The rank hypocrisy with which members of the Conservative party are standing up to praise Nelson Mandela is something that only those with a non-functioning manure detector can accept without feeling a degree of outrage. As Cameron lead the charge to praise a man immeasurably better than himself in a speech filled with nauseating platitudes, he described Mandela as an ‘inspiration for the future’. It is hard to see exactly what inspiration, either past or present, Cameron has or will ever gain from the incredible, much mourned Mandela.
It’s no secret that the Conservatives were against Mandela – indeed, it’s not a secret that many of them wanted him hung. But we should let the past be the past, shouldn’t we use some of that forgiveness that Cameron said Mandela was “extraordinarily capable of”?, let go of these minor trivial details that could have robbed the world of one of our greatest forces for good? forgive the “errors of judgement” the Tories made that led them to try to get Mandela hung?
Although it now seems highly unlikely that Cameron himself was part of the notorious conservative “Hang Mandela” Tory movement in the 80’s, he still presides over a party in which the Chairman, Lord Tebbit, was happy to say yesterday that Mandela was a terrorist, whilst a former Tory MP implied it would have been better if Mandela had been hung. Forgiving and forgetting the past, is not really much of an option – the past is still very much alive and well, and acting as the Chairman of the Tory party, thank you very much.
So the issues of bare-faced hypocrisy in Cameron’s platitudes about Mandela are current – but they run much, much deeper than simply was or wasn’t Cameron involved in the “Hang Mandela” campaign. Because for Cameron to preside over the society he and his government are creating day by day in the UK and to then praise Mandela and call him “an inspiration” is hypocritical. Let’s focus on the society that our barely elected Prime Minister and his cronies are creating.
What society is that, you say? Oh, well, I’m so glad you asked…
Cameron, coming from a privileged white, upper class background – rich family, straight into Eton, straight into Oxford – governs a country where the inequality between the rich and the poor is widening day by day, month by month, year by year. His government have systematically ensured that the most impoverished people are made poorer, whilst the bankers take huge pay rises, despite being the ones to blame for the ongoing economic crisis. The economic disparity between the rich and the poor is becoming so wide that, by default, we practically live in a system of economic apartheid. Does Cameron and his creaky coalition government have any interest in reversing this trend of inequality? Of course not.
Instead, they are laughing all the way to the bank, giving themselves and all MP’s 11% pay rises, although for doing what, exactly, it is impossible to tell. Apparently a politician’s main reason for being these days is to increase the quality of their own lives and those close to them, whilst ensuring that everyone else suffers as much as humanly possible, and “the poor” are blamed for not working in an economy where jobs are so scarce that there are now three jobseekers for every job available. But Cameron’s solution is to cut benefits to “encourage people back into work” – in a situation where the work simply isn’t there. In other words, scapegoating, marginalizing and segregating. Incidentally, even if you are in full time work – and not a banker or a politician – there is a good chance that you will be below the poverty line in the UK anyway.
Source: Resolution Foundation
Moving on then, here’s another little nugget:
Last year, 31,000 people in the UK died by freezing to death and with this in mind, the government has simply stood by as the energy firms, in one of the most cynical and evil moves that I can recall in recent history, raised energy bills by an average of 9% – leading to a total of 37% increases over the last three years.I wonder how many deaths that actually equals? How many of the 31,000 people in the UK died because they were simply too poor to be able to afford their energy bills? But Cameron and his cronies will by and large let it slide. In other words, economic murder.
The point?
The point is pretty simple.
For Cameron, presiding over a government hell-bent on creating the most unequal society possible to stand up and claim that Mandela is an inspiration for the future is the most vile hypocrisy imaginable. Whatever future Cameron and Co have mapped out for the future of the UK, you can stake anything on the fact that it has nothing to do with enduring intolerable personal suffering in order to create a more equal society.
Mandela stood for equality his entire life, willing to risk that life to be free from oppression and the evil of the Apartheid system, and to spend 27 years in prison. What, exactly, has Cameron ever done, or suffered, or fought for, that in any way mirrors the achievements of one of the greatest figures of the last fifty odd years? Oh, that’s right – nothing. Maybe his room at Eton was a bit small. That is exactly the extent of David Cameron’s suffering, and also the limit of his contribution to a fairer and more equal society.
“Progress is not just handed down as a gift; it is won through struggle,” Cameron spoke of Mandela. Aside from the fact that Cameron has likely never struggled for anything in his life, it is difficult to imagine what kind of progress he envisions society is making.
