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The Blairites are making a comeback — at Conservative HQ

Wednesday, 11th June 2008

Fraser Nelson reviews the week in politics

David Cameron really must do something about the quality of the Conservatives’ leaked documents. Once they offered delicious details of the infighting and reprisals which occupied the party for more than a decade. Yet the leaked memo which emerged last Friday simply warned that the party cannot ‘sit back and let Gordon Brown self-destruct’ and must be ‘as radical in social reform as Mrs Thatcher was in economic reform’. On first glance, utterly unnewsworthy. But on a wider level, it suggests a significant shift in ambition.

Radicalism is a relatively new idea for Mr Cameron. His initial strategy was to minimise the difference with Labour, making the leap as small as possible for wavering voters. His main promise would be to rid England of Gordon Brown, a proposition which the opinion polls show to be wildly popular. Only now that victory seems secure does the opportunity for bolder Thatcher-style radicalism present itself.

This is perhaps why the definitive account of the start of the Thatcher revolution — Just In Time by Sir John Hoskyns — has found its way to the bookshelves of some of the more radical-minded Cameroons. The memoirs detail the struggle of Hoskyns, a businessman, brought in to shatter the political consensus and make the case for radical change. ‘It is not difficult to carry the country,’ Angus Maude told him at the time. ‘The problem is the shadow Cabinet.’

A generation later and it is the late Lord Maude’s son, Francis, who is running Mr Cameron’s answer to the Hoskyns group. Named the Implementation Team, it is designed to address the lack of experience on Mr Cameron’s front bench by assigning each shadow Cabinet member with two ‘mentors’ — one from the business world, and one from the civil service. The intention is to offer advice on practicalities and identify any Whitehall elephant traps that may lie in wait.

Official lines of communication between shadow Cabinet members and their would-be Whitehall departments open in December, but Mr Cameron cannot wait that long. He is haunted by the prospect that he, like Tony Blair, may end up squandering the political capital of an election victory. So he has quietly told his five most senior frontbenchers they will not be moved in any pre-election reshuffle and asked them to start planning for power now.

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Comments Post comment

Tony Makara

June 12th, 2008 5:01pm Report this comment

More must be done to promote job-creation in the private sector. Especially in manufacturing and agriculture which could, over time, produce the million plus jobs needed to end wefare dependency.

A start can be made by making it profitable for producers and farmers to supply the domestic market. Which is a ready made market waiting to be exploited. Special tax status should be awarded to British firms who supply the domestic market, allowing these producers to keep more of their profits as incentive. New firms should be allowed to operate tax-free until they have grown to a certain size.

David Cameron has pledged to support the supply-side with transport infrastructure. This is a very positive move and would lend itself to British producers supplying the domestic market. Recent events have taught us that imports are not always cheap and that we need a more balanced economy with more British produced goods available to consumers.

David Short

June 13th, 2008 4:01am Report this comment

Because Cameron is an empty vessel, very similar in that sense to Blair, and whose experience as a pr man of a 'real job' is even less than that of Blair, I don't really believe that this rich kid is 100 per cent destined for power.

It's a pity there's no chance of a Tory leadership change before then.

A hung parliament with the Lib-Dems in the driving seat is more likely.

Don't forget Kinnock's hubris.

David Lindsay

June 13th, 2008 6:36pm Report this comment

The Continuity New Labour Council.

Just what we all want, need and deserve.

Isn't it?

sid

June 14th, 2008 9:29am Report this comment

I can't believe how anyone can be deceived by that pompous charlatan Camoron. Obviously a good education in an exclusive school helps. Tory MPs desperate for power have copied the Blair blueprint to the letter. The hierarchy have squashed any dissenters, and banished them to the hinterlands. As usual there are plenty of servile fags, fighting to gain favour with the prigs in charge. All they crave and all they will receive will be a condescending pat on the head from the head prefect and his clique. How can a party that produced Thatcher have sunk to such depths.

David Short

June 15th, 2008 6:00pm Report this comment

Somehow Cameron has got to be rid of before the next election. He hasn't had the courage to come out against 42 days, against 28 days, in fact against any day that a British subject of the Queen should be held without charge.

Even those of us who would otherwise support Labour cannot condone this.

We need an Opposition that will repeal this law. Either vote Cameron out as Tory leader and bring in Boris or DD, or we will really need to push hard for a Lib-Dem government.

I know the Tories don't normally kick out a leader until he's/she's lost an election, but this is too important an issue to for the normal rules to apply.

I wish the Spectator, even under the dim management it now has, would make this a central issue.

Matthew Cain

June 16th, 2008 9:50pm Report this comment

Phil Collins has always been adept at repeating what he has heard from more intelligent, thoughtful colleagues and claiming credit for the remarks himself. The man is not wise enough to know his own limitations.

Bob T

June 18th, 2008 4:41am Report this comment

Excellent interesting article which speaks volumes about Cameron and former Blairites (and indirectly Brown). So much so that it is difficult to understand who has moved in what direction with what end in mind. Indeed it is reminiscent of the plaintive question raised in a well known ditty involving an unlikely couple in a comparable state of confusion: "Who does what, with what, to whom?"

Pugnacious Perry

June 22nd, 2008 9:50pm Report this comment

Oh Lordy, Lordy, - he who SHOULD have been the Ire of Bliar, - surely isn’t really the Heir of Blair after all? The inane grin, the gush, the faux sincerity . . . . . the ‘I hear you’ . . .

Time to give up on this one folks, there’s better things to do with our time and energy

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