Dear David,
This is the first time I’ve ever called you that, as I always called you either ‘sir’ or ‘Prime Minister’, although you did kindly ask me to call you David when we first met; not ‘Dave’ as legend has it; I think only your friends get that honour.
Stepping down mid-term is no fun. If I may be so bold, giving as an excuse that one cannot be a good constituency MP after being a Prime Minister was a wrong move. Are you kidding? You would have more time than you knew what to do with for the good people of Witney, probably the loveliest constituency in England, and one I love with all my heart, having semi grown up in my grandmother’s cottage in Burford.
Wouldn’t it have been better to say that former Prime Ministers should be seen and not heard, or something of that sort? It has the benefit of being true, for a start; and authenticity is something you have always prized.
However, I do not believe anybody will begrudge you stepping down. Despite the disaster, and there is no other word for it, of your resignation honours list – did it seem like a good idea at the time, did it sound better in your head? Did you lose a bet? Would you like to plead temporary insanity? – with the passing of time, it seems to me that this cannot really detract from your fantastic legacy. You rescued the Conservative party and, by extension, the country.
I am so sorry, by the way, that you resigned as Prime Minister. Nobody on our Vote Leave side wanted you to. I was at the Vote Leave offices as the sun came up on Independence Day, and one of Michael Gove’s spads, told me how keen he was and we all were that you stay on. You could and should have handed the Brexit negotiations to Vote Leave, as the officially recognised body that won the Referendum.
I want to take this moment for thanking you for believing in Theresa May’s Women 2 Win efforts. Between you, you changed Parliament and got us another female Prime Minister. When you became leader the Tory party was so sexist and racist that it looked like Jeremy Corbyn’s Momentum – just like the socialists, it was all white men at the top – 91% white males. Because of you, we went to Theresa May, Priti Patel, Sam Gyimah, and Sajid Javid in one generation. You showed the nation that the Tories are the true progressives.
But here’s the thing; when you step down, there will be a week or so of feverish coverage, spread over maybe a month. And you will retain your sense of significance. After that, your life will change in profound and unpleasant ways.
When I resigned, the rugby superstar and Labour supporter Brian Moore, surprised me by giving me some private advice on Twitter. He told me that sports stars, Olympians in particular, often experience profound depression after a retirement, or an MP after a loss. The higher octane the environment, the more you will miss it, even if, right now, you think you hate it. When I left Parliament I was devastated. I acted chipper and during the day I even convinced myself that I was OK. But I had a Parliament-related dream every night for a year. Nothing got better for me (as a Brit, I resisted therapy) until I came to work for News Corp full-time and founded Heat Street, part of whose motivation was to bring Cameronism, or a more Eurosceptic version of it, to America – to advance your mild, pleasant and effective, socially relaxed agenda here. I was a true believer in Cameronism and I still am, minus your inexplicable Europhilia.
If being a somewhat high-profile backbencher is a big loss, I cannot imagine what being Prime Minister is like. In a way, you triaged your stages of loss; adjusting to not being PM, and now to not being an MP. But there is nothing so ex- as an ex-MP, as somebody once said.
I would strongly advise you to take the peerage that is your due. Despite the unfortunate press that will definitely follow with your dreadful rewarding of the useless Charlotte Vere, whom, thank God, every Tory constituency refused to select despite your friends pushing her on every safe seat; with Shameful Chakrabati, rewarded for a whitewashing report on anti-semitism but using your name, and with the terrible reminder that you honoured 48 people, all Remainers.
That won’t be fun, but, and I say this as a fan, you deserve that kicking. Your friends and relatives told us you saw campaigning for Brexit as a betrayal of you personally.
I have to be honest and tell you that that is an appalling attitude. Brexit was not all about you. Honestly. It wasn’t. How on earth could you think that voting on the fate of the nation was a comment on your personality or leadership? You made a fatal mistake in not listening to Lynton Crosby, who, as you should know above all people, is always, always right, and waiting til you got a better deal.
Can I tell you that I, personally, felt betrayed by your all-Remain honours list. It was dishonorable.
