This is turning into a summer of extraordinary good luck for the Conservatives. First the Norwich North by-election victory, then the extraordinary success of the Totnes open primary. And all set against the background of what is, for Tories, the most mellifluous sound in politics: Harriet Harman’s voice. As David Cameron enjoys what will probably be his last real holiday for several years, he has a comfortable dilemma: now all this good fortune has arrived, what will he do with it?
A basic formula has governed British politics in the last 35 years: the more useless Labour becomes, the bolder the Conservatives can be. Mr Cameron is at his most active when facing disaster, as he demonstrated with radical welfare and education policies ahead of the election-that-never-was in 2007. But success seems to paralyse him, as if he is afraid any movement will break the charm. Given how murderous his job would be as Prime Minister, he cannot afford to let any opportunity for radicalism pass.
Policies forged only in fear of what Gordon Brown might say should be rethought. As the by-elections show, Labour’s class war attack lines are strikingly ineffective. It is time to reassess policy and ask not ‘what will work in the election’ but ‘what is best for the country’. Three policies are ripe for revision: the health budget, the 50p tax on the super-rich and profitmaking on proposed new schools.
The proposed 50p tax — due to be introduced four weeks before the likely May general election — is the most pernicious. In his heart, Mr Cameron knows this and fluently describes it as a ‘bad tax’ which is ‘wrong for Britain’ and will deter entrepreneurs. He normally follows this by saying he will keep it anyway, and (like Labour) promise to abolish it at a later date.
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