While David Cameron is away in Rwanda being photographed with a shovel and a hard hat, he might like to know that his newly-acquired outdoor skills may be of some use in his own country. As of tonight’s news, there are still lots of people trapped in their houses in Gloucestershire.
Yes, I know. I don’t actually expect David Cameron to ride in to the rescue and lift them bodily out of their watery plight. We have firemen and women for that job.
But just as we do not expect our politicians to engage in manual labour for which they are not trained, why should we think it normal when they fly to another country to do just that? Are there any particular building skills David Cameron and his merry band can impart to the good banyarwanda?
This trip perplexes me on so many levels. Having lived in that area during the 1994 genocide, I have more than a passing interest in Rwandese affairs. I have been reading Iain Dale’s Rwanda diaries, and moving as the stories are, I do not see quite why it is essential for David Cameron and his team to be visiting the place now. Is there anything they are doing there that would remain undone were Cameron not there? Do they need to engage in three days’ manual labour before they grasp the problems of Africa?
David Cameron says that the trip is important in bridging the so-called ‘obscene’ gap between rich and poor nations. That a gap exists is not in doubt. What is in great doubt, however, is what David Cameron plans to do about it. The Conservative Party website talks about the charmingly named ‘Project Umubano’. In a nutshell, the project will cover activities such as rebuilding schools and local activities for the little children.
All very worthy, but if David Cameron really wants to do something about the ‘obscene gap’ between rich and poor nations, here is a suggestion from me: push for greater financial accountability from African leaders. And while you’re at it, why not raise the issue of democracy in Rwanda? The last elections in Rwanda can hardly be described as having been free and fair. Will David Cameron be saying anything about that? These are the things that will empower the people. A few huts here and there will help, but as a leading politician from a donor country, David Cameron should be using his influence in a more effective way.
Don’t get me wrong, Africa needs help. But it needs the right help. And it needs the right people to give the right help. Digging latrines and building huts? There are charities and non-governmental organisations available to do that. Speaking a few home truths to a quasi-dictatorial Government? Now that is something he should be doing.
July 23rd, 2007 at 8:27 pm
David Cameron sees this as a popularity contest. He is there for himself, no one else. Tory party donors may want to consider that this is where their money goes. I’m entirely fed up with him and the conservatives.
July 23rd, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Quite right, OnyxStone.
And whatever happened to ‘charity begins at home’? The man’s constituency is affected by flood water, and he is away in Kigali. I wonder if he would have done that if he wasn’t in a safe seat. Talk about taking the constituents for granted. He knows full well they wouldn’t vote Labour, even after this.
July 23rd, 2007 at 10:16 pm
as a slight aside i was thinking today that if we all produced more waste we could raise the ground level of flood plains with landfills, create more hills and build on those hills, to get the mud to cover the land fills dig deeper rivers/canals - and we solve both the countries landfill and flooding problems in one sweep - sometimes i think i should run for office
as regards david cameron he was a good balance to tony, with the smile and the spin, but standing next to the somber and flat spoken gordon brown , mt cameron just seems i dont know , plastic.
Now i’m not saying i like gordon, but i do think maybe his style is a welcome change to politics. now if only we could stop him amking budgetary announcements in almost every speach about how many millions are going to be allocated to x maybe he could get on with becoming the father figure the country is in need of.
now thats a scary thought
July 23rd, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Pardon my language Bel, but David Cameron is fucking up on several important levels at the moment.
This is precisely the reason why I cannot commit to the Conservative Party; they can’t resist shooting themselves in the head.
July 23rd, 2007 at 10:31 pm
Sorry, but what is the point of this African boondoggle?
Because Cameron’s spinmeisters could not even get the “message” of this trip across, as far as I know, it’s an excuse for a jolly.
A little boondoggle on the heels of the embarassment of Tony Lit?
First, they have little if any substance. Now, to top it off, they can’t even get their spin right.
