Camerons pledge to redistribute power

[Azrael]

I have to say that Mr Cameron's current mania for radical constitutional change shows him to be instinctively anything but conservative. Whatever happened to caution and continuity?

Mr Cameron's instincts appear far from conservative. Burke's comment that, "A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation," is a reminder that conservatism isn't anti-change, but it is anti-change inflicted for its own sake.

Conservative change is designed to safeguard and preserve things that would go without it. Ie, I support a bill of rights to safeguard liberty. Otherwise, it's to remove things that aren't worth conserving. Racial change is much less cautious, and I think that's the kind Mr Cameron is for.

 

[Azrael]

Have these unspoken rules ever been followed?

Variably, at best. I think they're inherently flawed, and should be changed.

 

[ymu]

I don't think the worth of the practical suggetions are what's key here - nor does Cameron. They're simply PR guff. He just wants to be seen to be ordering Brown about - and hopefully allow Brown's internal enemies to juimp on the hint as well. Straw already saw where he was going and said he agreed with him.

This.

Cameron's done a good job of picking up on the "public mood" and taking the initiative whilst Brown appears to be dithering, but it's just pretty obvious populism and the right sounding words. He's just invited people to nominate themselves to become Tory candidates, ffs! Of course, this might be because he can't find any Tories willing to stand if they don't get to double their salaries with expenses...

 

[Geemonster69]

Politicians lie,that's a fact,all my life it's been Tory and Labour.
Give someone else a chance.

 

[Barking_Mad]

once you've seen one scumbag politician, you've seen them all.

 

[Geemonster69]

Yep! I concur there.
They're supposed to represent us,not themselves.

 

[tbaldwin]

once you've seen one scumbag politician, you've seen them all.

Really? You see no difference between Hitler and Tony Benn?

 

[shagnasty]

Brown as not replied to this yet i suspect there to be a bidding war made more important by the results of the june elections.Cameron is a weak leader with no principle and will be found out very soon when he actually as to start leading rather than cheering from the sideline

 

[FridgeMagnet]

"take power away from the political elite and hand it to the man and woman in the street" is dog-whistle for "deregulate", which is hardly a huge surprise. Not that he's going to stray far from the consensus. It's meaningless stuff, it's just making appropriate noises.

 

[Geemonster69]

Brown as not replied to this yet i suspect there to be a bidding war made more important by the results of the june elections.Cameron is a weak leader with no principle and will be found out very soon when he actually as to start leading rather than cheering from the sideline

Brown's no better,he totally lacks charisma.
People who seek power,should not be allowed it.

 

[ViolentPanda]

10% fewer M.P's - those'll be in Scotland and urban centres with a significant labour turnout with marginal constituencies then

Yep.
I said this a couple of days ago when the idea was mooted - gerrymandering writ large across safe Labour seats.

 

[trevhagl]

I also heard a prominent Tory say yesterday that when they get into power they will ensure that people keep their own money in their pockets to spend as they wish to give them more chance to stand on their own two feet.
That is Political speak for removal of the welfare state!

Heard it all before from tories. They say one thing in oppostion, another in power, just like Labour.

Rearrange this well known phrase or saying;
Leopards, spots, never, their, change.

This is true unfortunately. It would be good if all of the plans listed above would happen, but if that was the case why have they spent the last 11 years voting WITH the government on just about every horrific scheme from Iraq to the destruction of the welfare state?

 

[Azrael]

This is true unfortunately. It would be good if all of the plans listed above would happen, but if that was the case why have they spent the last 11 years voting WITH the government on just about every horrific scheme from Iraq to the destruction of the welfare state?

The Conservative Party's demented support for the Iraq war has harmed them for no good reason. I suspect they liked the chance to pose as tough patriots because in reality they're woeful, selling off our independence to the EU along with Labour. A genuinely patriotic party would have no need to prove their machismo by bombing the life out of a faraway country that poses us no threat.