Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 10 December 2005

It is heartening to find that Mr Cameron wants policy ideas to arise from big themes

issue 10 December 2005

So now conservatives, and particularly Conservatives, must all change ‘the way we look, the way we feel, the way we think and the way we behave’. It is a tribute to David Cameron’s persuasive charm that he makes people want to do these things. He has a knack of appealing to one’s better nature rather than rebuking one for one’s worse. When I took over as chairman of the centre-Right think-tank Policy Exchange after the general election, I encountered a group of mostly young people excited by policies for just such change, but exasperated at the lack of vehicles for them. New Labour had ceased to think, Charles Kennedy’s Liberal Democrats didn’t much go in for that sort of thing, and the Tories were effectively leaderless. We were talking (and are talking still) about ways of making Britain more competitive, local, free and green. We wanted (and want) more thought about matters Tories haven’t thought enough about, like the life of cities, the mental networks which foster terrorism, the way planning controls make house-building worse. It is heartening to find that Mr Cameron wants policy ideas to arise from big themes like these rather than sticking to departmental subjects, and to hear him say so in his very first speech as leader. Many of the themes he announced are close to ours. To put it in language bankers like, the market is beginning to move. Give us your ideas, your involvement, your money (none of the last goes to me: I am unpaid) — info@policyexchange.org.uk.

Until Tuesday it was David versus David. Now it is David versus Goliath. The question, though, is who is Goliath? Is it Tony or Gordon? Bearing in mind this column’s lonely theory that Gordon Brown is not the inevitable successor to Tony Blair, might it not be dangerous for David Cameron to focus too much on Mr Brown? I don’t think so. Labour hopes are now concentrated on the Chancellor, so those hopes must be dashed. People speak of Mr Brown as a man of granite integrity, unlike slippery Tony, and he certainly has his own genuine beliefs. But this week’s pre-Budget statement brought out quite another characteristic which is unattractive, even babyish. The most important point in his speech was when he had to admit that his forecast for growth for this year had been double the real percentage. Instead of confronting this directly, he tried to turn the disappointing truth into a boast about his amazing achievements — that growth ‘even in this toughest year’ was 1.75 per cent. How silly to think this would fool anyone. For all Mr Brown’s Heathcliff looks, there is something about him which is not so big and manly, something quite mean or pettish. Go for it, Mr Cameron. Tony Blair won’t stand in your way.

Now that Sir Elton John is forming a civil partnership with David Furnish, shouldn’t Mr Furnish be known by some title? If Mr Furnish were a woman and Sir Elton’s wife, he would be Lady John, but presumably he would find such a title insulting. On the other hand, someone will surely soon complain that it is discriminatory that the civil partner can have no share in a title of honour. I have read that cards for civil partners sold in shops speak of ‘Mister and Mister’. Could Debrett, or Mary Killen, advise us whether Elton and David should be ‘Sir and Sir’?

The recent Licensing Act has been described — and attacked — as a liberalising measure. It turns out, though, to contain plenty of small print. A friend of mine has a wine business operating from home and delivering wine solely by the case to friends and friends of friends. Until the new Act, he tells me, he did not have to have a licence. Now he does, and he will have to go on a course which will teach him about ‘public order’ lest any of his customers starts binge-drinking on his Ch

Charles Moore
Written by
Charles Moore

Charles Moore is The Spectator’s chairman.

He is a former editor of the magazine, as well as the Sunday Telegraph and the Daily Telegraph. He became a non-affiliated peer in July 2020.

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