A Hare-brained government!

"Friends are arguing about whether this is the worst government since 1945. It certainly seems so. Blair’s administration did the single worst thing by invading Iraq, and Eden’s got the worst comeuppance, after invading Suez. But there’s been none in my lifetime that so resembles a team about to drop into the Conference. You look around the field and the players are all kicking the mud rather than the ball. Can anyone name a minister who’s had a good game? Even the free-spirited ones like Vince Cable and Kenneth Clarke lost all their vim the minute they got red boxes. Gove, Lansley and Duncan-Smith call to mind George Santayana’s definition of a fanatic: someone who redoubles his efforts after forgetting his aim. Hague merely seems bored, as though his brief — the world — weren’t as interesting to him as an elliptical machine. The disparity between Cameron’s moral lectures to the young and the ugliness of his own tongue dismays even his supporters. Osborne and Cameron represent class interest pure and simple. ‘Does it help us?’ is the only question they ever ask. Their dishonest strategy of blaming Labour for everything the bankers did wrong ran out of gas five miles back down the road. It will be interesting to see what new PR wangle they come up with next to disguise the failure of their own analysis."

The above quote comes from the diary section of this week's edition of The Spectator. The magazine tends to be Conservative supporting, in the same way the New Stateman leans towards the Labour Party.

David Hare is a neutral political observer, having written satirically on all politics for many years. I do not know which way he votes, and his appearnace in The Spectator is not evidence that he is a Conservative, as it often has articles by those from the opposite camp.

However, that they have allowed such a blatant attack on the government could be seen that they are unhappy with much that is going on. Editor Fraser Nelson has described the Health and Social Care Bill as amongst the top ten worst bills of the past decade.

I will allow David Hare's words to speak for themselves, but just to wind up, this government has already developed a reputation for poor drafting of bills, and David Cameron himself is noted for lacking attention to detail.

As an article in The Independent on January 29th so amply demonstrated, when it was revealed that plans for a second coalition with the Liberal Democrats hasve been dumped and, "a new agreement has been abandoned because ministers realise running the country is harder than they had thought."

A senior cabinet minister said, ""We have realised that governing is more than just passing legislation. We really need to focus on ensuring they [the laws] work so we can go to voters with proof that we have made a difference."

So right from day one the Conservatives didn't know what they were doing, and the Liberal Democrats shell-shocked by finding themselves in a position of responsibility, were just unable to step up.