Cameron 'sorry' for being asleep at the wheel

amcluesent

"David Cameron sorry for 'cozy consensus' during the boom years

David Cameron has apologised for the Conservative Party’s failure to identify problems in the economy during the boom years.

The Tories must accept a share of the blame for the cosy economic consensus that allowed debt to rise to unsustainable levels, the party leader said."

Does it mean anything? Let's hope the Tory's remember that sound money was the basis of their economic policy from 1980 to 1988.

Dan:_4

Cameron or Brown???? Not a great choice for this next election, is it?

Decadent_Fool

His comment annoyed me because it just struck me purely as point scoring against Brown, as he hasn't apologised. We don't need point scoring, we need a viable alternative (whichever party that may be). Like you said Dan:, not a great choice

prowla

Remember "an end to boom and bust" - what a fool that man is!
Sadly, the last decade has seen Labour with a majority that has allowed them to do what they like, and the Tories wouldn't have been able to stop them anyway.

dealsearcher

It may have been a bit of 'I'm apologizing when you're not' kind of points scoring but I think there is something genuine about Cameron. I just hope I'm right and he is not an even better actor than Blair was.

CLAPTON

Presumably Cameron is saying that if the Tories had been in power then they too would have allowed this economic disaster to have occurred.. maybe even worse as they believe in deregulation as a central belief.

Most curious but essentially point scoring and doesn't really say much for the man.

Sapphire

CLAPTON wrote: »

Most curious but essentially point scoring and doesn't really say much for the man.

It's a start – better than not admitting you were wrong at all and at least partly to blame for the collapse of an economy (while at the helm at that, i.e. Herr Brown).

Sapphire

dealsearcher wrote: »

It may have been a bit of 'I'm apologizing when you're not' kind of points scoring but I think there is something genuine about Cameron. I just hope I'm right and he is not an even better actor than Blair was.

All politicians seem to be essentially liars, slimesters through to outright crooks – though some may well start off with the best intentions.

It's also a very bad idea for one party to be in office for too long – as Labour has been. The longer they are in office, the more corrupt and damaging to this country they are becoming.

It's a question of opting for the party that will do the least damage to the things you believe in.

stevetodd

I wouldn't vote for someone who shoots deer for sport and wants to bring back fox hunting

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/now-its-dave-the-deadly-deer-stalker-437853.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1543823/Revealed-Cameron-the-deer-hunter.html

nickmason

It's frustrating.

Back in 2003, the conservatives were telling everyone who they could that this was an economy built on borrowing. No one listened (partially because leading the charge was John "so intelligent we dismiss him as a star trek vulcan" Redwood - how very British to beat up the clever people). The media still only wanted to hear/report that Gordon Brown was following his golden rules, and that the conservatives were racist anti-immigrant.

Along comes St Vince, and after he grabs the limelight with his brilliant joke about Brown/Mr Bean/Stalin, he identifies the problem that "no one else had seen", and is suitably elevated somewhere way above parliament in the eyes of the people.

So given that the conservatives aren't getting the credit for spotting most of the problem, Cameron apologises for the bit he didn't spot (or at least didn't try and make a lot of noise about). Yes, he's trying to point out that Brown doesn't accept that things went wrong on his watch. Yes, it is, to some extent, playing politics - but it's also a legitimate response to Brown's continued tilting at the Tories "what would they have done?" If the media is going to run the story that the Tories would have done nothing better, then the Tories might as well apologise.

It's sad that the media has this much power. It's even sadder that most people don't care to critique what the media tells them - and I include people from all walks of life, not just telegraph/mail readers, in that.

Graham_Devon

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Like the title of this OP. Asleep while at the wheel. He has never been at the wheel. The only time he has got a look in to the wheel is when he's put out the tories ideas and Labou have nicked them.

Brown / Blair have been at the wheel, with a majority that meant Cameron was just a back seat passenger.

If he apologises for not trying to do more as opposition, he gets damned for not doing more as a leader (which he never was).

If he doesnt apologise, he gets called the do nothing party.....when they can't really do anything anyway, because they have no controls.

It's worth looking at what he was actually apologising FOR, before saying it's all point scoring. The apology was for not doing more to try and raise the issues of the problems as the opposing party.