The truth about David Cameron’s progressive legacy

One of the downsides of all this snarking at David Cameron over Brexit is that the rest of his legacy is getting away relatively snark-free. Fraser Nelson has resumed his valiant campaign to repackage the Cameron years as a well-spring of progressive Toryism, specifically in job creation, the expansion of academies, and shifting the tax burden. This effort has always struck me as iffy. For one thing, shouldn’t conservatives want the credit for economic dynamism, school choice and tax cuts to go to conservatism, rather than concede them as ‘progressive’ outcomes which conservatives have achieved in spite of their unfortunate philosophy?

But Fraser isn’t really a conservative. He’s a democratic optimist, the kind of liberal Margaret Thatcher would have become if she hadn’t got herself mixed up in all that unfortunate Tory business. The problem is that Cameron’s achievements are those of a moderate Conservative, and may be admired by a liberal, but they were a misery for the very poor, the disabled and the vulnerable.