The decision to appoint David Cameron as foreign secretary by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday was reported as a “shock” by most mainstream media outlets. But they failed to add what it really was – an insult.
Former Prime Minister Cameron in 2010 convinced a significant portion of the country, with the help of Liberal Democrat enablers, that austerity was a necessary evil to counteract the effects of the global financial crisis of 2008 and years of what he called “excessive government spending”.
It was evil, all right, but not necessary.
More than 10 years later we see the effects. Billions of pounds of cuts were introduced, limiting council budgets, capping benefits for the poorest, significantly reducing the number of staff working in the public sector and much more all on the back of the promise “we’re all in this together”.
Child poverty rates have gone up steadily since 2010 while homeless households have increased by more than 160% at the same time. In 2010, 60,000 food bank packages were handed out in Britain – in 2022-23 the Trussell Trust says it distributed almost 3 million.
Statistics can only back up what we see with our own eyes. Homelessness almost everywhere, new social housing almost non-existent, prices soaring beyond means, workers striking for better pay and conditions, people rationing their energy, while billionaires continue to grow their fortunes.
So the return of Old Etonian Cameron is not a brave, curious, masterstroke by Sunak. It’s a desperate move from a desperate government, just looking for another headline to get them through the day.
Even in a role as foreign secretary, Cameron does not have a good record. No leadership on Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, alienation of European allies when sanctioning a needless referendum on EU membership in 2016, then immediately resigning when “Vote Leave” narrowly won.
He even stepped down as a Member of Parliament later that year. Not a man who appears to “believe in public service” as he claims.
What he believed in more recently was generating money and lobbying for failed finance business Greensill Capital. Criminal inquiries into alleged fraud are ongoing in Germany and Switzerland, while a Treasury select committee said in 2021 Cameron had shown a “significant lack of judgment” in messaging ministers and civil servants on behalf of the controversial bank.
Now he has returned – an unelected individual appointed as a Lord by an unelected head of state to serve in the government of an unelected Prime Minister. How’s that for democracy?
We all know that Sunak is just scrabbling around, trying to make any kind of mark that may give him a whiff of a legacy before he has to call a general election he will likely lose.
This latest gambit is not one for political nerds or a tasty bit of gossip – it’s real life. People are hurting. Bringing back the man that kicked off the age of punishment shows how far we have sunk.
Christian Radnedge 