. . . the Tories re-discover principles!
While I certainly think Blair is prefereable to Red Ken or the ghosts of Labour past, I've been in a state of grief ever since Dame Thatcher stepped down. It was as if all the testosterone bled from the Party when she left (which has interesting implications for British manhood, but I digress. . .)
My beloved Tories have for some time been acting like our Democratic Party here in the States. Rather than laying out a positive agenda of their own, they've been trying to bring down Labour through attacks. And failing badly. So I'm SO glad to hear that they've published a "set of 15 Conservative beliefs that will form the basis of policy initiatives to be developed in the run-up to the election expected next year."
We'll have to see if these go anywhere, but it would be great if it focused conservative energies the way our Contract With America did.
Posted by Discoshaman at janvier 3, 2004 01:53 AM | TrackBack
I lived in the UK during the last parliamentary elections. Frankly, it was embarrassing for the Tories. It seemed like they were always trying to position themselves something along the lines of "our policies are the same as those of Labour, except that we don't like the Euro". It was beyond uninspiring.
Posted by: Rob Huffstedtler at janvier 4, 2004 07:27 PMRob-
Republicans had a similar dynamic going from about the time of the Great Depression until Goldwater, and even then the Bob Michels of the party still had tremendous influence. Their motto seemed to be: "We're just like the Democrats, only cheaper!"
Which is why I counsel people to have some perspective when they lambaste the contemporary party. While imperfect, the current party has a much stronger conservative component than at many other times in the party's history. :)
Posted by: Discoshaman at janvier 4, 2004 08:22 PM