We need to talk about David Cameron

Thatcher and Blair have been criticised for having used their prime ministerial office to enrich themselves after the end of their formal political careers. But they did not stoop quite so low as Cameron. Neither have used their office in so directly a corrupting way as Cameron. During the hearings of the relevant House of Commons select committee, he showed no contrition whatsoever. If anybody needed to be reminded, this is the prime minister who persuaded many people that 'austerity' was necessary, without which support for Brexit and Covid 'hot spots' in deprived areas cannot be understood. Quite apart from his extreme lack of judgement in associating himself with the Mr. Greensill, for whom the word 'dubious' is an extreme understatement, it never appears to have struck him that making his public office available for somebody's (and his own) further personal enrichment was morally questionable. (In partial defence of Cameron, he is not alone in his insatiable desire for lucre. Blair, Osborne and Clegg evince the same vice). You would have to go back to David Lloyd George and his abuse of political honours to find a parallel.

It is clear that he has disgraced the office of prime minister. He has behaved without integrity, transparency and accountability. He should be stripped of his pension, his diplomatic protection and his position as a Privy Councillor. And we need to make sure that, if those who hold public office are to retain any public respect, this moral outrage, this grotesque abuse of public trust, never ever happens again. Of course, as the antics of Alexander demonstrate, these extra-curricular activities were merely a prelude to the wholesale moral decrepitude of government ....