The Times they are a-changin’

If you haven’t already done so, do read this morning’s Times editorial on the Conservatives. It argues, correctly to my mind, that the Tories should not be satisfied to win the next election simply on the back of the public’s disappointment with Labour. It concludes that Cameron’s “challenge is to offer British voters a real choice.”

The editorial took me—and Nick Robinson —by surprise. The brilliant Daniel Finkelstein recently became chief leader writer of The Times, but today’s leader seems to go against what Danny was arguing just a fortnight ago. Then, he wrote that the “party that is first to let the voters know what it really stands for… loses”, and urged David Cameron to resist the lure of being seen as “distinctive”.
 
Personally, I’m delighted by the apparent shift. I think the Conservatives need a positive mandate if they are to be as radical in government as they need to be.