Cameron is our Disraeli

06 January 2010

There is a certain type of bovine political intelligence which hates David Cameron.

There is a certain type of bovine political intelligence which hates David Cameron. It cannot forgive the Tory leader his popularity, his beautiful wife, his upper-middle-class ease — and above all his astonishing success in rebuilding the Conservative party. The core criticism works like this: David Cameron is an empty and opportunistic former PR executive, interested only in power for its own sake, utterly devoid of ideas let alone principles, morally indistinguishable from Tony Blair, and in the pocket of Rupert Murdoch.

And it must be acknowledged that this portrait contains some truth. He also lacks that visceral connection with ordinary voters that marked out Margaret Thatcher. But it is partly for these very reasons that Cameron has been able to rescue Conservatism from the angry factionalism and relentless search for ideological purity of ten years ago. Cameron recognises that great political parties tend to be coalitions.

So he has created an environment where Kenneth Clarke and William Hague can both occupy major positions in the same shadow Cabinet, and where social liberals like Michael Gove can rub shoulders with social conservatives like Iain Duncan Smith. Of course, this kind of co-existence involves compromise and, sometimes, lack of clarity.

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djw2009

January 7th, 2010 11:37pm Report this comment

But Burke, Disraeli and Baldwin did not rule a Britain where the state spent 50%+ of GDP, and where a good deal of the money was spent on dictating political views on multiculturalism and much else to the populace. I am sure that Conservatives have always been concerned about the poor - but they have traditionally not seen government spending as the key palliative. By taxing us to high heaven, it is true a huge underclass is able to meet their basic needs courtesy of the taxpayer, and millions of parasites in government do even better than that out of the public purse. But don't claim this is Burkism. Oborne, you are quite wrong on Cameron. He needs to act radically. The welfare state was a mistake - and is not a vital component of One Nation Toryism.

For Christ's sake, One Nation Toryism ought to include some support for the continuance of our nation, which means pulling out of the EU, stopping immigration and cancelling multiculturalism. Otherwise it just becomes No Nation Toryism. To be quite honest, Oborne, I think you have been overpromoted on a number of rightwing media.

Herbert Thornton

January 17th, 2010 4:31am Report this comment

Peter's assertion that Cameron is our Disraeli, brought to mind Bismark's admiring comment about Disraeli - "Der alte Jude, das ist der Mann!"

It made me wonder what Bismark would have thought of Cameron. I don't speak German, but to imagine that Bismark would consider Cameron to be Disraeli's equal is ludicrous. If he were able to comment, he would say something extremely rude - and possibly very entertaining as well.

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