I was thinking about Cameron the other day, and was wishing for a penny for his thoughts. His public utterances since the vote have been platitudes around the will of the people being expressed, but privately he must be horrified at what he’s unleashed. Whatever anyone’s thoughts on his politics, he’s far less prone than Johnson to self delusion and his legacy will be important to him (as it will to all politicians) which is now utterly destroyed.
The fundamental mistakes he made were threefold. Firstly, calling the referendum; secondly heading up the Remain campaign; thirdly, the listless and ineffectual way he ran that campaign.
Think he was right to resign though, and I don’t think it’s fair to characterise that as cowardice, especially given the grotesque way that Johnson clung on to power, and the way that Truss will too.
That’s a sideshow though. Up to that point, I actually thought he was a capable and sure footed politician, and I’ve been proved conspicuously and spectacularly wrong on that score. He made a series of judgement calls that have caused more damage to this country than any other in peacetime since industrialisation. He’s opened a box and unleadhed forces that simply cannot be contained and in the process divided that nation, caused the break up of the Union, hugely reduced our standing and reputation in the World and made us discernibly poorer.
What a legacy.