An American View of the Tories

Wednesday, 24th February 2010

You don't have to look too far here, or elsewhere for that matter, to find plenty of concern about the Conservatives' readyness for government. So it's useful, occasionally, to step back and notice how the party and, more broadly, the British right, looks like to outside observers. Here's Ross Douthat for instance:

[W]hen you compare the British Conservatives with the American Republicans, what’s most striking isn’t the parallel pandering on Medicare and the N.H.S. It’s the relative specificity of the rest of the Tory policy brief, whose attempts at a localist, “post-bureaucratic” and pro-family agenda contrast pretty favorably, to my mind, with the Republican Party’s noisier but largely detail-free commitment to the same goals.

And:

Still, after a year and change of the post-Bush G.O.P., the idea of a right-of-center party that just offers “good speeches and interesting promises” sounds pretty appealing to me.

Of course the Tories have had longer to think about their future than the GOP and, as always, the differences between the UK and the US are as interesting and significant as the overlaps, but still...

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Edmund Jerk

February 24th, 2010 5:16pm Report this comment

Douthat is a reasonable conservative and I agree with him, up to a point - I myself would prefer less paternalistic and more classical-liberal ideas coming from Team Cameron. But at least it's better than the pro-torture speeches and the hypocritical anti-big-government bull coming from the GOP (because running up deficits on Defence spending isn't big government!). I'd imagine that David Cameron & co are considered pinkos amongst the 'Tea Party' crowd et al.

cityboozer

February 24th, 2010 5:23pm Report this comment

I'm inclined to agree, but the GOP isn't proposing a replacement executive and policy platform, and won't for another three years.

LeilaLacrosse

February 24th, 2010 6:41pm Report this comment

As an American in London, the policies of both governments affect me directly. For a while there I was taken in by Cameron's pro-marriage platform, but it was ab obvious crowd pleaser and fell apart at the first signs of scrutiny. I am musing on the US/UK political situations in my weekly blog, the American Baby Plan in London.