Gloom and Grip

Alistair Heath of CITYAM is gloomy for the reasons given here and he has every right to be. It is sadly true that the government is floundering and not even the re-election of Boris Johnson as Mayor will remove the feeling of despondency hanging over us. Surely Cameron must be aware of the unease hovering over his government, that has frankly been self inflicted these last few weeks, ending up in the last instance with the dispute over the time line for Abu Qatada's right to appeal the decision of the European Court of Human Rights that he could be deported to Jordan to face trial there on terrorist charges. Cameron desperately needs to change gear and for example take a robust line with not only the ECHR but also the socialist/statist run EU. He also needs somehow to make it clear that he is determined in the not too distant future to cut back on not only general taxes but all the stealth taxes introduced over the Labour stealing years. A silly example but why has the London Borough of Merton reduced the free parking in Wimbledon High Street from 20 minutes to 10? If we want to encourage growth Government and Councils should be making it easier to spend money rather than the reverse so why didn't Merton increase the free parking time to 30 minutes and drop the no parking rule at the beginning and end of the day? Why is Cameron spending his time fighting peripheral issues like the redefinition of marriage which millions of people don't want? Why is he fighting for proportional elections and 15 year terms for the House of Lords reform that millions of people don't want? Why is he so keen on spending billions on green issues on the basis of assumptions that are unproven and that are going to impoverish us all and that very few of us believe is necessary? It is as if he has picked these issues to fight on as he's sure to win them and by fighting on these issues we will be distracted from his failure to even address the issues that are crucial to this country. These crucial issues include dealing with a complete rewrite of our relationship with the EU and the ECHR, the need to cut our deficit and taxes savagely and to free us from the nanny state by repealing laws and brutally cutting red tape and the need to get the Thames Estuary Airport built by private funding. There is no denying that Cameron has done a number of good things but he needs to do much, much more and to drop the peripheral and easy targets. In other words he needs to get a grip.