Last night insomnia kicked in and, knowing it’s a losing battle, I decided not to fight it. Instead I got out of bed and read Mr Cameron’s speech in its entirety.
Much to my surprise, every word confirmed the view expressed in my title above. But judge for yourself: here are his key points.
“I have decided to dedicate my life to making Great Britain even greater. To this end it’s essential that my government work tirelessly towards fostering everything that moves us closer to that goal – and eliminating everything that holds us back.
“Hence I propose the following measures to be resolved during the life of this parliament:
“The original – or rather official – purpose of the EU was purely economic: promoting free trade among European nations. It has now become clear that its true purpose is political: the creation of a single European state.
“This end, however, is at odds with our ancient constitution, effectively undermining our sovereignty, depriving HMG of political legitimacy and taking ‘Great’ out of Britain.
“That’s why I intend to campaign with every means at my disposal for our leaving the EU, making its existing laws null and void in Britain and replacing them with a series of bilateral trade treaties.
“This will mean, among other things, reclaiming control over our borders and limiting immigration to sensible levels, as defined by our economic needs – and moral demands we find acceptable.
“While we are on the subject of the economy, so far we’ve been trying to cover cracks in the masonry with Osborne & Little wallpaper, meaning Osborne does little.
“I propose we address the structural defects by rolling back the welfare state, which, in addition to being an economic millstone around Britain’s neck, adversely affects the moral health of society.
“All benefits will henceforth be withdrawn from those who aren’t prevented from supporting themselves by infirmity or old age.
“At the same time, I’ll propose a law obligating the Exchequer to run surplus budgets until such time that our sovereign debt is cleared – and balanced budgets thereafter. Great Britain must pay her way.
“Even considering the increase in the defence and law-enforcement budgets that I’ll touch upon later, this will enable HMG to reduce drastically the tax burden on both individuals and businesses. That measure, like no other, has been shown to boost national prosperity.
“Our foreign policy must henceforth be dictated by national interests and them only. Powerful armed forces are essential to protecting our national interests, and I propose a two-fold increase in the defence budget designed to correct the negligence that governed our policy in the past.
“At the same time we undertake never to use our armed forces for foreign adventures that do nothing to promote our national interests.
“In order to restore the health of our ailing society, we must return to our Christian roots. This doesn’t mean enforcing our faith or persecuting others – but it does mean insisting that other faiths respect Christianity and adapt their own behaviour to the demands of Christian morality, which lies at the foundation of all our laws.
“At present one observes a growing Islamisation of Britain, both demographic and ideological. This I propose to combat mercilessly, to the point of reducing the number of mosques, which in my lifetime has increased by two orders of magnitude, banning Muslim propaganda and those Islamic practices that don’t agree with Britain’s religious, cultural and social tradition.
“Those found in violation shall be summarily deported, even if they hold British passports. Civil rights of which our nation is proud cannot protect our nation’s enemies.
“Law enforcement is another key area we must address. After all, protecting a nation both from external and internal dangers is the prime – some will say only – legitimate function of government. I shall encourage the CPO to seek maximum penalties for crimes, such as burglary, that at present routinely go unprosecuted and often uninvestigated.
“At the same time we must construct more prisons, making sure that lack of capacity will never again be an excuse for suicidal leniency.
“In staffing public offices, I shall promote the principle of equality, whereby all jobs should go to the most qualified candidates, regardless of their race, religion, sex or age. No group will be either discriminated against or – and this is the salient point – receive preferential treatment.
“The same principle will be applied to our universities, whose job should be creating the nation’s intellectual elite, not indulging in social engineering.
“Our primary and secondary education must also return to the standards set at the time when British education was the envy of the world, rather than its laughingstock.
“The false principle of equality ought to be abandoned and we must accept the empirically demonstrable fact that not all pupils are equally capable. Lumping them all together means holding back the intellectually gifted 25 per cent, humiliating the less gifted 25 per cent and boring everyone in the middle.
“Half a century of socialist experimentation has succeeded only in creating a nation of ignoramuses unable to function in any serious professional or civic capacity. That’s why we plan to restore the system of grammar schools, supplemented by a modern equivalent of secondary moderns…”
That’s the point at which I stopped reading, for a good reason. I woke up.