Says former Thatcher speechwriter and Monday Club (yes, Monday Club) stalwart, Derek Laud:
David Cameron is basking in the Portuguese sun,
and he has earned his holiday. But he has some serious thinking to do.
When he became the unlikely leader of the
Conservative Party in 2005 he set about modernising his election-losing party,
seeking a move to the centre ground. Tony Blair had changed the game, having,
for example, appointed openly gay ministers and brought in civil partnerships.
Confronted with a Britain more at ease with itself, Cameron – against his own
instincts – had to speak the language of Blair. He asked us all to believe this
move came from the heart, but, having known Cameron for more than 20 years, I
saw a side of him I had never seen.
When the Tories needed the Lib Dems to form a
government, Cameron had an opportunity to cement the change, to show his party
had changed for ever. But we've been disappointed.
Setting aside some highly questionable
appointments, last week we saw the most sinister errors of judgement of his
premiership in the form of ads in the poorest taste imaginable. What on earth
must the Lib Dems be thinking of their coalition partners, given the revelation
that the "Go home or face arrest" campaign was orchestrated in
private?
Neither the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, nor the Lib Dem Home
Office minister Jeremy Browne, knew it was coming. Worse still, the Human
Rights Commission has announced an investigation into police tactics, seemingly
Home Office-sanctioned, for "racially profiling" and targeting
"ethnic" citizens and illegally demanding to see their papers. So who
did authorise this tactic?
It could have turned out differently. The Tory
party's broadly liberal tradition is just as strong as the more voluble right.
What could have been perceived as a formidable, philosophically coherent,
modernising government is drowning in the vulgarity of opportunistic
spin-doctors.
I would love to have seen what a real coalition policy unit, led
by David Laws, Michael Gove and David Willetts, and licensed to stride beyond
the hallowed text of the Coalition Agreement, could have spawned across
Whitehall. Instead it is being torn to shreds by the rigid thinking of
small-minded backbenchers. As an aide to three Tory leaders, it saddens me to
say this.
I have never called anyone racist. It is an often
used and discredited cry. But this time, I believe the Conservative Party has
shown it is racist. It will do anything, right or wrong, to bolster its poll
ratings.
Cameron's hard work around a modernity agenda ran into the sand. His party has never really embraced change, but he gave up the fight too soon. In short, he talks like a liberal but still allows his party to behave like "the same old Tories". Who would vote for that?
Cameron's hard work around a modernity agenda ran into the sand. His party has never really embraced change, but he gave up the fight too soon. In short, he talks like a liberal but still allows his party to behave like "the same old Tories". Who would vote for that?
Last week's developments are no coincidence. The
general election campaign, under the supervision of Lynton Crosby, has started
two years early, and you can bet race and immigration will be a big part of
Tory strategy. A decade ago, Theresa May, supposedly a moderniser, was brave
enough to tell the Tories they were seen as "the nasty party".
Yet now
she presides over this foul talk. Et tu, Theresa?
As Peter Hitchens accurately says today, the Tories pretence that they will do something about illegal immigration (as if law-breakers care what is written on a van) is almost as bad as Labour's deliberate 13-year transformation of Britain into a foreign land, without any democratic mandate to do so.
ReplyDeleteWhen did Labour EVER put in its party manifesto that it was going to invite 4 people to move here in a decade-more than at any time in British history- and utterly transform the country?
When did Messrs Brown, Blair, Campbell, Straw, Mandelson and co ever ask the people of Britain what we wanted, before turning Britain into "a truly multicultural country" as Andrew Neather wrote?
They are worse traitors and scum than the Tories-because, unlike the Tories, Labour knew exactly what they were doing, and why.
As Hitchens says, young patriotic Britons have no choice but to emigrate.
He doesn't say to where. You would just hate Canada or New Zealand, and in Lynton Crosby's Australia, which admits more immigrants per head than Britain does and which did so under John Howard, immigrants from Britain are notorious for failing the citizenship test with very low marks indeed, since they do not realise that they are moving to a foreign country.
ReplyDeleteHe recently suggested Canada, and I frequently hear it is a lovely place, though I could never afford to go.
ReplyDeleteThe point about emigration is that you are leaving-not precisely where you are going.
I really don't think he's being too pessimistic about Britain.
His predicted "Abolition of Britain" has mostly come true.
Canada is one of the most liberal places on earth.
ReplyDeleteI'm aware of that-it's the country, rather than the politics which people find attractive about Canada.
ReplyDeleteFriendly people, lovely cities, wide open spaces, and stunning scenery.
In that case, you may as well move up here.
ReplyDeleteNo thanks. The North is even worse than here- an economic wasteland, with places like Bradford and Keighley even more culturally ghettoised than Tower Hamlets and the products of Britain's fatherless families and appalling state schools roaming the streets.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lord Howell.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's not really the North, anyway. It's barely the Midlands.