The Reader needn’t trouble herself with too much effort, to find the reason that put Cameron, into the category of ‘damaged political goods’, as The Financial Times of April 16, 2021 provides answers.
Headline: The David Cameron scandal: just how sleazy is British politics?
Sub-headline: While the UK’s record on corruption is good, many recent abuses have been hiding in plain sight
“We all know how it works. The lunches, the hospitality, the quiet word in your ear, the ex-ministers and ex-advisers for hire, helping big business find the right way to get its way.” So said David Cameron in 2010, in a speech on lobbying shortly before he became prime minister.
A decade on it has become painfully clear that the former leader did indeed know how it worked. In recent weeks Cameron has seen his reputation savaged amid details of his lobbying efforts on behalf of the financier Lex Greensill. Each day has brought new revelations about the relationship between the government and Greensill Capital, the supply chain finance company which collapsed last month.
As premier, Cameron allowed Greensill to work from Downing Street — where he styled himself a senior adviser — on a scheme of no clear value to government. Then, after leaving politics, he joined Greensill as a paid adviser and in that role lobbied ministers for the now collapsed business.
His private texts to the chancellor Rishi Sunak would have been worse had Treasury officials not ultimately rejected the appeals. Former officials have been stunned to hear that a senior civil servant in charge of government procurement was allowed to work for Greensill while still in Whitehall. Facing mounting pressure, the government said this week it would launch an inquiry into the affair.
One Tory MP publicly described Cameron’s behavior as “a tasteless, slapdash and unbecoming episode for any former prime minister”.
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The next paragraph is instructive, and in its way places Sunak’s political judgement in the present, not just in peril? Or is Cameron an expendable political actor, like Braverman?
Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition, seeing a chance to tie Boris Johnson to the misconduct of his predecessor, said the scandal is “just the tip of the iceberg”. He added: “Dodgy contracts, privileged access, jobs for their mates, this is the return of Tory sleaze.”
Former Conservative prime minister David Cameron has been named foreign secretary in a shock appointment as part of the Rishi Sunak’s cabinet reshuffle.
A No 10 source said Mr Sunak had asked Ms Braverman “to leave government and she has accepted”, with Mr Cleverly moving from the Foreign Office to the Home Office.
The Conservatives said Mr Sunak is carrying out a wider reshuffle which “strengthens his team in government to deliver long-term decisions for a brighter future”.
Labour said the surprise return of Mr Cameron – who has criticised Mr Sunak the decision to scrap HS2 – made the Tory leader’s claim to be the change candidate “laughable”.
Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle expressed his frustration at Mr Cameron’s appointment – saying it was “especially important” that MPs were able to “scrutinise” the work of the Foreign Office during current international crises.
Sir Lindsay said he “looks forward” to hearing from the Sunak government how Lord Cameron – handed a life peerage – will be “properly accountable to this House”.
Lord Cameron would be able to face questions from elected MPs only when he appears before select committees. Sir Lindsay said he had asked the clerks about possible options for “enhancing scrutiny” of Lord Cameron.
Keir Starmer’s national campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden said: “A few weeks ago Rishi Sunak said David Cameron was part of a failed status quo – now he’s bringing him back as his life raft.”
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There is so much more…
Political Cynic
Even The Economist , in the guise of the Ghost of Bagehot, finds the David Cameron’s political rehabilitation anathema.
David Cameron always looked the part. Even the most powerful man on Earth was taken aback by the ease with which the jacketless, tieless British prime minister behaved. Barack Obama, a former American president, noted that Mr Cameron “possessed an impressive command of the issues, a facility with language and the easy confidence of someone who’d never been pressed too hard by life”. Mr Cameron had the attributes to be an excellent prime minister: intelligence, diligence, a quick wit and a smooth manner. Instead, he managed to be one of the worst.
Seven years after Mr Cameron left office in 2016, in the wake of losing the Brexit referendum, the former prime minister has returned to front-line politics as foreign secretary. The decision of Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, to fire Suella Braverman, a hard-line home secretary, cleared the way. James Cleverly, a barrel-chested former reservist, was shunted to take Ms Braverman’s spot, leaving a vacancy as the country’s top diplomat. And so, on the morning of November 13th, the familiar figure of Mr Cameron wandered through the door of 10 Downing Street once again.
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Old allies have praised Mr Cameron’s sense of duty in returning to government. But he did not have to disappear from public life in the wake of Brexit. Mr Cameron once chided a prospective mp for cheekily asking whether he might be made a minister. “You will find that being a backbench Member of Parliament is the greatest honour you can have in life,” said Mr Cameron. “When I cease to be prime minister I will return with great pride to the backbenches as Member of Parliament for Witney, for the rest of my life.” In reality, Mr Cameron served for eight weeks on the backbenches before leaving. When he would have been most useful, during the years of screeching over Brexit between 2016 and 2019, Mr Cameron deserted his post. Now he is bored of private life, he has returned
Manners maketh the manderine
After the clownshow of Mr Johnson’s tenure as prime minister, Westminster wallahs project a dignified air onto Mr Cameron. Yet he embarrassed himself out of office. Practically every senior British politician attempts to fill their boots once they have left Parliament, but most do so quietly and effectively. In contrast Mr Cameron lobbied on behalf of Greensill Capital, a failed supply-chain payments company, in simpering text messages to cabinet ministers that have been made public (“I know you are manically busy—and doing a great job, by the way”).
This kind of record is clearly no obstacle to high office. Mr Cameron has returned largely because Mr Sunak is desperate. He may reassure some wavering southern Conservative voters, who provided the former prime minister’s narrow base. Mercifully, he will do less damage as foreign secretary than he did as prime minister. But the fact is that Mr Cameron maintains a good reputation in certain quarters because of how he comes across rather than what he actually did. It still helps to look the part.
Rootless cosmopolitan,down at heels intellectual;would be writer.
'Polemic is a discourse of conflict, whose effect depends on a delicate balance between the requirements of truth and the enticements of anger, the duty to argue and the zest to inflame. Its rhetoric allows, even enforces, a certain figurative licence. Like epitaphs in Johnson’s adage, it is not under oath.'
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v15/n20/perry-anderson/diary
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