Posted by on September 15, 2019 1:24 pm
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Categories: µ Newsjones

When great power comes with great irresponsibility

The publication of extracts from David Cameron’s memoirs casts a chill light on the flaws of the British political system. The interest lies not in the detail of who stabbed whose back or which lies Boris Johnson told and when. By releasing only extracts, Mr Cameron is able to control the narrative for a few days. The full verdict must wait until the whole book is out. But a broad outline already seems clear.

Mr Cameron has known pain and failure in his life but it has always been limited failure and privileged pain. The miseries of boarding school at seven are entirely real and for some people emotionally crippling but they come with an assurance that only important people can suffer that way. The devastating and terrible loss of his severely disabled son was a tragedy that left him “in darkness”. No one can doubt his suffering during which he experienced perhaps one of the better functioning and better funded parts of the system. Mr Cameron maybe did not encounter the understaffed and overmanaged hospitals of much of England or the moth-eaten social care system for the elderly. Had he done so he might have understood a little of the damage that his policies have done.

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