James Delingpole James Delingpole

James Delingpole: What’s wrong with being right?

Photo by Ian Waldie/Getty Images 
issue 28 September 2013

I’m trying to imagine what Britain would look like under a Ukip/Conservative coalition with Cameron as PM and Farage as his deputy. The idea fills me with horror.

I think, for example, of the runaway economic boom which would result from the sudden dash to exploit our superabundant shale gas resources; I think of the revolution which would occur in education were free schools freed to make a profit; I think of the rolling back of political correctness, the reinvention of the NHS on the Singapore model, the epic reduction in public spending, the cancellation of High Speed 2, the death of the renewable energy scam. It would be a nightmare, I tell you, a complete bloody nightmare. Whatever would there be left for people like me to write about?

Luckily, it’s not going to happen for at least three reasons. The first is that things you want to happen in politics never do happen: instead — which is why my old mucker Dave is more consummate a politician than I’ll ever be — it’s all about compromise, double–dealing and fudge.

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