Will Cameron cast off his Clark Kent disguise on entering Downing Street and become Super Tory?
By Toby Young Politics Last updated: February 4th, 2010
In last night’s Keith Joseph Memorial Lecture, Spectator editor Fraser Nelson urged David Cameron to embrace a more radical Conservative agenda. He’s worried that the cautious tone of the Party’s recent announcements on the health service, foreign aid and fiscal policy are symptomatic of an intellectual timidity that will hamper Cameron’s premiership. Instead of reducing state spending as a percentage of GDP, which Fraser fervently believes he ought to do, it’ll be more of the same, with Gordon Brown continuing to dictate the agenda long after he’s been defeated:
From global warming targets to the Equality Bill, Mr Brown is passing legislation intended to tie the hands of the Tory government. He has established a network of quangos, choc full of Labour placemen, who will act as his government in exile; hoarding both power and money.
Fraser joins a long list of people who are hoping against hope that, on entering Downing Street, Cameron will cast off his Clark Kent disguise and emerge as a kind of Super Tory, imposing the very same “swingeing cuts” that he decried on the Politics Show last Sunday. They want him to be the opposite of Barack Obama: instead of campaigning in poetry and governing in prose, they grudgingly accept the need for him to campaign in prose but fervently hope he will govern as a true blue, movement Conservative.
I can offer one small crumb of comfort to Fraser. I was two years above Cameron at Brasenose, also studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and would occasionally engage him in debate about the political issues of the day. This was in 1985 in the aftermath of the miners’ strike and I can report that, back then at least, he was a dry-as-dust Thatcherite. He was a braying, triumphalist Conservative who made no concessions to the leftwing atmosphere of Oxford in the mid-80s — no hint of the Wet he was to become. If the child is the father of the man, Fraser can rest easy.
"This was in 1985 in the aftermath of the miners’ strike and I can report that, back then at least, he was a dry-as-dust Thatcherite. He was a braying, triumphalist Conservative who made no concessions to the leftwing atmosphere of Oxford in the mid-80s."
he used to be a radical, but that might just be the same as every other youth, and thus not reflective of the man now............... we shall have to see.
Furunculus Maneuver: Adopt a highly logical position on a controversial subject where you cannot disagree with the merits of the proposal, only disagree with an opinion based on fundamental values. - Beskar
Tories - we are coming to get youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Ave poll lead down to 9, some put it closer. All Labour need is to lose by 5 points and we stay in power as the biggest party in a hung parliament.... It is gonna happen, I have been saying it for a couple years now. The wheels are coming off Cameron's bus, now it is getting closer to the election, the polls will always close up, not only that but he will be under more scrutiny and when people look at what he has to say, they will realise it is the same old Tories. Labour people will not move away from us to the Tories en masse, this is no '97 for the Tories. Plus we get the added advantage of when the polls narrow, the crack pot tory back benchers start to rear their ugly head. :)
GARCIN: I "dreamt," you say. It was no dream. When I chose the hardest path, I made my choice deliberately. A man is what he wills himself to be.
INEZ: Prove it. Prove it was no dream. It's what one does, and nothing else, that shows the stuff one's made of.
GARCIN: I died too soon. I wasn't allowed time to - to do my deeds.
INEZ: One always dies too soon - or too late. And yet one's whole life is complete at that moment, with a line drawn neatly under it, ready for the summing up. You are - your life, and nothing else. Jean Paul Sartre - No Exit 1944
As for who will win the election, perhaps if someone could answer this question.
I want Brown as PM for five more years because....
There are times I wish they’d just ban everything- baccy and beer, burgers and bangers, and all the rest- once and for all. Instead, they creep forward one apparently tiny step at a time. It’s like being executed with a bacon slicer.
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.”
To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticise.
"The purpose of a university education for Left / Liberals is to attain all the politically correct attitudes towards minorties, and the financial means to live as far away from them as possible."
