What's he going to do? Well presumably one of his first actions will be to pull up the carpet in the lounge and lift the floorboards and retrieve all the details of his not inconsiderable personal wealth which he has had hidden there since assuming public office. I don't suppose he will be off to Jobcentre Plus, although if he had wanted to avail of their no doubt excellent services he would have been lucky, as there is still one in Witney, unlike in my local town, where it has been closed down so that you now have to travel some considerable distance if you want to sign on.
Actually do you still sign on? My only real experience of signing on was in Southern Ireland back in the glory glory days of the late nineties and the Celtic Tiger, where many people called in to collect their dole on the way to work. JSA is an altogether different kettle of fish, as I understand it. It is difficult to imagine what an interview with David Cameron might be like. But anyway, thinking about it, he made himself deliberately unemployed so he would be dismissed out of hand before getting to the embarrassing questions about his previous job.
Let's look back at the last few years of our Bullingdon bully boy's career. He was elected as leader of the Conservative party in 2005 following The Addams Family years in the wilderness as a succession of members of that Family tried to lead the party. One by one Fester, Lurch and finally Gomez failed to inspire the British electorate.
The Boy David was a new broom who swept away the cobwebs, and promised to lead the party to the sunlit uplands of power. At his first attempt he actually failed to convince an electorate that he was the one to lead them. The party got the most seats on the 2010 General Election, but not enough for an overall majority. The balance of power was held by Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats, and for reasons known only to themselves they decided no only to support the Conservatives but also to enter into a formal coalition with them. Clegg has admitted in his recent memoir that the Lib Dems were effectively stitched up and that he had massively underestimated the ruthlessness of the Conservatives. He was sidelined in a meaningless job, and the destruction began.
It is probably fair to say that the Lib Dems were a slight modifying force when it came to the more extreme Tory policies but nevertheless they still wreaked significant damage in their five years together.
In 2015 the Lib Dems were destroyed in the election, partly as a result of their change of mind on tuition fees, but more generally as a punishment for being Lib Dems. The SNP swept to power in Scotland, UKIP won a significant number of votes but only one seat, Labour lost quite badly, having chosen Ed Miliband as their leader, a man who proved to be too easy a target for the hostile media.
Somewhat unexpectedly Cameron returned to No 10, this time unfettered by pesky Lib Dems and gave us full-on austerity.
But David had made one serious miscalculation. He was worried about UKIP, with some justification as it turned out, although it can be argued that Labour also suffered at their hands, but he was also worried about a massive fault line which ran through his own party as a result of differing positions on membership of the EU. To head this off he promised to call an in/out referendum at some time during the five years of the next parliament. He got back in and was forced to do as he had promised. I won't go into all the details of that shambles but that was definitely his nemesis. Indeed the whole sorry affair had all the trappings of a Greek tragedy.
So he came and now he's gone.
What is his legacy?
Well today's Guardian provides a detailed piece on his time in office so I won't spend long here going through it. If you want reminding of what actually happened the link is herehttp://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/sep/12/the-highs-and-lows-of-the-david-cameron-years?CMP=fb_gu
I trawled through my memory and tried to find positive things he will be remembered for. I must confess I am struggling. The Guardian mentions the 2012 Olympics, which I think is pushing it a bit, and also victory in the Scottish Referendum, although I am buggered if I noticed any significant 'Cameron effect' at work there.
The one thing I do applaud him for is the introduction of single sex marriage. That this was brought in under a Conservative PM is surprising, and hints at a glimmer of humanity in an otherwise bland dogmatic and thoughtless man.
I use those adjectives deliberately. He is bland in that he often comes across as reasonable and thoughtful but not passionate in any real sense. You know that because he frequently has to tell his audience how passionate he is about something. Passion should be inherent, something Owen Smith could usefully learn. It should come from your actions and policies and not have to be pointed out at every possible moment.
He is dogmatic. I don't need to say much more. He and Gideon invented austerity, and they stuck to it. He is dogmatic.
And he is thoughtless. He did not think of the effects that this discredited austerity would have upon individuals. He behaved as if people were statistics and if he thought about it for one second and had an ounce of compassion he would never have slept at night. He obviously has the ability to compartmentalise his thoughts, in the same way that a hangman must have, which is good for him but appalling for the rest of us.
To finish let us just have a quick run through of everything else he will be remembered for. I won't comment, just provide headings:
- Increasing wage inequality
- Increase in the number of children living in poverty
- Food banks
- Lack of funding for schools and their academisation
- University tuition fees
- Collapse of the NHS and its back door privatisation
- HS2
- The Northern Powerhouse
- Rail franchises
- A festering mess in Libya
- Ditto in Iraq and Syria
- Dodgy deals with China over nuclear plants
- Cuts to our defence forces
- Cuts to the police
- Cuts to Local Authority funding
- Andy Coulson
- Jeremy Clarkson
- Rebekah Brooks
And last and definitely not least, the thing he will go down in history for.
- THE EU REFERENDUM.
So long Dave.
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