Reihan: If [David] Cameron embraced an agenda like the one outlined in Grand New Party, he would likely be accused of being a libertarian radical hellbent on destroying the most cherished parts of Britain’s welfare state. This, alas, is true. Too bad. Which reminds me that I’ve been lax in not blogging about Messrs Salam and Douthat’s new book. Will rectify that shortly. But not today, as the city calls. All of which is to say: buy the book. It’s excellent.
The Atlantic has a very interesting, unintentionally hilarious Mark Bowden piece on Rupert Murdoch’s plans for the Wall Street Journal. Apparently the newsroom is very troubled by the new proprietor’s insistence that reporters uncover “scoops”. Heaven forbid! This also made me laugh: “I think he has enough sense not to trash what makes the newspaper so valuable,” said Rick Edmonds of the Poynter Institute. “He has owned The Times of London for more than 20 years, and it is still a serious newspaper.” Serious, perhaps, but few Londoners would argue that the newspaper is anything like what it once was. Robert Block, a veteran Journal reporter who now covers the
Everyone agreed that David Davis’s resignation yesterday was extraordinary political theatre and that it would be a rash man who predicted its consequences. Some pundits were prepared to acknowledge the bravura – even the foolhardy courage – of Davis’s decision to risk ridicule and disaster on a supposedly quixotic personal crusade but, as the presses rooled and Friday’s editorials and analysis columns were pinged onto the internet, something remarkable happened: after a day spent wondering how brave a man must be to predict the consequences of Davis’s actions, the Westminster press corps and its gaggle of pundits and metropolitan swells came to a single conclusion: David Davis must be mad.
David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, resigns his seat to fight a by-election on the principles of liberty and justice. A startling move, by any measure. And one worthy of respect. If he wins – and the Lib Dems have said they will not put up a candidate to oppose him – then, happily, he’ll make it harder for the Tories to succumb to their worst instincts and backslide on the repeal of 42 Days and other intrusive government legislation, once they return to power. UPDATE: New Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve says the Tories will repeal 42 Days. Good. If Davis’s actions forced this clarification then that alone seems
I waited until to check that it wasn’t actually April 2nd today, before posting this. It’s no great surprise to see a piece in the Telegraph begin: Politics is about both measures and men. Labour is over-obsessing about one man instead of asking whether our measures make sense. Any prime minister in office today would feel the voters’ anger as they see their cherished plans to spend their own money as they see fit destroyed by rising prices combined with the insatiable greed of the state in all its manifestations to take the people’s money for its own, often incompetent and counter-productive ends. But it’s rather more surprising to see
So, as expected, the Tories win the Crewe and Nantwich by-election. Handsomely. The remarkable thing is that it took so long and that the Tory brand remained so toxic that this is the first by-election gain the party has enjoyed enjoyed since Labour came to power in 1997. In fact, it’s the Tories first bye-election gain since 1982. But all things must come to an end. Once the worm turns it stays turned. This, remember, is seat number 165 on the Tories’ list of target seats. A 17.6% swing is at the high end of Tory hopes. True, this result alone won’t topple Gordon Brown. He will limp on. Labour’s
This could be the most risible thing one’s seen yet from this risible government: The Labour Party has accused the BBC of bias towards the Tories. An official complaint has been lodged, claiming Radio 4’s Today programme has given David Cameron an easy ride in recent interviews. A senior party official accused the broadcaster of coming to a “special arrangement” with the Conservatives to avoid any “difficult questioning” of the Tory leader. But it’s also further evidence of something else: Brown’s goose is cooked. This is the sort of desperate floundering you associate with governments in their final, failing days. It’s not the action of a ministry bursting with important
Today’s Tory poster for the election that never was: Yesterday’s Halloween poster is here.
November 1st would have been election day had Gordon Brown not been spooked… Here’s a poster the Tories are placing in papers around the country today: The tag-line reads: Tomorrow should have been election day. Your chance to end the horror. [Hat-tip: Iain Dale]
Yes, I’d noticed this part of Cameron’s speech too: And those changes have brought us success, in local elections we have taken Plymouth, we have taken Lincoln, we took Chester, we took the council right here in Blackpool and as William reminded us in that great speech on Sunday we are back in the North of England, a force to be reckoned with in every part of our country. Daniel Larison raises an eyebrow and asks: Except Scotland. Or maybe this was an intentional oversight? My sense is that it was an unintentional slip. It’s true that neither Scotland nor the Union were mentioned in Cameron’s speech but that’s understandable
David Cameron has just given a remarkable speech to the Tory party conference in Blackpool. A week ago it looked as though the Tories were done and Project Cameron an embarrassing fiasco. Now, after a successful conference, Cameron may have wrong-footed Labour himself. In other words, these remain febrile times. Cameron’s task was to demonstrate that he had the ability to rise above party, persuading his television audience (and the doubters in his own party) that he has it in him to be Prime Minister. My sense was that he succeeded and that he did so in part because of the bold, even fresh, approach he took. This was not
One other thing about David Cameron’s speech: there was quite a lot in it that mainstream Democrats in the United States would have had little problem endorsing – the environment, the anxiety many people feel about a fast-changing world, the breaking of the military covenant etc etc. Then again, the Tories have little desire to be associated with the current Republican party. You can tell how enamoured the Tories are with the GOP by the Republicans who have been in Blackpool this week. Arnold Schwarzenegger was supposed to give a keynote address (he pulled out at the last minute) but Mike Bloomberg was present and given a prominent speaking position
David Cameron gives his crucial speech to the Tory party conference tomorrow – a speech that will go some way towards deciding whether he has a real shot at becoming the next British Prime Minister. Despite the rotten polls and the talk of a snap election next month I’m unconvinced (albeit from a distance) that the Tories are toast yet. Still, it’s good to see that Gordon Brown’s commitment to a “new politics” remains rock-solid. Matt d’Ancona explains: So Gordon Brown, having brought forward his trip to Iraq, says that more than 1,000 troops will be home by Christmas. Is this the same Gordon Brown who said at Camp David
Whew! In a bold statement of intent, the Tories said today they “will consider” cutting taxes. Wear them medals with pride, boys. You’ve earned them. Predictably Labour are calling proposals – mere proposals, not policy mark you – to trim a mere £14bn from government spending a “lurch to the right” that would leave Britain in some kind of mysterious financial “black hole”. Stuff and nonsense, of course, but the people – and much of the media – might just buy it. For more on John Redwood’s plans – such as cutting regulation, offering tax relief on donations to universities and, hurrah!, Lifetime Savings Accounts, see the fine fellows at
David Cameron is receiving some grief for zipping off to Rwanda to talk about the Tories’ new policies on global poverty, leaving behind the whines of some that he is ignoring his flooded constituents so-called plight. Well, too bad. Cameron had a good, welcome message to deliver in Kigali: Tory leader David Cameron has called for an end to trade barriers that put developing countries at an “unfair disadvantage”, during a trip to Rwanda. He said all rich countries should end trade tariffs unilaterally and British aid spending should be speeded up. Launching a policy group’s report on global poverty, he said trade rules were “immoral”. The group’s proposals, which