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Was Cameron right to resign?


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Old 06-12-2016, 22:52
Hieronymous
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I'm a bit torn on this as it could be argued either way.

Do you see him as a man of principle who made a principled decision?

Or do you see him as a coward who ran away from his responsibilities?
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Old 06-12-2016, 22:58
johnny_boi_UK
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Likely I will be the only one on this thread to say so but I thought he should have stayed
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Old 06-12-2016, 22:58
HopesandDreams
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I'm a bit torn on this as it could be argued either way.

Do you see him as a man of principle who made a principled decision?

Or do you see him as a coward who ran away from his responsibilities?
Coward of the highest order, but add in calculating piece of work.
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Old 06-12-2016, 23:16
bass55
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Cameron called the referendum, and his government supported the Remain campaign which ultimately lost. So yes, he really had no choice but to resign. Even if he had tried to stay, his backbenchers would have made his life hell until he resigned.

Ultimately it was his supreme arrogance which brought him down. He clearly didn't think that in a million years he would lose the referendum.
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Old 06-12-2016, 23:18
Hacker Harrier
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Having campaigned vociferously to stay in, the idea that Cameron would trigger Article 50 having been humiliated in the referendum is somewhat bizarre.

He had no choice but to resign.

Edit: What the poster above stated really, just beaten to it.
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Old 06-12-2016, 23:25
eggchen
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I'm a bit torn on this as it could be argued either way.

Do you see him as a man of principle who made a principled decision?

Or do you see him as a coward who ran away from his responsibilities?
He had no choice. Once you set your stall out and it all goes against you, you're finished politically.
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Old 06-12-2016, 23:25
Hieronymous
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Cameron called the referendum, and his government supported the Remain campaign which ultimately lost. So yes, he really had no choice but to resign. Even if he had tried to stay, his backbenchers would have made his life hell until he resigned.

Ultimately it was his supreme arrogance which brought him down. He clearly didn't think that in a million years he would lose the referendum.
Whilst I understand your argument was it not Cameron's responsibility, having called the referendum, to deal with the outcome even though it wasn't what he wanted?
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Old 06-12-2016, 23:27
Hieronymous
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Coward of the highest order, but add in calculating piece of work.
Isn't that true of them all?
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Old 06-12-2016, 23:33
smudges dad
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Slimy coward who said he would stay on despite the result, then left his job and parliament to reap the rewards from his incompetent premiership.

If he had integrity and honesty he would have stayed, but he showed he has neither so we are well rid of him.
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Old 06-12-2016, 23:35
bass55
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Whilst I understand your argument was it not Cameron's responsibility, having called the referendum, to deal with the outcome even though it wasn't what he wanted?
If he had remained neutral he could very well have stayed. But he didn't, and there's really no way he could feasibly stay and negotiate Britain's exit from the EU when he had campaigned to stay in.
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Old 06-12-2016, 23:36
eggchen
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Slimy coward who said he would stay on despite the result, then left his job and parliament to reap the rewards from his incompetent premiership.

If he had integrity and honesty he would have stayed, but he showed he has neither so we are well rid of him.
He would have been (even more of) a lame duck PM though. Political reputations are staked on the outcome of such results and his was forever ruined by backing the wrong horse. He just couldn't carry on, his opponents would have crucified him every chance they got, as would he should the boot have been on the other foot. That's politics.
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Old 06-12-2016, 23:45
oathy
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The guy made such a mess of just about everything.
Its only thanks to the media being so soft he actually lasted as long as he did.
When was the last time you heard anyone praise him in the house of commons.

He needed a good deal and Brexit would have been avoided, The deal was laughable
it was so bad didn't get another mention when he made that speech and the suits in the EU corrected him on a number of points he made.

He came from a very wealth background which is fair enough, but then surrounded himself with others just like him. So the reality of life they didn't even understand what people are going through.

If labour hadn't elected Ed there's no way Cameron would have won, Losing Scotland just made the job even easier for Cameron and he still messed up the Referendum.
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Old 06-12-2016, 23:52
andykn
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Cameron called the referendum, and his government supported the Remain campaign which ultimately lost. So yes, he really had no choice but to resign. Even if he had tried to stay, his backbenchers would have made his life hell until he resigned.

Ultimately it was his supreme arrogance which brought him down. He clearly didn't think that in a million years he would lose the referendum.
Yes, he'd put his credibility and the well being of the country on the line and lost. He had no choice at all.

Apart from anything else he'd said, and Brexiters assured us they believed, that leaving the EU meant leaving the single market and that would put a bomb under the UK economy, so how could he stay on and do that to the UK.
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Old 07-12-2016, 00:06
tim59
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a coward who ran away from his responsibilities,. create a mess at least have the nerve to deal with the messs you have created
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Old 07-12-2016, 00:13
LostFool
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I'd consider myself a Cameroon Conservative but I don't think he had any choice but to resign following the referendum result. It would have been untenable for him to lead the exit negotiations when he campaigned against them.