Gordon Brown ‘demanded immediate defence cuts’ when Chancellor
February 4, 2010
Francis Elliott, Deborah Haynes and Tom Coghlan
Gordon Brown demanded immediate and deep cuts to military spending only six months after the invasion of Iraq, a letter seen by The Times reveals.
Then the Chancellor, Mr Brown wrote to Tony Blair on September 26, 2003, forbidding the Ministry of Defence from switching resources to the front line. His guillotine forced defence chiefs to slash £800 million from their budgets, including future spending on helicopters, which they claim is hampering operations in Afghanistan. A bitter dispute over Mr Brown’s record on defence funding overshadowed yesterday’s launch of government proposals on the future of the military.
Armed Forces chiefs issued a stark warning that Britain risks losing the ability to fight overseas, to the detriment of its world power status. In a bleak assessment of the pressures on the military, they stated in the Government’s Green Paper: “We cannot proceed with all the activities and programmes we currently aspire to, while simultaneously supporting our current operations, and investing in the new capabilities we need.”
The report warned that the Strategic Defence Review, which will follow the general election, “must be able to drive radical change” within the Forces.Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of the Defence Staff, even cast doubt on whether the Army, Royal Navy and RAF would exist as separate entities in ten years.
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Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary, told the Commons: “Tough choices will lie ahead, and we need to rebalance our budget to better reflect our priorities.” However, he confirmed that Labour would keep its commitment to build two aircraft carriers at a cost of £8 billion. “The Strategic Defence Review will have to take a pretty radical direction not foreseen by me in order to suggest that those capabilities will not be required,” said Mr Ainsworth.
David Cameron seized on evidence yesterday to the Iraq inquiry from Sir Kevin Tebbit, the MoD’s top civil servant during the war, that Mr Brown “arbitrarily” ordered cuts. He said he was only the latest witness to show that Mr Brown’s decisions meant troops were “not equipped properly when they were sent into harm’s way”.
In angry exchanges in Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Brown insisted that defence spending had “risen in every year” he was Chancellor.
Mr Brown is certain to be questioned about his decision to rein back spending when he gives evidence to the inquiry later this month.
The Green Paper posed questions about whether the public is prepared to pay for Britain to remain a power with global reach: “We must determine the global role we wish to play, the relative role of the Armed Forces and the resources we are willing to dedicate to them.” The 52-page document reveals an increasingly fractured and unpredictable world in which “cluttered” wars will see “hard and dangerous combat” in urban areas, coastal waters and low airspace.
It predicted that British troops can expect to see casualty rates that “increase markedly” as developing areas of the world close the gap on the West’s technological advantages.
Service chiefs are expected to argue for a new focus on alliance building, particularly in Nato and with the US, to compensate for the rising costs of defence. Britain is expected to co-operate with France, the only other large military power in the EU.
The Green Paper is frequently self-critical, acknowledging that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have forced a fundamental rethink of the way the Army is configured.
Professor Michael Clarke, director of the Royal United Services Institute, welcomed the report: “The paper is a realistic take on the situation we are going to find ourselves in. We haven’t had these sort of big strategic choices since the early 1930s.”
Furunculus Maneuver: Adopt a highly logical position on a controversial subject where you cannot disagree with the merits of the proposal, only disagree with an opinion based on fundamental values. - Beskar
As for who will win the election, perhaps if someone could answer this question.
I want Brown as PM for five more years because....
.... a social democratic government, however many stupid, infuriating and authoritarian policies they can come out with, is a much better alternative than a narrow minded, regressive and unegalitarian Conservative party.
But then again, that is just me.
lol, if that happens then this country is collectively even more stupid than even i give it credit for.
It was always gonna be the case, as long as the economy does not get significantly worse and Labour can throw enough on Cameron's shoes, it is ognna happen. The Labour party and the Tory party numbers, support / approval wise are very similar, it is Cameron's edge over both Brown and his party which if dented, pulls the Tories back down to earth. It has already started happening and into the election campaign will happen even more, get used to it! :)
Last edited by CountArach; 02-05-2010 at 10:56.