All those times you told us, MPs and party members, that you had an open mind and could go against the EU, you were simply lying to us all. You stood up at Conference after I left and said “Trust me – when it comes to free movement I will get what Britain needs”. Well, I did – but you didn’t. Worse than that, you then lied about it again in the Commons, saying that you loved free movement, three cheers for it.
I believed you all the time on Europe. I believed that you would, as you said, take us out of the EU if we were offered a bad deal. It was never true.
I would ask you to reflect now that you have loads of time – were we Brexit supporters, fans of yours, in fact betraying you, or was it the other way around?
Does not your “all about me” and “honours for 48 Remainers” smack of the most sullen pettiness? Does it not give the lie to all those speeches you made? I used to boycott the ’22 because it was so anti-you, that’s how much of a Cameroon I was; but it’s clear to me you cast into the outer darkness everybody that voted Brexit.
How little it became you not to give an honour to Michael Gove, your ally of decades, simply because he led Vote Leave. You should be ashamed of this, and when you become Lord Cameron of Witney, the negative press will be something you’ll just have to accept.
But take the peerage all the same. It’s an entry back into Parliament, admittedly ersatz Parliament, but in your own right, and you won’t have to stand for election again. You should follow Lady Thatcher on this and not John Major. Take your peerage, and you can make well-covered speeches on anything you want.
I am sure you want to make some money. Good for you. You are too young to sink into a life of “charidee work” and cricket matches. Please try to honour feminism by NOT doing any deals to advise Saudi Arabia. Our sucking up to them remains a disgrace.
History will honour your achievements in office, and out of office, there is a long time in which you could tarnish one of the world’s best brands. You started in PR, and you know this.
Practical advice is to take a proper break, away with the family. Go running every single day. Get your fitness habit back in spades. It will manage the depression with prevention. Plan to travel in the depths of winter. You will be more vulnerable than you think to boredom and regret. Whenever Theresa does something that annoys you, it will be so hard not to have the ability to change it.
You should read, and practice meditation. 15 minutes a day is ample. Nature is also anti-depressant. You will need some decompression time. After that, you should decide what you want to do. You will be a post-PM for most of your life, God willing. I doubt that there is much that can replace the octane of the top job, but a strong business can come close. If you are around stress all the time, you, like me, are probably addicted to it.
David Miliband is my near neighbor here on the Upper West Side of New York. He and his wife Louise seem very happy and content. America combines a complete change with a high-octane environment of its own. I can see you enjoying New York. Maybe Silicon Valley. Steve Hilton is doing wonders there.
It may be that the recipe for sanity in your situation is keep fit, think small – mindfulness, nature, the family, relaxing – and then think big. No Type-A personality can be content with the quiet for long.
Avoid fruitless arguments and trolls online. You don’t need to defend your political legacy – apart from that honours list, it is golden. Whatever you concealed about your true attitude to the EU, you kept and you honoured your most important pledge, to give the UK an EU referendum. Without you we would still be in chains. I cannot thank you enough. This is meant sincerely and not as sarcasm.
Jean-Claude Juncker despises referendums because they can go the other way. It was a risk you took happily, and bore the decision of the people cheerfully. The good-will towards you on June 25th was enormous. In the long term, it will also be enormous.
You have taken the Conservative party from unelectable to unbeatable. You have boxed Labour into a parody, you have restored the Tories in Wales and Scotland, and you took the fight for women and minorities to places the other political parties have not come close to. Without quotas, Labour never selects women.
Under you, we have another female Prime Minister. Not a particularly stellar one, and her reshuffle of George and Michael Gove was spiteful and bitter. But she has some time. I doubt very much she will be as good as you and I wish you had not stepped down.
But stepped down you have, and there is a happy future for you and your family on the other side of it. Now lace up your jogging shoes and prepare for what comes next. As you know better than most people alive, any job is what you make of it.
I look forward to seeing what comes next for you, and hope I have the pleasure of seeing you some time in New York. You’d like it here. Anything is possible. Let sunshine win the day.
