Wednesday 19 May 2010

The End


After 1 year, 9 months, 23 days and 412 entries, this is my final ever posting.

Top blogger Rog T has generously described me as Barnet’s most sensible Tory, but I can now reveal that I am a Tory no longer. I resigned my membership earlier this year, deeply unhappy at the direction in which David Cameron was leading the party. I made no public announcement at the time, in the hope that a new Conservative government would prove my suspicions unfounded.

Sadly, events have merely demonstrated that Mr Cameron is as much a Conservative as Tony Blair was a Socialist. He has hijacked the party that I was once proud to support and serve, for his own ends.

Confirmation, if indeed confirmation was needed, was the undue haste in which Cameron got into bed with Euro Federalist Nick Clegg and then ditched many of the party’s key manifesto pledges. To join together with a party which has refused to remove the whip from the repulsive Baroness Jenny Tonge is something which I cannot ignore or forgive.

As I have written previously, the new government has no democratic legitimacy. The public did not vote for coalition government. Indeed, throughout the election campaign, whenever any of the party leaders were specifically asked what they would do in the event of a hung parliament, they refused to say.

Cameron is now proposing a major Constitutional change (the 55% rule) which was not included in either party’s manifesto, and the public are to be denied their right to vote on this change in a referendum. The only purpose of the new rule is to prevent the coalition government from falling within a five year term. Not even Stalin had the audacity to try something as undemocratic as this!

Cameron and Clegg say the coalition government represents a new type of politics but it looks and smells very much like the same sleazy politics that we have endured for the last 13 years under Labour.

And if Cameron is successful in his attempt, reported today, to change the rules of the 1922 Committee of back bench Conservative MPs, allowing him and his favoured ministers to have a vote in its proceedings, his lust for power will be complete.

In 1887, Lord Acton famously remarked: “And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that. All power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” His words remain as true today as they did then.

I am instinctively a liberal in the traditional meaning of the word. I believe in individual liberty, personal responsibility, and freedom from government. It saddens me greatly that Cameron’s Conservatives no longer share these values.

I have devoted a large part of my life to political activism. But, like so many members of the public who refuse to vote at elections, I have come to the inescapable conclusion that the political system in this country is rotten to the core. The choice, therefore, is either to spend the rest of my life fighting it, or simply ignoring it as best as possible. I have chosen the latter.

As for Barnet Council and our beloved councillors, there is nothing more that I can add that has not already been said about the self-serving money-grabbing parasites who run the Town Hall and I shall waste no more time on them save than to say that I fear it will take the death or serious injury to an elderly resident in sheltered accommodation before voters realise the consequence of re-electing the Tories to office.

I am hugely grateful to all those who sent me information for publication and to the tens of thousands of people - friends and foes alike - who have read this blog since its inception and contributed to the discussions. I hope it has proved entertaining as well as informative.

There is nothing worse than long drawn out farewells, so I shall simply end by saying thank you and goodbye!

8 comments:

Rog T said...

David,

It is us who should thank you

Mrs Angry said...

Oh blimey: please think again - I can understand your reasons for leaving the Tory party behind, and I can easily see why you would be sickened by the behaviour of the local Tories, but never has there been more need of people like you to keep their eye on what is going in Barnet ... it's your duty, DCMD, don't abandon us in our hour of need ...

Jaybird said...

Dave, I am so sorry to read you are stopping. I appreciate the work that you have put into this blog and I have greatly enjoyed reading it. Thank you so much.

Elections only roll around every 5 years. In the meantime, in order to curb that absolute power that you talk about I think that people like you are a vital part of the democratic process.

Our elected representatives need to know that they are under scrutiny and that some people care and will call them to book.

I realise this must have been a difficult decision for you, so I don't want to ask you to reconsider, but I will keep my fingers crossed that if I log in again after the Summer break you might have put fingertip to keypad.

Brian Coleman aka Mr Toad has GOT to go said...

http://colemansgottogo.blogspot.com/2010/05/self-serving-money-grabbing-parasite.html

:-(

baarnett said...

You had said earlier that you were going to take a break - and then the election dragged you back to the keyboard.

I hope you will reconsider.

(A suggestion: are there like-minded individuals who you trust, and who could share the blogging role with you? You might not find it such an enormous burden then, and could contribute every so often.)

Dispair is understandable, at the situation in Barnet - but don't let the bastards grind you down!

Mike said...

As ever, if good men do nothing the bad prevail. One person less, specially one as active s you with good contacts. Opposition is never easy. Standing up for what you believe can help to mitigate the bad, sometimes not. As for why political parties of all persuasions don't work as they should.....perhaps the wish to continue in power or the overriding system run by those who really control things? By all means give-up on the parties but please don't give-up on opposition to the system.

Don't Call Me Dave said...

Thank you all for your kind comments above - they are greatly appreciated! I am aware that I have previously tried to take a break from blogging only to be lured back, but I am really finding it harder to make the time commitment to run the blog properly with my new studies and business to consider.

On the point raised above by baarnett, I would be delighted if other people wanted to take over writing for this blog. If you are interested, just let me know!

BarnetRes said...

If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion.

Marcus T. Cicero

Thank you instructing us by reason