This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/13/david-cameron-pmq-britain
The article has changed 8 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| That final David Cameron PMQs in full: everything is awesome! | That final David Cameron PMQs in full: everything is awesome! |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| “As I leave today,” reflected David Cameron, “I hope that people will see a stronger country.” And I hope to open the batting for England in the first test against Pakistan at Lords tomorrow. | “As I leave today,” reflected David Cameron, “I hope that people will see a stronger country.” And I hope to open the batting for England in the first test against Pakistan at Lords tomorrow. |
| He certainly leaves behind a country that has voted to leave the European Union in which he wanted it to remain, whose own union is imperilled, which is beset by the grimmest economic warnings, which is moving close to a one-party state, and which is staring down the barrel of a Sam Allardyce managerial era. Technically the last two aren’t his fault. But when you’re hot, you’re hot. | |
| Cameron was mostly thanked by the House. Even the leader of what is currently euphemised as “the opposition” had praise | Cameron was mostly thanked by the House. Even the leader of what is currently euphemised as “the opposition” had praise |
| This wasn’t the precise summary the outgoing prime minister went with, deciding to play out with a tribute to the House of Commons. “I will miss the roar of the crowd, I will miss the barbs of the opposition. But I will be willing you on – willing all of you on.” His last line was a soaring hymn to accomplishment that glossed over the fatal political nosedive he’d just taken. “Nothing is really impossible if you put your mind to it,” Cameron claimed. “After all, as I once said, I was the future once.” Mm. Unfortunately, you can’t fit 48% of the country in a DeLorean. | This wasn’t the precise summary the outgoing prime minister went with, deciding to play out with a tribute to the House of Commons. “I will miss the roar of the crowd, I will miss the barbs of the opposition. But I will be willing you on – willing all of you on.” His last line was a soaring hymn to accomplishment that glossed over the fatal political nosedive he’d just taken. “Nothing is really impossible if you put your mind to it,” Cameron claimed. “After all, as I once said, I was the future once.” Mm. Unfortunately, you can’t fit 48% of the country in a DeLorean. |
| Still, let all farewell montages be soundtracked with Everything Is Awesome. Cameron has always a masterful line in wry faux self-deprecation, and his final prime minister’s questions was the usual genial cockabout. There were walk-ons for a couple of classic Cameron ordinary folk. An employee in Downing Street who wasn’t remotely interested in politics, but who’d thanked him for “your lot” passing legislation allowing him to marry his partner. A man in New York who’d apparently said to him, “Hey – prime minister’s questions – we love your show.” These should be among your favourite real-life characters to be showcased by Cameron since the TV debate shortly before he first came to power in 2010, in which he described meeting “a 40-year-old black man” who’d “served in the Royal Navy for 30 years”. | |
| Related: David Cameron delivers parting shots at Jeremy Corbyn in final PMQs | Related: David Cameron delivers parting shots at Jeremy Corbyn in final PMQs |
| He was mostly thanked by the House. Even the leader of what is currently euphemised as “the opposition” had some praise. Corbyn, who always delivers jokes like he’s chewing a wasp, asked Cameron to pass on his thanks to his mother for the advice on smartening up his business attire, and inquired if he was going to take up the newly vacant seat on the Strictly judging panel. Do they film it in a seven-star hotel in the Maldives? If not, probably best to rule him out. | He was mostly thanked by the House. Even the leader of what is currently euphemised as “the opposition” had some praise. Corbyn, who always delivers jokes like he’s chewing a wasp, asked Cameron to pass on his thanks to his mother for the advice on smartening up his business attire, and inquired if he was going to take up the newly vacant seat on the Strictly judging panel. Do they film it in a seven-star hotel in the Maldives? If not, probably best to rule him out. |
| So what now? In answer to the traditional question about his engagements, Cameron had begun by observing wryly that his diary for the rest of the day was “remarkably light”, other than a meeting with Her Majesty. Ah yes, this afternoon’s appointment to see the Queen – the 12th prime minister to take their leave in her reign. There’s always speculation as to what she says at these moments – I assume that today HM will just adapt the words of the police chief in Point Break: “You were a real blue flame special, weren’t ya? Young, dumb and full of …“ | So what now? In answer to the traditional question about his engagements, Cameron had begun by observing wryly that his diary for the rest of the day was “remarkably light”, other than a meeting with Her Majesty. Ah yes, this afternoon’s appointment to see the Queen – the 12th prime minister to take their leave in her reign. There’s always speculation as to what she says at these moments – I assume that today HM will just adapt the words of the police chief in Point Break: “You were a real blue flame special, weren’t ya? Young, dumb and full of …“ |
| Fun? He was full of fun while it lasted, wasn’t he? We must hope Cameron’s resignation honours will reflect this aspect of his personality. A peerage for his friend Jeremy Clarkson. A knighthood for the former police horse he couldn’t remember riding at the height of the phone-hacking scandal. | |
| Related: Eyes down, apocalypse bingo players: Labour’s Jedi council has spoken | Marina Hyde | Related: Eyes down, apocalypse bingo players: Labour’s Jedi council has spoken | Marina Hyde |
| His other task today will be to leave a letter for his successor. And as a prime minister who spent most of the last election campaign holding up Liam Byrne’s joke note reading “I’m afraid there is no money”, I’d like to think he went with some black humour of his own when dashing something off to Theresa May. Something like: “I’m afraid there is no future”. The other thing he leaves May is Samantha Cameron’s naff chrome kitchen, which she’ll be too waste-conscious to rip out. | His other task today will be to leave a letter for his successor. And as a prime minister who spent most of the last election campaign holding up Liam Byrne’s joke note reading “I’m afraid there is no money”, I’d like to think he went with some black humour of his own when dashing something off to Theresa May. Something like: “I’m afraid there is no future”. The other thing he leaves May is Samantha Cameron’s naff chrome kitchen, which she’ll be too waste-conscious to rip out. |
| In the end, though, perhaps you shall know a country by the boggling displacement activity in which it engages in its hour of greatest crisis. The prime minister was at pains to address one of the dominant news preoccupations over the past 48 hours. To wit: the future of Larry, the Downing Street cat. Honestly, this bleeding cat. There is no better illustration of the thousand-yard stare of British repression than the worry, time and concern that has been lavished on this cat, even as Britain hurtles deeper into the shitstorm. How will the cat take a new person in charge of the people who are in charge of the people who put food in its bowl? Is the cat pining? Is the best thing to do with the cat to give it to the Cameron children? Or will the cat take Brexit as an opportunity, and seize it with both paws? What is the best way to help the cat through this? | In the end, though, perhaps you shall know a country by the boggling displacement activity in which it engages in its hour of greatest crisis. The prime minister was at pains to address one of the dominant news preoccupations over the past 48 hours. To wit: the future of Larry, the Downing Street cat. Honestly, this bleeding cat. There is no better illustration of the thousand-yard stare of British repression than the worry, time and concern that has been lavished on this cat, even as Britain hurtles deeper into the shitstorm. How will the cat take a new person in charge of the people who are in charge of the people who put food in its bowl? Is the cat pining? Is the best thing to do with the cat to give it to the Cameron children? Or will the cat take Brexit as an opportunity, and seize it with both paws? What is the best way to help the cat through this? |
| Sling another chair leg on the fire and accept that this is your reality. For Queen and country we must do our duty to the cat, just as Anthony Hopkins in Remains of the Day must serve dinner while his father is dying upstairs. | Sling another chair leg on the fire and accept that this is your reality. For Queen and country we must do our duty to the cat, just as Anthony Hopkins in Remains of the Day must serve dinner while his father is dying upstairs. |