Some Labourites have openly speculated that Cameron is “toast”. I’m starting to believe they’re right.
People want to see THIS country being sorted out- not another photo-op.
July 23rd, 2007 at 10:46 pm
Kris, I am inclined to agree with you.
The thing is, Cameron does not appear to realise that the general public does not care as much about Africa as he seems to think.
And even those who care know enough about Africa to know that Cameron cannot possibly be doing anything of great import out there.
July 23rd, 2007 at 10:57 pm
God this makes me angry. If any of you people were actually here instead of pontificating about things you can know nothing about you would see that a lot of good is coming out of this trip. The Globalisation Commission report which is published tomorrow answers many of the points Bel raises.
Politicians need to learn about things they wouldn;t normally come across. My eyes have been opened a lot while i have been here. I don’t pretend to have all the answers but you cannot help but learn a lot when you are put in these situations.
It is to Cameron;s credit that he has come here. it’s a pity more politicians don’t do the same.
Kris, I’m afraid your comments are unworthy. To call this trip a jolly is an insult to the 44 people who have paid close on £900 of their own money to come here to work on very worthy projects.
Even the hardbitten lobby hacks have been impressed and had their initial cynicism destroyed. One of them has written in the papers tomorrow: “These people are the true face of the Conservative Party”. And he’s right. Those who carp fron the sidelines and revel in finding fault are the ugly face of the Conservative Party and I want nothing to do with them.
July 24th, 2007 at 12:04 am
Iain, I am glad to hear that the report will be addressing some of these issues. However, I’m sure you appreciate that people are very cynical about Cameron now, and with very good reason. He may have good intentions, but the emphasis on ‘presentation’, sometimes at the expense of ’seriousness’, has led people to query much of what he does.
You say you are angry with some of the comments, and I understand. I am reading your diaries and I know how much being there has affected you. I know how you feel, because I have also been in Rwanda. In fact, I was right there in the midst of all the killing, so believe me when I say I know what I am talking about. However, if you would step back a bit, you can see how people feel about this. There are people in Britain suffering at the moment from the recent floods. Granted, their experiences are nothing compared to those of the Rwandese, but that does not make it any less real to them. Sometimes we get the feeling, rightly or not, that our politicians are too busy jumping up and down on the world stage while their own people are suffering in silence backstage, ignored time and again.
I am glad to hear that the cynical lobby hacks were impressed, but may I ask what on earth they were doing there in the first place. Perhaps it is a little naive of me even to wonder that. I don’t mean to impute to you motives I am sure you do not possess, but ending your comment by talking about the favourable headlines the Conservative Party will be getting tomorrow, that just makes it seem as if this was the whole point. I am sure that that is not your meaning, but I am afraid I cannot say the same for some of your travelling companions.
July 24th, 2007 at 12:26 am
Yes, Bel, you are naive. Of course, Cameron had to take the lobby hacks along.
Seriously though. Iain, I can see where you’re coming from and why you feel angry. But as Bel said, it is because of the way Cameron has acted of late, that is what makes people to think that this is all spin. I recall a passage from Quentin Davies’ poisonous resignation letter: he said that when Cameron heard that Brown was going to be talking about the environment, he (Cameron) and Osborne quickly announced plans for an air tax. Without considering the details. Never mind that the plan on close scrutiny fell apart. That didn’t matter. They just wanted to steal Brown’s thunder.
Also take the grammar schools matter. They had obviously calculated that ditching grammar schools was good PR. They obviously did not think it through. If not, what business did they have pronouncing on it before the education policy review they set up, had reported? The only reason they did that was because they thought it would be good PR.
So against this backdrop, they head off to Rwanda. What else are we supposed to think? Yes, you are angry because it feels as if the work you are doing there is being denigrated, but that is the fault of your ‘travelling companions’, as Bel put it, and not our fault.
July 24th, 2007 at 12:28 am
One more thing. In my main article, I didn’t level the charge of ’spin’ at David Cameron, although it would not have been unreasonable if I had.