GARCIN: I "dreamt," you say. It was no dream. When I chose the hardest path, I made my choice deliberately. A man is what he wills himself to be.
INEZ: Prove it. Prove it was no dream. It's what one does, and nothing else, that shows the stuff one's made of.
GARCIN: I died too soon. I wasn't allowed time to - to do my deeds.
INEZ: One always dies too soon - or too late. And yet one's whole life is complete at that moment, with a line drawn neatly under it, ready for the summing up. You are - your life, and nothing else. Jean Paul Sartre - No Exit 1944
We will clean up politics, decentralise political power throughout the United Kingdom and put the funding of political parties on a proper and accountable basis
We will increase the powers and responsibilities of parents.
There has been a fundamental failure to tackle the underlying causes of inflation, of low growth and of unemployment. These are:
too much economic instability, with wild swings from boom to bust
Hilarious stuff. Better than reading the Beano.
There are times I wish they’d just ban everything- baccy and beer, burgers and bangers, and all the rest- once and for all. Instead, they creep forward one apparently tiny step at a time. It’s like being executed with a bacon slicer.
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.”
To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticise.
"The purpose of a university education for Left / Liberals is to attain all the politically correct attitudes towards minorties, and the financial means to live as far away from them as possible."
Some great ones....
Hilarious stuff. Better than reading the Beano.
Well they did deliver on devolution, on the second point -the entrenchment of the middle class is exactly what increased "choice" has given. And lastly, they did have a good run with the economy, so much as to inflate Brown's sense of self worth to the point of him declaring the end of boom and bust.
Whether the recession was avoidable is another matter, more devisive is the response to it and where the UK's economy is now. Whether the levels of debt could actually have been avoided and how is again another matter. Doesn't seem like anyone had any better ideas, although some of HMG's were very silly (VAT reduction).
Tories - we are coming to get youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Ave poll lead down to 9, some put it closer. All Labour need is to lose by 5 points and we stay in power as the biggest party in a hung parliament.... It is gonna happen, I have been saying it for a couple years now. The wheels are coming off Cameron's bus, now it is getting closer to the election, the polls will always close up, not only that but he will be under more scrutiny and when people look at what he has to say, they will realise it is the same old Tories. Labour people will not move away from us to the Tories en masse, this is no '97 for the Tories. Plus we get the added advantage of when the polls narrow, the crack pot tory back benchers start to rear their ugly head. :)
lol, if that happens then this country is collectively even more stupid than even i give it credit for.
Furunculus Maneuver: Adopt a highly logical position on a controversial subject where you cannot disagree with the merits of the proposal, only disagree with an opinion based on fundamental values. - Beskar
I thought you felt quite positively about the "will of the British people".
i do, never doubt it. but that does not preclude the acceptance that the electorate might be idiots.
it would be foolish to place so much trust and responsibility in the hands of the electorate without recognising their many failings and foibles i'm sure you will agree?
Furunculus Maneuver: Adopt a highly logical position on a controversial subject where you cannot disagree with the merits of the proposal, only disagree with an opinion based on fundamental values. - Beskar
i do, never doubt it. but that does not preclude the acceptance that the electorate might be idiots.
it would be foolish to place so much trust and responsibility in the hands of the electorate without recognising their many failings and foibles i'm sure you will agree?
Quite so. However we differ on the perception of stupidity, where our respective visions are perhaps directly opposed.
lol, if that happens then this country is collectively even more stupid than even i give it credit for.
They aren't smart enough to do the right thing and enmass to liberal democrats.
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Re: The United Kingdom Elections 2010
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Originally Posted by InsaneApache
on Cameron's shoes, it is ognna happen. The Labour party and the Tory party numbers, support / approval wise are very similar, it is Cameron's edge over both Brown and his party which if dented, pulls the Tories back down to earth. It has already started happening and into the election campaign will happen even more, get used to it! :)
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