He doesn't - by Richard... Sunday, September 11, 2011

He doesn't - by Richard... Sunday, September 11, 2011

Cameron calls himself a prime minister. He is in fact the head of the administration of a province of the European Union, with limited and in many respects subordinate powers. What little power he exercises is filtered through his own office, tempered by his coalition "partners" and his own cabinet and administrative colleagues.

He is then reliant on an array of public officials and many others to carry out such instructions as might reach them, bearing in mind that most departments of state, local authorities, and other tax-funded organisations are largely autonomous and run their own affairs on a day-to-day basis.

Outside that framework is the greater part of Britain – its people, and their private enterprise. Cameron has extremely limited control over them and their enterprises and, in a huge number of areas, he had absolutely no control at all. Even in the state sector, he cannot even fully control British police forces, and nor would we want him to.

To suggest that he "runs Britain", therefore, is absurd. Such a suggestion does not even serve as a lose, journalistic approximation. It is a silly, crude, babyish idea that represents a distorted view of the world in which we live.

The legacy - by Richard...

Ten years after the destruction of the twin towers, perhaps the most telling legacy and symbol of the decline of the West remains Afghanistan. With half a trillion dollars spent, the country is still one of the poorest in the world, and no closer to being stable and peaceful than it was on 9/11.

"The foreigners are here for their own benefit. They came here by force and they will leave here by force", says Sayed Mujtaba Mahmoddi, a Kabul university student. "Afghanistan has developed a lot during the past years, but the development does not match the money spent. So I think the international Mafia, together with the Afghan government, spent all this money improperly".

For the nearly $450 billion Congress estimates the US alone has spent waging war there, every Afghan man, woman and child could have been handed $15,000. That sum is ten years' earnings for an average Afghan, according to UN estimates.

Life expectancy is under 45 years, and around a quarter of children don't even live to see their fifth birthday. Even for those who survive, expectations are low.

And that is but a tiny fraction of the litany of woes affecting that benighted country. The people who died on 9/11 and the many thereafter deserved a better legacy. So do we. But as always, our masters are good at taking our money. They are considerably less good at delivering value.