At the heart of David Cameron’s project for the Tory party is admiration for Tony Blair: his techniques, style, language and persona- lity cult. This reverence for the Prime Minister extends far beyond mere form to embrace substantial policy issues. It is well known that David Cameron agrees with Tony Blair’s insights into public-service reform, while insisting that he could apply them with greater courage and forcefulness. The resulting pledge to support next year’s Education Bill has been greeted with hostility from Cameron’s leadership rival David Davis: so much so that it is now hard to see how Davis could fit at all comfortably into the front-bench team Cameron will form after his inevitable victory on 6 December.
Cameron’s eagerness to copy Blairite policies stretches well beyond domestic policies like education. Its most significant manifestation is in foreign affairs. The deeper the reservations felt by Labour backbenchers about the Prime Minister’s allegiance to President George Bush, the more thoroughgoing Cameron’s own support becomes.
Cameron’s allies say truthfully (I have verified their assertions independently) that David Cameron expressed certain private reservations, which flowed from a naturally conservative wariness about ambitious projects for the remaking of society, before casting his vote in favour of war in Iraq. Since then, however, his position has changed. In July Cameron threw his weight behind the nonsensical and now discredited Tony Blair claim that there was no link between the London bombings and the war in Iraq. On 24 August he made a speech on ‘British values’ which described the so-called war on terror in the apocalyptic terms used only by George Bush’s fervent admirers.
On Tuesday night David Cameron’s lieutenant, the Times columnist turned Tory MP Michael Gove, hosted a reception in the House of Commons for the Henry Jackson Project for Democratic Geopolitics.
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