Well, the next leader of the conservative party will be called ‘David’ – whether that implies ‘our’ for you will depend on far too many things for a blog subject line.
I’m glad Cameron is doing well. He speaks my language, and – if I were a member of the conservative party – I’m sure I’d vote for him rather than Davis. I’d have preferred to see a Cameron – Fox fight though, would have been a choice between two positives. Davis is just IDS with a sten gun (or SA80, whatever they have these days).
Interesting set of articles at the Guardian which Cameron wrote when he was just becoming an MP. See this one in particular – great quote, “if you cannot control the agenda in a leadership campaign, what chance have do you have when it comes to the real thing?”
My political affiliations have wandered during my lifetime. Grew up as a card carrying conservative – even ran in a mock election at my school in 1987 wearing a blue ‘I love Maggie’ rosette – but then went deeply green, and briefly became a member of the Liberal Democrats. My politics now are a deep turquoise – I don’t like the state, hate it in fact, but the green agenda requires a certain amount of state action. And I am convinced that the denudation of social capital requires a response, reaffirming much of the ‘traditionalist’ agenda – but nothing like what ‘Conservatism’ in the UK has looked like for the past twenty years. I like reading Peter Hitchens and Melanie Phillips, but I also like Timothy Garton Ash whose book ‘Free World’ I thought was excellent. I also like Noam Chomsky and I’m a ZNet (paid up) supporter…. In the US I’d definitely be a Republican, but I think the ‘Religious Right’ are neither. I don’t put much faith in any political platform – bit of an end to independent thought if you have to sign up to a party slate – which is why my initial ambition of becoming a politician was doomed to fail – I like nuance just a little too much to be a politician. But I remain fascinated with power and it’s working out.
And I shocked a friend the other night by saying that the English will never vote for Gordon Brown, simply because he is Scottish…..
Oh yes. I’d love to see a Giuliani v Clinton fight in 08. I’d vote for Rudi, but it would clarify a few things. Rudi has proved himself. Hillary? Yeah, right, uh huh.
Is it possible to be a libertarian traditionalist? (Only in the Anglosphere…..)