When Cameron said pointedly over Easter, which he has repeated since, that he evangelises over his Christianity, no-one of course believed him, but they did wonder why he said it. Alistair Campbell thought that after the Maria Miller scandal he needed something to change the subject, and around Easter what better opportunity than to wear his faith on his sleeve as noisily as he could. Or perhaps he wanted to emphasise his true native Englishness to his irksome right-wing trouble-makers (Tory party at prayer, and all that). Or he may have been seizing the opportunity – any opportunity – to head off his haemorrhaging to Farageism by emphasising his true Christian principles after all the furore over his supporting gay marriage. Whatever his motive, the one thing we can be certain about is that, like Blair, another unctuous promoter of his religious belief, he is no Christian.
No Christian would ever pursue a policy of prolonged austerity which gratuitously hit the poorest hardest while leaving the richest untouched. No Christian would ‘sanction’ nearly a million people on benefit if, for example they were 5 minutes late for a job interview, by disqualifying them from receipt of any benefit and leaving them destitute. No Christian would leave over a million elderly people without support when they have no family to care for them. No Christian would make such heavy cuts in housing benefit as to lead to social cleansing, uprooting over 80,000 households in London alone because they could no longer afford to live within 50 miles of the capital. No Christian would impose a bedroom tax which forced people out of their homes to look for one-bed units which were not available. No Christian would make such swingeing cuts in legal aid as to deprive the poor of access to justice. No Christian would look with equanimity on a country where up to a million people had to use food banks while the top 1% were fabulously wealthy.
It is true that Cameron hasn’t started an illegal and massively destructive war, nor has he abjured all Christian principles in rapaciously seeking to join the global plutocracy with wealth holdings in excess of £100 millions. But then Blair’s hypocrisy is without equal. Cameron may not be in the same class, but his willingness to preen himself with whatever pretension suits his purpose of the moment demeans him as the posturer he is.