Rather the point of my article was simply that, if he wanted to ‘do good’ in Africa, there were more effective ways of doing so.
July 24th, 2007 at 10:29 am
I am not going to condemn David Cameron and the rest of the volunteers who have gone to Rwanda. Personally I find I learn more and understand more clearly about issues when I am able to experience them at first hand. So if our leaders can develop a real understanding of the issues by talking with people and working alongside them for a few days, I am all in favour.
Rwanda has a great deal to teach us. Much of what is happening there can become a template for the way other crisis areas can be assisted in the future.
Of course it is unfortunate that the long planned trip has coincided with the floods here. But I really do not see how things would be any better if the team was here rather than in Rwanda. The time when Cameron will be needed is when the inquiries into what went wrong - and crucially why things went so wrong - start to examine failings of leadership. A lot of questions need to be answered and some people need to be held to account.
I understand the sentiment about David Cameron on here. I feel it to a large degree myself. I was one of those people some time ago, before this cacophony of demands, who was calling for the ‘beef’ and pleading for us to reiterate and set out clearly what we stand for. It does not require complete policy statements so early in this Parliament, but it does require a vision that goes beyond being likeable.
We Tories are doing some excellent work at a local level, fighting and defeating Labour with ideas of substance and effective governance. We need the same kind of passion and aggression at national level. We need to make it open season on Labour and Brown in particular so people can understand just how poor this government has been and just how many problems have been stored up that will be damaging for this country - and most importantly what we will do to address those failings and improve the state of our economy, services and society.
I am sure the calls are resonating in Cameron’s mind now. I am praying that Dave is finally going to take off the robe, put in the gum shield, touch gloves and force Brown onto the ropes with a real statement of intent and pummell him. It is all that is missing. If Dave gives us the beef then things will be very different.
July 24th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
I said: “Because Cameron’s spinmeisters could not even get the “message” of this trip across, as far as I know, it’s an excuse for a jolly”.
The key to that is, “as far as I know”.
Iain, I appreciate your hard work and frustration, but the message isn’t getting out.
If someone who is heartily sick unto death of labour (me) isn’t getting the message, I think there could be an issue with that message getting to the people you need to persuade to cross over.
July 24th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
have been thinking about this some more - i’m sure DC is doing good work abroad, am sure that the experience will be good for him, But unless he and his party can win the next election its going to be of limited value. Tony was always off saving the world and i think to some extent people resented that he didnt seem to focus more on home afairs. Cameron seems to be stuck in blair clone mode while at the same time gordon is being presented as a home focused stable non spinning ‘president’ - so maybe david is just the victim of bad timing with teh floods an all , but i suspect in reality the time of the plastic smile and world ambasader is passed and what the country really wants is somebody to sort out the problems at home. If david or anyone else manages that then they will be in a far better position to help those abroad. Its like mental illness and stress in carers. If you dont take care of yourself and your home you end up being no good to those you are trying to help.
July 25th, 2007 at 6:15 am
Iain, if you really believe all that bollocks’tis little wonder you are referred to in other places as a Merchant Banker!
July 25th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
One in four Tory voters say their view of Mr Brown has gone up since he took over.60 per cent of Labour voters think Mr Brown is offering new policies and 63 per cent a new style of government.
Words fail me….
The voters want a lot more police, more prisons and an NHS that doesn’t close wards and sacks staff to make ends meet. They know its costs money and that a party promising tax cuts can’t deliver both. Michael Howard promised tax cuts in 2005 and lost as I recall.
I must admit that I have less time for “Dave” than I had a year ago. I want to hear more about stopping illegal immigrants and less of Africa. However, retreating to Thatcherite policies is offering the past to voters looking to the future…..
July 25th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
i think the most unfortuante thing in all of this is timing. Cameron has every righ tot go to these places and show that he care and that the Tories have good international development policies. Something I cheer, in the hope that as Bel says, they do include the truths about some of the causes of African distress.
