James Forsyth James Forsyth

Moore: Cameron is the best Tory opposition leader since Disraeli

Charles Moore pays David Cameron quite a compliment in his Telegraph column today, calling him the most skilful Tory leader of the opposition since Disraeli. This is high praise indeed, especially as it comes from Margaret Thatcher’s official biographer. But, as Charles goes on to say, there are still significant gaps on policy:

“In 1978/9, [voters] would have known that the Tories promised something different on taxes, inflation, trade unions, and the Cold War. What do they know now? Nothing terrible, but also, nothing much.

The vagueness of these impressions might not matter politically if in fact the Tories did know what they wanted to do. But where are they on terror, “human rights”, our constitutional decay, health service reform, local government, energy, our relations with America, the undeclared war in Afghanistan?” Looking through Charles’s list is instructive.

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