Saturday, December 17, 2005
Cameron declares himself to be a Liberal?
So what is he doing leading the Conservative Party? It would be remiss of me not to post about David Cameron's speech in Hereford yesterday when he described himself as a "Conservative liberal" (what exactly is that? - Ed) and said that the two parties now had similar views on issues ranging from the environment to decentralisation, civil liberties and even Europe.
As this is the first time Cameron has mentioned policy then this is news to me and I suspect to many Tories themselves who are opposed to the Euro (unlike the Liberal Democrats), do not want to see green taxation and believe that the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament should be abolished. Perhaps he should get the consent of his party before reshaping it as a Liberal Democrats-mark II. It is all clever stuff but one does get the impression that Dave is thinking on his feet a bit.
Simon Hughes was absolutely correct when he said that the Tories: "may have changed their salesman again, but they haven't changed their product. Talking about the environment, social justice, and a brave new world, is different from changing policy on nuclear power, fairer taxes, and Europe."
Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats Youth and Students have launched their own response with a website entitled Cameron for Lib Dems? On this site they say that:
"we are always delighted if somebody wants to join our party but we have some reservations:
- Dave is an enthusiastic supporter of Labour's student tuition fees;
- Dave and his Tory chums voted for Labour's wasteful and dangerous ID cards;
- When Dave worked for the Tories, they had a woeful environmental record;
- Dave voted for and stands by the war in Iraq;
- Just a few months ago, Dave wrote the most right wing Tory manifesto in decades.
The Liberal Democrats stand for Liberal values. Sadly Dave doesn't."
Perhaps it's like Disraeli?
On creating his 1867 administration he committed himself to running a "truly liberal administration"
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