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The Hubris of David Cameron exposed at PMQs

October 26th, 2011 Posted in Uncategorized by

One of the best things about Prime Minister’s questions is that not everything can be scripted.

Of course, the whole of Wednesday morning is devoted to preparing answers. But in the exchange with the Leader of the Opposition, the Prime Minister has to respond somewhat spontaneously. And in those moments one gets a true insight into the Prime Minister’s thinking.

Gordon Brown famously revealed his superhero alter-ego during one PMQs, exposing his self-image as a great statesman, striding the world clearing up financial turmoil from New York to Frankfurt to Tokyo. His risible arrogance led to a predictable bout of yah-booing from Members opposite.

Last week,  PMQs revealed something far more disturbing from David Cameron, but members opposite failed to notice, for to them it was a perfectly normal thing for a Prime Minister to say.

“I take responsibility for everything that happens in the UK economy”

Everything? Really? The UK economy is an incalculable number of individual transactions and decisions, taken by millions of people, each of whom has a unique set of value-preferences and a unique set of knowledge. The UK economy is the free will of 60 million people. Does the Prime Minister really believe that he is responsible for all that?

Admittedly, this conceit is all to common among politicians. It lay at the heart of Project CyberSyn, Salvador Allende’s computer-driven economy, where “companies will have to conform to the Government’s planning.” It lay at the heart of the Maoist and Stalinist five-year plans that led to the starvation of millions. It is the conceit that built the Common Agricultural Policy and destroyed the British car industry.

Today at PMQs I would like somebody to stand up and ask the Prime Minister “Last week the Prime Minister told the House that he took responsibility for everything that happens in the UK economy. Does my Right Honourable Friend really take responsibility for a child’s purchase of a lollipop, or the choice of the local off licence owner to discount Stella rather than Becks? And is it not, in fact, a cause of today’s economic malaise that governments have, for as long as any of us can remember, sought to replace the free will of the people with the plans and regulations of politicians? Is it not time that politicians got out of people’s way and allowed them to get on with what they do best, which is create wealth for themselves and one another?”

Sadly, I doubt that anybody in the Commons will have even noticed the Prime Minister’s moment of hubris. Instead of a question like that, both David Cameron and I will have to put up with more drivel from Ed Milliband.

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