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mercredi, décembre 07, 2005

Farewell Punch (and Judy)


David Cameron is the new leader of the Conservative Party in the UK. Our own, Maltese, Times dedicated its editorial to this new appointment - which only goes to show that somebody at Strickland House still labours (or conserves) under the illusion that The Times of Malta is an independent conservative establishment of its own right.

But back to young David (I am ready to wager that it will become Dave soon). At 39 he is young indeed and has already (like Blair in his time) begun to draw comparisons to that myth called William Pitt the Younger. What I like about Dave is his intention to break with the past... which does take some guts when you are head of a party called Conservative. Reading today's Times (the original) we could hear about the person without experience who was elected to head the party. As always we hear the idealistic story, the one the person sets out with before facing the realities of politics. It is pleasant to hear but one cannot help but ask "How long will this idyllic wishing last?".

I loved the Punch and Judy politics quip. It is an ideal that I share with a passion. Here is what Cameron said:

"And, in a swift illustration of his determination to reclaim the centre ground for the Conservatives, he broke with the legacy of Thatcherism, declaring that there was such a thing as society, and promised a new style of politics that would mean the Tories backing the Government if they thought it was right for the country. He told his party to stop grumbling and to accept modern Britain as it was. With the authority of his massive victory behind him, Mr Cameron prepared to lay down the law to MPs, saying that he wanted an end to “Punch and Judy politics — the name-calling, backbiting, point scoring and finger pointing.”

Apart from the beautiful middle-finger to grammatical convention by the Times contributor who starts a sentence, nay, a paragraph, with the word "And", this Grand Plan of Cameron cannot but be appreciated. Stop the bickering and become real, mature, responsible politicians. The joke (and irony) is on us. On the electors of democratic governments worldwide. Because (yes I start sentences with Because too) you see, we are now come to a point where electoral promises and promising politicians are simply what they were meant to be in the first place. They should not be promising us what they are meant to be doing all along...

There is such a thing as society indeed.... good luck David!

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5 commentaires:

PeachBellini a dit…

Pssst I know this is OT but - recently some friends and I were on about bad baby names. (Un)fortunately I couldn't mention Inika (and Mafalda!) - because thankfully (in this case) not too many people speak Maltese! Anyway they mentioned this site: http://badbabynames.blogspot.com/
There's some real gems!

Andre a dit…

OT too but since someone mentioned it... some of us where hoping you'd see this - http://www.timesofmalta.com/core/article.php?id=207543

Unknown a dit…

Jacques,

Do you not think you may be getting lost in the rhetoric of D. Cameron's message?

May I suggest that you check out a brief post by Neil Clark, who I think is right on target here:
http://neilclark66.blogspot.com/2005/12/case-for-punch-and-judy.html

Also, you may want to read-up on the Henry Jackson Society. Clark has written on this. Links to his article and other relevant links are available via my November 1 article:
http://inoodle.com/2005_11_01_archive.html.

Jacques René Zammit a dit…

Not at all Sean. I think it is more a case of you getting lost in the sarcasm of my message.

What I am stating is that this Man with the Plan is really telling us nothing new. By promising what should be taking for granted he falls fair and square in the category of marketing politicians... values are lost.

So no. I am not at all lost in anybody's rhetoric... least of all that of a Tory!

Unknown a dit…

Thanks, Jacques, for your clarification. Although, at first, I thought you were writing satirically, by the end I thought you may have been straight-faced. Anyway, I am relieved to hear that your post is meant as satire. Nevertheless, the Clark/HJS links mentioned above should be followed by inquiring minds who are concerned with the strengthening of the neoconservative movement in the UK.

Kind regards, Sean