Here are excerpts from a speech David Cameron gave in India in 2006, relating to globalization:
I would especially recommend the last 30 seconds or so of the clip.
Isn’t David Cameron essentially a reprisal of Tony Blair and the “Third Way,” with an only slightly more “conservative” complexion? How is this rhetoric any different from the pro-globalization, pro-liberalization line taken by Blair/Clinton centrists since the early 1990s? Finally, do you find his references to “compassion” convincing?
Cameron also made several other stops he made along the way during a 2006 India trip: here. He did make a stop in the Mumbai slums (link), and stop to ride the Delhi Metro (link). And he seemed to respond with appropriate sobriety when a minibus accompanying his motorcade had an accident with a pedestrian that left a woman critically injured.
Of course, this was a few years ago, when he had just become the Conservative party leader, and was not yet a household name. (I’m sure the trip would look very different now.)
And here’s a speculative question: how might the UK/India and UK/Pakistan relationships change under the new Conservative/LibDem. government?
Cameron’s a decent mascot for the cuddlier image Tories are trying to project. But the party body is full of the same bigots and wealth worshippers, so I can’t imagine anything new or different from them. The LD may hold some sway, but only the negative kind (ie. to shoot down anything they don’t like).
Internal Tory factions and the threat of an LD check will prevent any major developments unless external factors (natural disasters, terrorist attacks, etc.) force them. I also expect fence sitting where India and Pakistan are concerned. They wish to retain all the economic influence and benefit they can from all commonwealth nations.
As far as india-UK relations are concerned, I don’t think there will be no great change. Once our beloved PM Manmohan singh said..Politicians will say all sorts of things when they are in opposition but we have to believe what they do when they are in power. Even tony blair said he will support India’s permanent seat at UN.. no one in India believes this nonsense.
So Cameron has said and done the right things w.r.t India when he was in opposion.We should not take this seriously. Basically India is a raising power on world stage and UK is in decline. We in India can understand this special relation he is talking about.
Apart from some Punjabi and Gujarati immigrants, India has very little interest in UK. infact it’s the other way around UK should have a lot interest in a strong raising global power India because of business and geo-political reasons. Infact India is the second largest Investor in UK after US.
For an example. even the British priminister David Cameron official car belongs to an Indian company …and the steel is produced by Corus steel. again belongs to an Indian company.
iF cameron is Sincere and genuine then India will reprocate..but they no longer dictate terms. Ex- British Foreign minister David Milliband tried to act to smart and India kicked his ass..so lesson to british is don’t cross your limits.
Things have changed.
India may or may not be a rising power. Nothing is determined Bollywood is certainly obsessed with Desis in the UK, no matter what generation. DDLJ, Namastey London etc. It is not limited to Guju or Punjabi immigrants either. Cameron is a squish and I have no doubt that he will squander Tory gains before the next election.
As a retired Indian officer living in the UK, I feel that the UK needs to make sure it improves military-to-military linkages with India. France is starting to steal a beat on this issue–as some of you may know, France invited Indian soldiers to march in Paris last Bastille day. Regarding Pakistan, well, as President Obama ramps up the drone war, I suppose UK forces in Afghanistan could find themselves fighting in NWFP and the tribal areas if there is a successful terror attack in the US or UK. But hopefully the Pak military will stop the phony war and clean up those areas for real–the Yanks are certainly paying them enough for it!
I don’t think the tories have really changed that much, but this is a coalition govt with the lib dems, so it will be interesting to see how it pans out. To be fair though, i don’t see all that much difference between the tories and new labour anyway. And from an American perspective, the conservative positions on most things are closer to those of many democrats, the centre in the UK is way to the left of the centre in the US..
As regarding the impact on relations with India and Pakistan, I really don’t see any change.. The UK doesn’t have much of an influence on India, nor any inclination to really involve itself in the region other than to try and build on economic opportunities. The policy in Afghanistan is not independant of the US, and would just follow the American lead.
I think that India – UK relations will be driven more by the rapid changes within India than by whichever of the three main parties in the UK hold the reins of power there. With PIGS having become PIIGGS (with the second G for “great britain”) perhaps we’ll be seeing some currency moves that will result in fewer fat British girls in SoBo nightclubs and more of us in SoHo clubs!
BombaySai–you sound quite shallow. Please, respect.