The fact we have had a peacetime disaster here at the same time allows the opposition to paint Dave as not caring and so the whole thing is now seen as a blunder.
in this regard, Brown is riding a wave of luck at the moment, able to do no wrong in the public’s eye. The Tories will turn it around though as they build substance to their message. I am prepared to give them more time, the alternative is the end of the UK.
July 27th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Well …he said ..sneaking back ..it seems that time has born out your view of thing Bel as far as the public’s reaction is concerned. I think Cameron has been harshly treated here and Brown has certainly been let off the hook over the Environmental Agency’s performance which has been poor and predictably so.
I `m not much impressed with Iain Dales self righteous outburst , its always unbearable when people start pretending they care deeply about Africa. Not so much that would give any amount of money of their own that hurt ,so we can do without the histrionics . It was an attempt to claim the bleeding heart agenda as part of the Conservative Tent and I can see the sense of it . It failed but that was bad luck . All of these efforts though will start to change the Conservative Party which it must. The alternative is to be permanently out of power and strangers in our own country.
What disappoints me is that you choose to complain about David Cameron and not to attack the coverage that brown is getting . Personally I don`t do hand wringing about people that mean nothing to me but if others enjoy it I have no objection.
July 27th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
What disappoints me is that you choose to complain about David Cameron and not to attack the coverage that brown is getting .
Hi newmania, glad to see you back.
And what would be the point of attacking the coverage Brown is getting? The mainstream media is lazy, prejudiced, etc. We know all this. More importantly, the Conservative Party knows this. For crying out loud, they have hired an ex-tabloid man to help them with their media coverage. They know how things play in the media, so one would expect them to play the media at their own game. If, through their own ineptitude, they have allowed Brown to enjoy an extended honeymoon with the media, then that is their problem. They should be asking their new ex-tabloid employee why he is failing in his job. But don’t look to me to complain on Dave’s behalf about media coverage. For an ex-PR man, he has shown himself to be almost hopeless. Talk about all the spectacular own goals he has scored. Gordon Brown is ahead in the polls without even lifting a finger. The Conservative Party’s current woes are down to Dave and Dave only.
1) Nobody told him to attack grammar schools.
2) Nobody told Osborne to style the Party as the heirs to Blair.
3) Nobody sent them to Rwanda when middle England (including David Cameron’s constituency) was under water.
So having scored these own goals, Brown has taken advantage, and the media, who never have to look far for a ‘narrative’, have seized the only story before their eyes: that Cameron likes spin, while Brown likes substance.
In the days of Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative Party was trying hard, but being rubbished unfairly by the media. This time, however, they are bringing their problems upon themselves, without the media’s help.
July 27th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Oh, and one more point:
4) Nobody asked David Cameron to put his name on the Ealing Southall election paper. ‘David Cameron’s Conservatives’ indeed! As if the party of Churchill, Thatcher, could be reduced in so crass a fashion. As if this great party of freedom and progress has become one man’s plaything. As if David Cameron himself is bigger than the party.
For that act alone, he deserves to be pilloried for ever.
Heavens, are these people serious?
July 27th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
David Lodge. what a perceptive comment. still, it takes one to know one, i suppose.
July 28th, 2007 at 12:21 am
That would probably not be David Lodge the author..just a stab in the dark.
July 28th, 2007 at 12:26 am
btw Bel, what you say is pure female thinkin` and if I get the time before we go off to Hampshire for the weekend I will pop in to set you straight.Well may you quiver in terror as the hour approaches !!
July 28th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Newmania, you always make me smile.
‘Pure female thinking’
That may well be, but as this sort of ‘female thinking’ leads many to the ballot box, and influences the way they cast their votes, I suggest that instead of ’setting me straight’, it would be better you find some way of acquainting David Cameron with ‘female thinking’. Who knows, it may just make him attractive to the voters once again.
And as for quivering in terror, hahaha