Cameron - under the radar

Despite the best efforts of the Reptile, David Cameron is, unaccountably, failing to win over the rightwingers who ought to be natural Conservative voters (yes I'm talking about you DK!). Partly this is understandable - for those for whom the undeniable evils of the European Union are a deal-breaker, then UKIP is the only possible home and it therefore makes sense to work to make UKIP more like a professional serious party than sit in the Tory party grumbling. I can understand that.

But there is a peculiarly uncomprehending venom about some of the attacks on Cameron that I find slightly unreasonable - he is seen as betraying Conservatism and people don't understand why. Well, this piece by Brian Micklethwaite goes some way towards answering that question. For what it's worth I think this analysis goes a long way. By de-fanging the Conservative positions on totemic leftist policies (the NHS as a prime example) Cameron has made it 'safe' for the left-wing press to work as hard to demolish Blair and the Labour Party as the right-wing press worked to destroy Majorite Conservatism.

There is a further point. Blair is as El Cid, a dead man strapped to his horse, heading battles he can have no future involvement with. The policy decisions that matter are going to be taken by Gordon Brown - and he has been remarkbaly quiet as to specifics. If Cameron were to set out a detailed, or even a broad-brush, policy review now, it would be handing a hostage to fortune to Brown. Far better then to hunker down on policy, promote an unthreatening image to the Tory Party's natural enemies in the leftist press, and watch the fun as the left destroys itself.

Naturally, this is a tactic derived almost entirely from Tony Blair in the Nineties, who neutralised the worst of the fears about what an incoming Labour Government would do, and then chuckled with glee as the right-wing press attacked the Tories' failings on Europe, on tax and on leadership. Tribal loyalty will always play second fiddle to a journo's ingrained wish to bring down Governments.