The Problem With The Tories
Written by Mark Harris on December 6th, 2005I must dissent somewhat from Nathan’s charachterization of Cameron as a “new Reagan.” Here is the BBC’s take:
The opponent claims that is a weakness, showing he believes in little and is driven by no coherent ideology but simply the mantra of being “modern and radical” - it is the “Tony Blair-lite” label.
On taxation, he has insisted he “believes in lower taxes”, but only pledged to balance the money raised through growth between public spending and tax cuts.
Part of his pitch for the leadership was to transform the look and appeal of the party with a more inclusive approach.
But, while he is ready to support a variety of lifestyles, including gay partnerships, he still believes the family is the best unit.
On the EU, whilst not as fiercely Eurosceptic as some in the party, he has ruled out joining the single currency or signing up to a constitution.
But what many are waiting for most eagerly is his “Clause Four” moment - equivalent to Tony Blair’s decision to abandon the key old Labour section of the party’s constitution.
Here’s the kicker with the Clause Four moment, basically what they are talking about there is a wholesale abandonment of the base of the party Old Conservatives as compared to the Old Labour. Nothing good is in that intonation.
We’ll wait and see what happens, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
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I fear that we are all looking at this guy from a very American perspective. While not incorrect, it neglects how far right he actually is for the British. The fact that he favors lower taxes and actually believes in “the family” is huge. I lived in England during the top up fees march and the Bush protests, and I am impressed that this guy actually has the nerve to announce that the Conservatives should have supported top up fees. If Clause Four is similar to New Labour then it actually is a political tactic rather than abandoning the very basis of Conservative party. Above and beyond, it is really cool that he isn’t someone interested in pandering to the EU fanatics.
All this being said, I don’t think the Conservatives stand much of a chance in the election. Labour will win again.
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I don’t see the Conservatives going anywhere any time soon. They seem to be stuck in reactionary retreat mode where all they can do is ‘prove’ that they’re not the ‘bad guys’. Until the right takes up the banner and goes on the offensive again as it did under Thatcher or Reagan in America it is doomed.
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Let’s get John O’Sullivan’s take. From the 11/7 ish of NR:
” David Cameron is both an old-style Tory “toff” from a good family and the candidate of the “modernizing tendency.” He went from university into Tory politics as an adviser to ministers in John Major’s government and from there into the Commons. As old-style Tory toffs used to say, “He’s never had a proper job.” He is thus the least experienced of the candidates and the most difficult to define ideologically. But he is smooth, charming, and bright — and the gods seem to be smiling on him. …
His advance… began at the annual Tory conference…Cameron did a Liddy Dole, ignoring the podium, walking around the stage, and dazzling everyone with a relaxed personal talk. No one could remember what he had said, but everyone agreed that it was brilliant. He had, said grown men with straight faces, given them “hope.”
That pattern of personality politics has continued since then. Davis tries to talk about tax cuts, Fox about the decline of the family. But since Cameron gains from the vague and inoffensive nature of his “modernizing” theme — and since the media like it — sharp debate on specifics never happens….
A Cameron aide was quoted in the London Times as arguing that their strategy would be deliberately to lose their more right-wing voters in order to “fundamentally change the party” and become more attractive to centrist Liberal Democrats. The mathematics seem dubious — the rock-bottom Tory vote is about a third of the electorate while the Lib-Dems are doing spectacularly well when they get a quarter. More to the point, this strategy would leave the Tories vulnerable to a more formidable threat. In his desperation to leave a legacy, Blair is now advancing reforms of health and education that imitate Thatcherite ideas of private provision and market solutions in the public sector. It is an odd time for the Tories to elect a non-Thatcherite leader with an anti-Thatcherite strategy.
David Cameron is not our man. Our man was Liam Fox, “a tough, direct, and eloquent medical doctor who is probably the most pro-American British politician and who, at the Tory conference, was almost the only speaker to “mention the war” — the Iraq war, that is. He is also an unashamed social conservative in a largely liberal party.”
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Just realized something… Liam Fox is Britain’s Tom Coburn.