The Cameron Project: Three Views from America

David Frum graciously plays the role of referee in this year’s Massie vs O’Sullivan discussion and delivers what is, I think, a fair judgement. He grants that O’Sullivan is right to warn about the danger that the Cameron Project might seem inauthentic or cynical and that, as David puts it, “the extremity of the crisis” Britain faces has made some of Cameron’s ideas and, more still, his style seem out of touch at times.

Nevertheless, he concludes:

A conservatism that fuses economic rationality with a concern for social cohesion is for Britain more than an electoral proposition. It is the kind of conservatism a riven and troubled society requires. Like John O’Sullivan, I feel my due share of nostalgia for the crusading conservatism of the Thatcher years. Margaret Thatcher saved her country from ossification into socialized stagnation, and she deserves for that achievement all the credit history will lavish on her. But in addition to that ongoing concern, Britain struggles today with many other troubles.