The future of Tory foreign policy  

Verity

Who told Cameron the voters want "liberal Conservatism"? Fellow guests at a dinner party in Notting Hill?

The election is not in the bag as long as this social lefty internationalist is leader. The BNP will hose up the votes.

jsfl

Before David Cameron goes off building democracies elsewhere perhaps he might seriously consider how he is going to fix our broken democracy that has been abused for decades by Parliamentarians.

David

"a position that sounds a little too Old Tory for comfort? "

Eh? Isn't this the Tory party?

Keith

I must say it's not the Tory Party which I'd want. If I wanted to be liberal then I'd have voted for them.

Not a DC Apologist

Verity - one day you defend your bombastic and forthright views on American politics (which not everyone shares) by lambasting anyone who is not American for not being .. well, American. The next you are espousing your somewhat Attiline views on David Cameron - who you hate so much that whatever he does is not good enough.

Am I allowed to defend my views on the country of residence ticket as well?

Verity

Not a DC Apologist - I'm not following your thread of thought, but this is a free for all. Why not defend your country of residence, or any other country? Who's stopping you?

"David Cameron - who you hate so much that whatever he does is not good enough."

Err ... he hasn't done anything.

He had his photo taken on an ice flo in Norway - unwisely - with two handsome huskies. (Savvy movie stars and politicians never get photographed with cute children or animals.) Then he went to Rwanda and presumably got photographed with cute children.

He memorised a couple of speeches.

Other than that ... it's been a little arid around the Leader. We know he has some ace ideas for twiddling some knobs. But vision-wise, grand plan-wise, it's a vast, uninhabited desert.

Not a DC apologist

Verity

But the couple of speeches that he memorised totally transformed the political landscape in the short space of the conference season 2007. Without his intervention there may very well have been an election last year, won by Gordon Brown and Labour and the brooding Macavity would realistically be looking at the economic cycle coming right at the end of Labour's forth term.

Instead, there has been a 20-30 percent poll swing and not all of that is due to Brown's ineptitude, surely.

Yesterday, on Andrew Marr - check the BBC website for the link - you will see Ed Balls expressing hysterical amazement that the opposition leader was opposing the measures that this Labour government were planning.

In the end, that is all that an opposition can do in our kind of parliamentary democracy - to oppose. Grand plans and vision are pointless without the power of administrative office to effect them. And the track record of this pathetic government is that the best of both are misappropriated anyway.

I believe that DC has the personality and the intelligence to surround himself with people of vision and integrity; the common sense to return to Cabinet Government and the conservative genes to allow an empowering return of autonomy to the people. If the alternative is another flavour of New Labour or the chameleon colours of the Liberal Democrats then I am happy to give DC a chance.

BCS

Verity: surely one of the defining characteristics of Toryism is that it is sceptical of visions and grand plans (or at least was until the party was hijacked by neoliberalism under Thatcher)?

Ray

I think Cameron's words are a breathe of fresh air. It's time to stop thinking we can mould the world into an identikit democracy and accept that there are limits to what we can achieve.

In the end, if the people we are trying to 'help' don't want to be helped, it is the height of arrogance to barge in and try to do the job for them.

We should remember that the prime goal of British foreign policy should always be the defence of British interest.

Verity

Personally, I don't believe in helping anyone - except in the very temporary case, within a specific time frame, of a natural disaster. We're in Iraq to stabilise the region for our own security, not to make people happy.

Magda Carta

Let's turn this one round. Our own democracy has been nurtured for hundreds of years. Right now, it is being changed, corrupted as far as I can see, but even if you don't agree with that, changed for sure. Our laws are made by a foreign committee, backed up by unaccountable votes by people we have no identity with. All that seems to be OK with Cameron conservatives (and indeed the other one-and-a-half parties) who don't propose to 'bang on about it'. Democracy begins at HOME.

Tim Carpenter LPUK

We should not export anything but our products.

We should, however, endeavour to set a good example, which would first require not voting in LibLabCon.

dennis

democracy must be built around the institutions, habits and culture of each country.

But what if the institutions are corrupt and the habits disgusting?

We tried this in Afghanistan: smiling indulgently as the good ol’ boys held a Loya Jirga; sitting on our hands while the drug-dealing warlords snaffled the best seats in the cabinet, and failing to insist on human (particularly women’s) rights.

And that didn’t work.

Verity

Magda has it right.