Tuesday, February 07, 2006

The New Conservative Approach to Opposition

As you would expect, William Hague gave a very witty speech last night at the event I describe below. One thing he said which I thought worth repeating was this.

"The difference between David Cameron's leadership and previous Conservative Oppositions is that in the past we would think to ourselves each morning, 'how best can we embarrass the Government today?' Now, when we meet in David's office each morning, we say to ourselves, 'if we were in government, what would we do?'

Perhaps that sums up in on sentence the difference in approach which David Cameron has instilled into the Shadow Cabinet.

5 comments:

Bob Piper said...

Surely under the boy willie's leadership the question asked most often was "How can we embarrass ourselves today?"... and the answer from his advisers was, "Oh, dozens of ways sir."

Anonymous said...

As a matter of interest Iain, what mark would you give Cameron, say out of ten, for his performance so far?

I know you were behind David Davis, running his campaign, but you seem quite happy with the way things are going.

I myself supported Cameron over Davis but did have reservations. I still have reservations but am encouraged by his performance thus far.

Anonymous said...

How is DD these days? Is he bitter and twisted or knuckling down and looking forward to being Home Secretary (maybe)?

Anonymous said...

I don't think, Bulldog, that Mr Dale has had the opportunity to rate Mr Cameron's "performance" or to be "behind" Mr Davis.

Iain Dale said...

Bulldog. Yes, I am quite happy. I don't think anyone could have expected him to do so well in his first 8 weeks. I think I'll pass on giving marks out of ten though!
Houndtang, I suspect you have your tongue firmly in your cheek, but DD is working very happily alongside DC. I don't think even his worst enemy could accuse him of being bitter or twisted. Anonymous, you are a very naughty boy. Or girl.