David Cameron’s hilarious put down of Labour MP / Ex public school toff describes 79 year old former miner as a ‘dinosaur’
At Prime ministers question time yesterday (18th January) David Cameron refered to Labour MP Dennis Skinner as a ‘Dinosaur‘. Dennis Skinner had asked if Cameron was going to appear before the Leveson inquiry into Press ethics (a perfectly reasonably question) Cameron finished his answer by saying:
I often say to my children, ‘No need to go to the Natural History Museum to see a dinosaur. Come to the House of Commons at about half past twelve.’
David Cameron (left) & George Osborne
It can be argued that this was not a reference to Skinners age (he is 80 next month) but to his ideology, he is a member of Labour’s socialist Campaign Group of MP’s and is often described as ‘old Labour’.
But there is something not right about Cameron, an ex public schoolboy born with a silver spoon in his mouth, saying something like this to Skinner a former mineworker and Cameron does have previous on this issue, he once accused Dennis Skinner of not living in the real world but living in ‘dinosaurland’and in June 2010, after Dennis Skinner had said there should be no increase in the Civil List, (money the government gives to the royal family) chancellor George Osborne (another ex public schoolboy) replied that Skinner should consider early retirement to save costs. That would actually increase spending, Dennis Skinner would be paid his pension and his replacement would get the full MPs salary. Osborne’s reply also goes against what his own party leader wrote in The Sun in November 2011 when Cameron said
“We are all living longer so yes, people will have to work longer”
Both Cameron and Osborne received rousing cheers from conservative back benchers for their responses.
If Skinner had been in his twenties or thirties would Cameron have called him a dinosaur? I don’t think so. Would he have described Tony Benn (who has similar left wing views to Skinner) as a dinosaur? No. Dennis Skinner can take whatever David Cameron and the rest of the Tories can throw at him but he deserves better, he has been an MP since 1970 and was a miner for 21 years before joining parliament. He started in the coal mines when he was 17 (at the same age David Cameron was at Eton and about to go to Oxford University and join the Bullingdon club) and only left when he became MP for Bolsover. He is younger then the queen (born in 1926) but can anyone imagine Cameron saying
No need to go to the Natural History Museum to see a dinosaur. Just watch the queen’s speech on Christmas day.
No, me neither.
While Cameron and Osborne both had privileged backgrounds; (Cameron is the grandson of Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet is a descendent of King William IV and a fifth cousin of the queen, Osborne is the heir to the Osborne Baronetcy) Dennis Skinner’s father was sacked from his job as a miner after the General strike in 1926. Skinner is not scared of rebelling against his own party (for example he has voted against trident, against detention for 90 days and against the Iraq war) Osborne’s only act of rebellion came when he changed his name from Gideon to George saying “It was my small act of rebellion” – and I thought Che Guevara was a rebel.