RSS

Contact us

Friday 18 July 2008

Cameron gets ready for No. 10 — and Boris must wait his turn

David Cameron talks to Fraser Nelson about his local election triumphs, admits that he is not going to ‘agree on everything’ with the new Mayor of London, and says Boris should join the queue to become PM after him

Whatever one’s ideological preference, one has to take Mr Cameron’s view of political strategy seriously, given than he has just driven Labour to its worst election result since universal suffrage was introduced. As one former Cabinet member moaned to me, he has also supplanted the Liberal Democrats as the party of the protest vote. ‘I have to keep scratching myself to believe that’s true, but I am on my fourth Liberal leader,’ Mr Cameron says. ‘I count them up. Instead of counting sheep to go to sleep at night, I run through Lib Dem leaders.’

Might he soon be on his third Prime Minister? ‘I have no idea. But I do think the British public would find it slightly difficult to accept another unelected prime minister. A party starts to look — how can I put this? — hopeless if it keeps changing its leader. There was a moment when the Conservatives were doing it a little bit too often. I’ve tried to slow down the rate of change.’

One may argue that the needle of political probability is oscillating between a fragile Tory majority and a Blair-style landslide. The difference may be determined by whether Mr Cameron is voted in by default, or because of a clear, positive Tory agenda for change that the nation actively embraces. The Spectator has been supportive of Mr Cameron’s Wisconsin-style welfare reform and Swedish school reform ideas. But such abstruse policy formulations mean little to most voters. Can he spell out what difference these policies would make to the lives of voters after the first term of Conservative government?

Mr Cameron pauses, as if trying to imagine his re-election campaign in May 2014. ‘The education policy would lead to a whole generation of independent schools in the state sector offering choice and excellence. And we will have revolutionised our welfare rolls, in the way Australia and some American states have done, by turning the whole system on its head. So you would have many more British people in work and coming out of poverty because you will have solved one of the great causes of poverty, which is worklessness.’

More articles from: Fraser Nelson | this section

Print this article  |  Email to a friend  |  Permalink  |   Comments (6)

Post this entry to:   del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Advertisement

Spectator Business | Apollo Magazine

Corporate | Advertising | Privacy | Terms

Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP

All Articles and Content Copyright ©2008 by The Spectator | All Rights Reserved