David Cameron was in confident form at his press conference this morning. Most of the questions were about the possibility of President Blair and Tory opposition to that. But three other things from the event were worth noting.
First, Cameron’s announcement that the Tories will publish their top three or four priorities for each department shows the influence of the Institute for Government on Tory thinking. Michael Bichard, the director of the Institute, was David Blunkett’s permanent secretary at the Department for Education and Employment and Blunkett’s success in this job is largely credited to him and Bichard working out a few priorities and sticking to them. The Tories are now adopting this Bichard / Blunkett approach for every department.
Second, Cameron’s comments on women shortlists did, as ConservativeHome notes, seem to mark a bit of a shift in policy. If the proposal had been couched in these terms to begin with, I doubt there would have been such a row — a row that both managed to irritate the grassroots and, in various quarters, reinforced negative stereotypes about the party.
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