Cameron needs to show leadership and vision

Take Nicola Sturgeon and her cohort of MPs seriously, and work to honour her own mandate

Rebecca Roache said she 'didn't want to be friends with conservatives' after David Cameron became Prime Minister again (Getty Images)

Dear Prime Minister, First of all, congratulations on your victory. Some readers will be very happy about it, others less so. That’s democracy and I, for one, cherish it. Given that only two thirds of us voted at all, though, another third will either shrug or snipe from the sidelines. I will disparage them. You, of course, cannot.

Your personal appeal was underestimated. For much of the campaign you seemed aloof, even disengaged. But you came alive towards the end and, once you stopped maligning Ed Miliband, a little of the passion you are accused of lacking became evident.

Yes, you won in part due to the weaknesses of your chief opponent. Yes, you targeted ruthlessly the junior party in your previous coalition. And yes, you scaremongered shamelessly: immigrants, benefits “cheats”, the SNP, Ukip, Europe, taxes and Ed Miliband’s competence to name a few, but we all know your opponents tried to do the same. Your machine was simply better at it, helped by your campaign’s greater financial resources. Who said politics was fair?

Not Nick Clegg, and certainly not Nigel Farage. Many of us are conflicted by Ukip’s results. Stunned by how many votes it won, with a mixture of relief and concern at how few seats all those votes garnered – particularly by contrast to the SNP.

Here’s my plea: you cannot govern the union in the same way, given the SNP’s landslide, so please don’t pretend you can. Take Nicola Sturgeon and her cohort of MPs seriously, and work to honour her own mandate. At the same time, recognise how uneasy many of us feel about 56 SNP MPs in Westminster exercising their (one-way) authority over England and Wales. This will not be easy to resolve. Please show leadership and vision in doing so without resorting to ugly nationalism. And please listen to Labour-voting London, too.

You now have the mandate to show leadership and vision. You could not do so last time and Gordon Brown and Tony Blair failed miserably to do so in the past.

It would be refreshing to see what you believe in. After five years as Prime Minister we still don’t know your agenda – that is, beyond Europe and Scotland, both forced upon you.

Listen with compassion to those who are struggling, be they under the pernicious bedroom tax (can you be brave and admit it was wrong?), or zero-hours contracts, or trying to care for elderly relatives. Show some long-term vision about our ageing society and Britain’s diminished role in the world. Why not be honest about proposed cuts now?

Balls, cojones… whatever we want to call them, now is the time for you to put them on display. Be brave and try to unite the country. Listen to those that economic recovery has left behind thus far. And in return, the Britain that didn’t vote Tory should give you a chance; should desist from the suffocating “posh boy” caricaturing and shut up about what school you went to.

It takes two to unite. But only one can lead. That has to be you. That’s what Britain voted for.

Yours, very sincerely, Stefano.

Stefano Hatfield is the editor in chief of High50