I'm sure privately he will regret agreeing to the referendum in the first place but politically I don't think he had a choice. If our EU Exit is a success then maybe history will praise him as the PM who gave the people their choice. If it's a failure then he will inevitably be blamed for giving people their choice.
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Old 07-12-2016, 00:16
MargMck
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Ran away, carrying a bucketload of lies before any more were discovered. Right up to the vote said he would be implementing A50 immediately in the event of a Leave vote.
Allowed Osborn to 'go nuclear' with Project Fear, so actually damaged the Remain campaign by taking the focus away from anything positive.
Was rightly criticised for not having even the slightest civil service contingency plan for Leave.
Stood down as PM, and still lied as he said he wanted to carry on as Witney MP, then legged it even from that.
Simply a caught out political conman.
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Old 07-12-2016, 00:20
eggchen
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a coward who ran away from his responsibilities,. create a mess at least have the nerve to deal with the messs you have created

I don't understand this line of thought at all. Most of you come across as reasonably intelligent people, but are you so partisan as to be unable to see what a dud he would be trying to lead or negotiate after staking his entire political reputation on a vote result which he lost?
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Old 07-12-2016, 00:23
LostFool
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a coward who ran away from his responsibilities,. create a mess at least have the nerve to deal with the messs you have created
Would you really want Cameron to be leading the exit negotiations?
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Old 07-12-2016, 00:31
andykn
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a coward who ran away from his responsibilities,. create a mess at least have the nerve to deal with the messs you have created
I have to say I agree with the others, you can't expect a man who said it would be a bomb under the economy to then carry it out.
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Old 07-12-2016, 00:49
001_ATLANTIS
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From where we are now, it was probably the smartest thing the little worm ever did.
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Old 07-12-2016, 01:04
SULLA
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I'm a bit torn on this as it could be argued either way.

Do you see him as a man of principle who made a principled decision?
He should have stated his position before the vote.
Or do you see him as a coward who ran away from his responsibilities?
Acoward.

Bad Dave
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Old 07-12-2016, 01:12
SnowStorm86
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The electorate politically castrated him, and though it would have been amusing to watch him limp on, laughed at by brexiters, and jeered at by bremainers, it was important for the Country to have a more credible leadership - so literally anyone but him.
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Old 07-12-2016, 02:09
thenetworkbabe
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I'm a bit torn on this as it could be argued either way.

Do you see him as a man of principle who made a principled decision?

Or do you see him as a coward who ran away from his responsibilities?
He would have done a better job of selling what he was doing now , and probably co-opted the Labour back benches more. And he wouldn't have the ministers, May sacked, cauisng trouble.

But even the best result will be far worse than what we have now , and he would be building something he didn't believe in, and taking years off his life producing solutions to the impoossible , that didn't work.

His position, though, was difficult to sustain on June 24, The Leave voters had decided, not to believe him - even though he's going to be proved right on every issue . His credibility negotiating leave would, therefore, have been damaged - even if, like May, he deployed the 3 amigos as human shields,

Ideally, he should have explained the merits of what he had got, and stood above the EU debate, and just intervened every now and then to point out the bigger lies. But he couldn't do that when Remain had no other credible figurehead. The other advantage of that was that Remain's leadership wouldn't have had to worry about destroying the credibility of his own probable successor as party leader, or worrying about alienating UKIP voters, and could have taken the Leave campaign on even more forcefully.

Even more ideally, he possibly should have waited till 2017, thrown some more money at the justmanaging, , and told them it would vanish if they voted Leave, let death, and 18th birthdays, change the votes by 600,000, and spent a year advising expats to vote, and Eu nationals here to take out citizenship.
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Old 07-12-2016, 02:12
Mr Oleo Strut
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Cameron is history, thank goodness, and history will judge him as a weak, cowardly, incompetent fool who played fast and loose with his country's future and lost. He is, without doubt, the worst PM the UK has ever had. He is condemned to wandering the empty corridors of the rest of his priveleged and pampered little life wringing his hands in shame. A contemptible character.
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Old 07-12-2016, 02:18
thenetworkbabe
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a coward who ran away from his responsibilities,. create a mess at least have the nerve to deal with the messs you have created
He didn't create it - the leave voters, and the people who lied to them, did.

And the mess can't be dealt with. Its just a matter of whether its an acute mess, a chronic mess, , or a terminal mess.

its also debateable whether he had a choice on the referendum . The political system couldn't work to produce a government able to govern with a UKIP vote growing beyond 12 towards 20% and opting out of mainline politics. The alternative was coalitions that got ever more incompatible - with UKIP soaking up votes but with no seats - or no majority at all if UKIP got seats to go with its votes. Government with Farage, or Sturgeon, pulling the strings, in opposite directions, was a future that needed avoiding.
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