Earlier this week I called on Liam Fox and David Davis to help sell David Cameron’s modernisation agenda to the right of the party. That is exactly what Dr Fox has done in today’s Sunday Telegraph. Dr Fox believes that the new suite of Tory education policies will "place the power with parents", "kick-start social […]
I have written for The Telegraph this morning about the aftermath of the grammar schools row. The article’s messages will not be new to regular readers of this site but I’d like to quickly emphasise three themes: David Cameron does have many policies that should energise more traditional Conservative voters. Top of my own personal […]
FreeDictionary.com defines Don Quixote as "An impractical idealist bent on righting incorrigible wrongs." Edward Leigh MP, quickly emerging as Mr Cameron’s most outspoken critic from the Tory benches, has compared Project Cameron to Don Quixote’s escapades. Writing for the House Magazine, Mr Leigh lists the ways in which Mr Cameron has offended traditional Tory sensibilities: […]
Two stories next to each other in today’s Telegraph both point to Mr Cameron’s exposed right flank. Story one is the news that UKIP is rebranding as ‘The Independence Party’ for May’s local elections (ConservativeHome predicted this last February). UKIP leader Nigel Farage has told The Telegraph that the party wants to broaden its agenda […]
The danger for Mr Cameron is the breadth of offence he is beginning to cause. Tory Eurosceptics are still pained by the delay to leaving the EPP. Small government conservatives regret the caution on tax. Hawks are disappointed that defence is a lower spending priority than the NHS and Atlanticists fear the long-term consequences of […]
Edward Leigh MP of the socially conservative Cornerstone group of Tory MPs has become the first influential voice within the party to raise public concerns at the Cameron strategy. It is rare for anything written in the sleepy House Magazine to attract much attention but Mr Leigh’s article for the Party Conference edition of the […]
7.30pm update: An edited version of this letter from John Hayes MP will appear in tomorrow’s Times: "Dear Sir, David Cameron has made enormous strides since becoming Conservative Leader. He has rightly focused our Party’s sights on long neglected issues like the quality of life, better protection of children through strong families, social justice and […]
Snippets of Dr Liam Fox’s Sunday interview with GMTV are picked up in a number of newspapers this morning and Iain Dale has a full transcript. Dr Fox appears to be calling for David Cameron to offer a broader conservatism – emphasing core and breadth policy issues: "We avoid external coalitions in our politics by […]
Yesterday we reported Menzies Campbell’s new attack on the Tories. In a bid to damn us he said that we are "still right-wing and unpleasant". He didn’t say that we were nasty and unpleasant or selfish and unpleasant or racist and unpleasant… the LibDem leader chose "right-wing" as a catch-all term of abuse. Ming is […]
Robert Goodwill, MP for Scarborough & Whitby and a former deputy Conservative Leader in the European Parliament, has urged David Cameron to "forge ahead quickly" with his promise to take Tory MEPs out of the federalist European Peoples’ Party. Mr Goodwill uses a pamphlet for the Cornerstone Group of socially conservative MPs to urge the […]
The Daily Telegraph may still be broadsheet-sized but it is in danger of following other newspapers down the low road to tabloid sensationalism. Today’s Telegraph reports the following: "David Davis, the shadow home secretary, issues a warning to David Cameron today that he will quit his shadow cabinet if the new Tory leader takes the […]
Julian Brazier MP, writing for the socially conservative Cornerstone Group of Tory MPs, believes that more of the money spent on higher education should be targeted on halting the "pitiful collapse" in maths teaching in schools and the closures of university engineering, physics and chemistry departments. Mr Brazier, who is also a frontbench defence spokesman, […]
The Observer reports that an unnamed industrialist has cancelled a £250,000 pledge to the Tory party over concern at "downgrading of the party’s commitment to reduce taxes and the abandonment of long-held Tory positions, including support of business." It also notes that Robin Harris, former Thatcher speechwriter, will use an article for Prospect magazine to […]
David Cameron received a grilling from the right-of-centre No Turning Back Group last night. A dozen of the party’s more Thatcherite MPs expressed serious concern at the Tory leadership’s repositioning on tax and grammar schools. David Davis and John Redwood were at the meeting and offered their own support to Mr Cameron but the overall […]
This hasn’t been a good week for the Cameron project. Although Thursday’s by-election was a disappointment the more worrying thing was PMQs on Wednesday. Tony Blair’s attack on David Cameron as lacking political identity worked because it appeared true enough to a lot of people. Since he became leader David Cameron has ditched many traditional […]