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Leading article

A man worthy to be Prime Minister

Wednesday, 3rd October 2007

The Spectator on David Cameron

Ten years after New Labour came to power, it is remarkable that the unions can still hold us all to ransom. This issue of The Spectator has gone to press a day earlier than usual, to minimise the risk of disruption to our readers from the threatened postal strike. It is depressing that such precautions should still be necessary in 2007. So much for strong, Thatcher-esque leadership in No. 10. Those who ask why the country needs a fresh start need look no further than this petty display of Jurassic union power.

In Blackpool this week, David Cameron confounded those who said that he is incapable of leading the Tories into government. The mountain which he still has to climb is there for all to see, and it will take more than a good seaside conference to reverse Gordon Brown’s 11-point opinion poll lead last weekend. On the other hand, Labour has every reason to be rattled by the dramatic progress which the Conservatives have made in only a few days.

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Michael Booth

October 5th, 2007 8:43pm

Please don't get carried away. Cameron was satisfactory; the conference not a disaster. But 38% in the polls (the best of the ones I noticed on the newstand today) is still appalling after 10 years of a tired government. The last three parliamentary bye-election results were indeed disastrous and the name Tory still sparks derision over vast tracks of England and most of Scotland and Wales. The truth is that "brand decontamination" is spin-masters response to a little local difficulty (and I would argue wholly unworthy of a house-view for the Spectator). The Tory party's problems are far more fundamental than that and will only be solved a re-think that puts that of 1975-1979 into the shade.

A child of our time

From the economic and psychological bedlam of the global downturn has emerged a particularly dangerous false dichotomy: namely, that there is somehow a choice for ministers over the next few years between economic reconstruction and the repair of Britain’s broken society, and that the government (whether Labour or Conservative) must prioritise the former at the expense of the latter.

Diary

Anne Robinson

The daughter and I spent the last few days before the American election in Arizona.

Politics

Fraser Nelson

Fraser Nelson reviews the week in politics

The Spectator's Notes

Charles Moore

‘A money-financed tax cut is essentially equivalent to Milton Friedman’s famous “helicopter drop” of money.’ So said Ben Bernanke, now the chairman of the Fed, in a speech about how to ward off the ‘extremely small’ chance of deflation, which he delivered in 2002.