fetch.

What do I think will happen? If Cameron performs well in the debates and keeps his wingnuts on a short lead, I think the Tories will win a narrow victory and a small majority in the Commons. I think the voters are looking for a reason to vote out Gordon Brown even though over 50% of them will vote for a party of the center-left. If elected, however, the Tories will probably blow it because they’re really a right wing, not a centrist party. David Cameron is Margaret Thatcher with better manners…

Now where the hell was I? Oh yeah, the post title. It’s a quote from Vince Cable the Deputy Leader of the Lib Dems (not to be confused with the Lab Libs or labradors for that matter) who today mocked both theConservatives and Labour for being in bed with big business:

Businessmen on inflated salaries lecturing the rest of Britain on
how to run the country are “utterly nauseating” and “being used” by the
Conservative party, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, Vince Cable, says today.

In
an interview with the Guardian Cable said of the business leaders: “If
they are going to wade into this debate, they do have an obligation to
explain how thisnational insurance cut is going to be paid for and that is where they are failing and they are being used.”

He accused the Tories of “barefaced cheek.”

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4 thoughts on “Barefaced Cheek”

  1. If the Tories are “barefaced cheek”, what understated British phrase could apply to the Tea Baggers?

  2. Completely mad with anger, MapleStreet.
    Great little ditty, Adrastos, although I’ve heard Cameron called Great Britain’s answer to George W. Bush.

  3. I think Cameron is *definitely* more right wing than he lets on. The UK is a left of center country but Labour and the Lib Dems are unlikely to come together absent a change to proportional representation. The two parties will get at least 53-54 of the popular vote even if the Tories win with around 40%.

  4. I actually doubt that the UK is a “left of centre” country, at least by our terms – perhaps by US terms it appears so, though. Blair only succeeded in getting elected by a violent swing rightwards pre-97, rendering “New Labour” pretty much indistinguishable from pre-Thatcher, one-nation Conservatism. We say we love the NHS (and mostly we do, until we have a bad experience with it) but we no longer really believe in social justice and solidarity IMO. Not like we did in ,say, 1945.
    Cameron is not the real danger – he’s been so insulated by wealth and privilege that he possibly really believes the “we are all in this together” hype – cf Macmillan in the 50s. He’s certainly no Bush. The problem will come with what he and his cronies will have to do to assure the people managing to keep their heads above the middle class tidemark that ‘Brussels’ and undeserving poor people won’t get any of ‘their’ money…

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