Part time politics, partitioned partyI hinted at Cameron's disconnected attitude to politics in the posting below. My thoughts were prompted by his recording of an interview for the supposed flagship BBC political programme Sunday AM. As Master Marr stated on the now available transcript,
linked here:
But next month's elections are a big test for him too, and of how far the Cameron effect has spread.
Well I met David Cameron during a break in canvassing at a hospital in his Oxfordshire constituency.
Big test maybe, but hanged if Vapid will give up his Sunday for a live interview regardless of what news might break!
Recalling that Cameron when previously interviewed by the slimy Scot Marr in Henley ,
Vapid claimed Scottish blood running thick through his veins and absolutely refused to contemplate an adjustment to the Barnett formula whereby scrounging Scots live off English largesse, and have so for decades. Now we get this exchange:
ANDREW MARR: Let's talk about Scotland where the Conservatives are not in a particularly strong position, to put it gently. It has been suggested that you might hive off the party in Scotland, and Scottish Conservatives might effectively organise themselves to give them a new chance.
DAVID CAMERON: Well I don't have a plan to do that. I think it's important though that we do emphasise that the Scottish Conservatives are a Scottish party - they elect their own leader, they write their own policies, they're responsible for their own manifesto.
It's devolution at work, so they are able to come up with the right policies for Scotland, not always the same policies that we might have in England, that's right. And we need to emphasise that. And I think that's important, but I don't have plans to...
ANDREW MARR: Would you be against them choosing a new name, for instance?
DAVID CAMERON: Well it would be up to them to make that suggestion if they wanted to. I think actually they are very much running under the banner of being Scottish Conservatives and I think it's important that they emphasise that they are a party for Scotland.
ANDREW MARR: If, as a result of these elections, Scottish National Party are forming an administration in Edinburgh and calling for there to be a referendum, what will your response be? Don't they have a right to have a referendum if people in Scotland want a referendum and they say they do, they've got a right to that haven't they?
DAVID CAMERON: If there is a referendum I will campaign as actively as I can for a no vote because I want to keep England and Scotland together. But we've always said if that there was a referendum, and if the result went from my point of view the wrong way we would have to honour that. I think that's that the only way to be open and frank with people in Scotland about this, but I desperately, you know, hope that it doesn't happen.
So what happened to the Union. How can the British opposition party in Parliament have different policies to its own party in Scotland. If so, who is the leader where? Is it me or has the world gone mad?
I am beginning to believe Jack Straw or Ming Campbell might be the last hopes for Britain. At least they have seen life, albeit just from the Westminster/(Edinburgh) bubble.