Clueless Cameron – as tired as his policies?

Tired old Tory: Is this David Cameron or Ken Clarke? [Picture: BBC, augmented with help by Ian Davies]

Tired old Tory: Is this David Cameron or Ken Clarke? [Picture: BBC, augmented with help from Ian Davies]

David Tennant’s outstanding run as the title character in Doctor Who began by ending the career of fictional Prime Minister Harriet Jones with just six words to an aide: “Don’t you think she looks tired?”

The character had been PM for a very short time but had made serious errors of judgement. In that respect – and that alone – she is the David Cameron of the Doctor Who universe.

Cameron and his cronies are currently wheeling out a succession of policies that they want us to believe are new. The latest of these, according to the BBC News website, involves extended opening hours for local doctors.

That’s right – he’ll be piloting a £50 million scheme in nine areas of England where surgeries will be able to bid for funding to open from 8am to 8pm, seven days a week.

Perhaps he’s hoping that our memories have suffered rapid ill-health recently, because this is nothing but an old Labour scheme, painted blue.

Labour offered GP practices extra money to open later in the evening and on weekends, and most surgeries tried it out – until lack of demand meant funding was reduced and hours cut back.

Many surgeries still offer out-of-hours appointments – so it seems unlikely that there is any need for Cameron’s version at all…

… unless he is considering making an appointment for himself. Look at the image. Don’t you think he looks tired?

Other policies introduced during the Tory conference include the indefinite extension of Workfare for the long-term unemployed, which is nothing more than an underhanded plot to make it seem that joblessness has dropped, allowing the Bank of England to raise interest rates, as this blog revealed yesterday.

And the much-touted but low-paying married tax allowance turned out to be even lower-paying for the low-waged who are already receiving help through tax credits, which are due to be phased out in favour of Universal Credit, paid to people whose incomes are low after tax. Their higher after-tax income means their UC will drop by £130, making them just £70 per year better-off.

Meanwhile, the ‘free school meals’ policy unveiled by Coalition partners the Liberal Democrats has also left a nasty taste in peoples’ mouths. It turns out that the number of people receiving such help is about the only indicator of low-income households available to school authorities, and is part of how schools show regulators that SAT results are not their only priority – they are doing their best in areas where parents are out of work. Losing that marker means schools in challenging circumstances will be unable to demonstrate their situation and will suffer as a result.

That leaves just the new tax on plastic bags in England, which is an idea the Coalition stole from the much-maligned Labour Welsh Government – another Labour idea the Tories have adopted (and this should serve as a warning sign for Labour: When Tories adopt your policies, you have drifted much too far to the right of the political spectrum).

Clearly the strain – of trying to dream up new policies that will make his party look good – has taken its toll on clueless Cameron.

Don’t you think he looks tired?

latest video

news via inbox

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

11 Comments

  1. John Ohara October 1, 2013 at 12:24 pm - Reply

    No, not tired, just a lying incompetent who has clear Fascist leanings. An expensive education wasted here, mind you, education minus any intelligence is meaningless anyway.

    Roll on UKIP

    • Mike Sivier October 1, 2013 at 12:28 pm - Reply

      STROLL on, UKIP!

      While I agree with your opinion of Cameron’s character, have you ever heard the phrase, “Out of the frying pan, into the fire”?

      • John Ohara October 1, 2013 at 3:26 pm - Reply

        Indeed, do you think they (the coalition) are running scared of adverse public criticism and comment? Or are so arrogant they feel the public is so stupid we can’t understand what they are doing?
        Or are they so well protected by the wealthy ones they think they can impose any stupid idea on us and get away with it.
        Lets face it, Ian Duncan Smith is a fascist, he should be questioned by the authorities on charges of culpable manslaughter on behalf of the thousands of lives he and Atos have destroyed. We need to remind the public of Bettsygate (2001/2) and the degree he claims he got from a university which did not and has not any degree courses. It was people like Smith in Germany during the 20s that enabled Hitler to achieve immense evil. Then we need to shame him in public so his protector Cameron has to sack him.

        • Mike Sivier October 1, 2013 at 4:55 pm - Reply

          I think all politicians are blind to the fact that the general public can dig up the facts on any issue very quickly and expose any lies or inconsistencies in their statements and actions. They have yet to realise that they can no longer expect to say one thing, do another, and not suffer reprisals from a betrayed public.
          As far as Smith the Disgrace to the Regiment is concerned, some of us are working on it!

      • AM-FM October 2, 2013 at 3:49 pm - Reply

        “I think all politicians are blind to the fact that the general public can dig up the facts on any issue”

        I think the 2015 election (if this regime don’t cancel elections) will be the UK’s first internet election. Hopefully their insistance that us plebs do everything online UJM UC etc. will come back and bite them.

  2. […] Tired old Tory: Is this David Cameron or Ken Clarke?  […]

  3. Paul Medland October 1, 2013 at 5:14 pm - Reply

    For those who maybe are not as old as myself and I don’t consider myself old. As a child I remember Doctors surgeries we didn’t have health centres or health practices as some like to be called. The Doctors surgeries were held in a church hall or a dwelling converted to act as a surgery you didn’t need to make an appointment and they had late surgeries to cater for working people I am going back to the 60’s and 70’s so whether Labour or the Conservatives are trying to reinvent the wheel or not someone got there long before either of them.

  4. Gavin MacMillan October 1, 2013 at 5:17 pm - Reply

    No great time for any of the mainstream parties, but this doesn’t mean that a genuinely good idea formulated by one cannot be used by another without claiming this indicates they are getting too close. I of course, talk about the bag tax. While not exactly earth shattering in the current scheme of things,anything which reduces the amount of plastic ending up in land-fills can only be for the good. Indeed, ban them all together!

    • Mike Sivier October 1, 2013 at 6:26 pm - Reply

      I’m not against the bag tax either – here in Wales we’ve had it for a while and it has cut down the number of plastic bags in circulation by three-quarters (we’re told). My point was that an idea Cameron adopted from a devolved administration that he regularly lambasts in the House of Commons has proved to be the ONLY worthwhile idea that he & his party have been able to field during conference season.

  5. Stephen Bee October 1, 2013 at 9:36 pm - Reply

    I don’t mind paying 4x5p bag tax..on one condition, I can personally place them over the heads of IDS, Hoban. McVey & Scameron and suffocate the obnoxious tw*ts

    LOL

  6. […] David Tennant's outstanding run as the title character in Doctor Who began by ending the career of fictional Prime Minister Harriet Jones with just six words to an aide: "Don't you think she looks …  […]

Leave A Comment