Uncle PaulV, I must dissent. Future is not your past military career (respect!)–it’s free minds, free markets, and free love. Spend some of that money you’re wasting in the UK back home in Bombay–you can hand with us Hindu/Jain bankers in SoBo anytime–first round is on me! I just hope you’re not “retired” to the UK because your daughter married a chav. No disrespect meant, Uncle!
if it’s free minds, free markets and free love, why spend some of that money?? 😉
Ok, that’s awesome.
Cameron is the right guy for an overly politically-correct, sluggish UK.
if it’s free minds, free markets and free love, why spend some of that money?? 😉
Still need the accessories, mate!
The Tories want to cut immigration to the UK from about 250,000 annually down to about 40,000. They want to accomplish this by putting a “cap” on the number of immigrants arriving to work, requiring spousal migrants to be at least 21 years of age and pass an English fluency test, and tightening the student visa system. My guess is that this will have an impact on the UK South Asian population, which is now 5% of the UK’s total population and accounts for quite a bit of the immigration, especially spouse-based migration.
Originally when the Tories formed the coalition with the Liberal Democrats, there was a question on whether the Tories would concede on immigration. After all, Lib Dem is not only pro-migration, but also wanted an amnesty for illegals that had resided in the UK for longer than 10 years. The Tories refused to budge on the issue though and it now appears that the Tory-Lib Dem coalition are going to jointly support a mass cut back in immigration. Lib Dem got other concessions on education, taxes, and alternative voting in return.
During their tenure, Labor really opened up the immigration system, resulting in quite a number of Eastern Europeans and desis reaching British shores. In reaction to claims that the UK is too soft on the issue, labor did tighten the system, especially with regards to social welfare for immigrants and economic migration. This has resulted in a drop in South Asian immigration to the UK. With the Tories in power, I think this trend will continue to an ever greater extent. Interestingly, however, is that it’s the Eastern European migration that’s caused the greatest uproar. In what was one of the most memorable moments of the campaign, Prime Minister Gordon Brown labeled a constituent a “bigot” (behind her back, of course) for complaining about the strain that Eastern European migrants are placing on the educational and welfare system. Unfortunately for him, this was overhead on the microphone and cause him major embarassment.
From Bobby32 Baroness Warsi becomes new Conservative Party chairman http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/05/13/uk.muslim.minister/?hpt=T2
From wiki Warsi was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire in 1971 to Pakistani parents, who emigrated from Bawal, Gujar Khan, Pakistan.
As an Indian, I am happy that UK/India and UK/Pakistan relationships do not really matter that much.
nyx on May 12, 2010 5:19 PM · Direct link
India may or may not be a rising power. Nothing is determined
I never said India is a super poweir.All i said was India is a raising power in the world and every important nation recognisies this…only stupids will not agree to this fact.
I thought this was a democracy, not Camerons ‘Neverland’.
Government profits from the VAT increase from your food alone comes to profits of 1 billion a week pocket money for David Camerons government.
Add this to spending cuts that will render 4 million unemployed making an unemployment record high, and then consider he is going to force half a million sick people back to work and off of benefits.
He isn’t saying ‘thank’ you to civil servants and he is turning people against each other!.
I don’t think a 10p rise in fuel prices over ‘x y z’ years justifies the way this illegal government and affiliated corporations have bleed every penny from the UK civilization, do you ?
We know we own the competitions fuel pumps now, and further to this BP are the worlds most profitable fortune 500 oil company!.
Camerons government can’t even account for a single penny of the 6.2 billion a year spent on the new British space program, infact they can’t even produce a single employee.
He is like a vampire octopus wrapped around the face of England cutting everything back like a child in a sweet shop apart from the most important thing, his job.
Cameron is a manic that is adding fuel to the NWO fire and lining his pockets with our money, sinking UK employment and currency just like the Illuminati are wiping out the US dollar in the states.
Clearly he’s pushing the Illuminati agenda for starving us out and forcing his bank of the world currency, and as this is all a situational fact and that Illuminati are Satan worshiping murdering paedophiles, then who have we got running this country ?
And what’s that hand shake mean he just did ?, I said illegal government right ?.
For those of you whom are unaware of the Illuminati, there symbol is printed on each American dollar, the all seeing eye.
The Illuminati were thrown out of England in the middle ages for sacrificing Christian children to their demons, a practice that unbelievably still goes on in the US today which is attributed to such horrific missing persons numbers for under 14’s in the States.
Are YOU going to stand by and let Satan worshiping paedophiles rape YOUR children and there future ?.
Never trust a man in a suit.