In a provocative move, my colleague Iain Dale asked in his column yesterday whether Dave might act this year in a way that could make me say something nice about him. While agreeing with Mr Dale that this is a tall order, I must shock him by saying that there is indeed a faint sign of hope. On Tuesday, the Conservative Party is planning to unveil a new welfare policy. A key part of this is to incentivise the private sector to get some of our 3.1 million long-term unemployed off benefits and into work. Since we should always prefer great projects to be undertaken by someone other than the state, this is a step in the right direction, and I applaud it.
Good on him. I hope this trend continues! Perhaps Peter Hitchens might now follow suit. Or perhaps not. I think I need a lie down.
24 comments:
If the Conservative party come out with common sense policies, and move away from green, trendy and leftie ideas that we all do not want there is no doubt in my mind they they will be supported from many areas including the honnest Mr Heffer, one of the few people who speaks his mind that so many others have become so timid that they do not.
That actual article was quite agreeable, although the same can't be said for his bigoted assertions about Portugal. Though there is one thing I dissent from, which is his opposition to the minimum wage. Apart from the fact that its abolition is not practical politics (as Hague and Howard were well aware), it is one of the best ways to encourage unskilled people (who are, naturally, far more likely to be unemployed than the well qualified) into work. If work doesn't pay a reasonable wage, why would people bother having jobs?
One of them was to get Simon Heffer to say something nice about him.
I'm not sure why on earth you would want him to do that! Of course there is an electoral need for a new and broader Conservative coalition. But (and I say this someone who has worked hard for the Conservatives over the last 6 years) I personally detest the idea of the likes of Heffer being a key part of that. The man spews Right-wing bile at every opportunity for the sake of cheap quotes. He has rarely written anything with which I've agreed, and I usually think that if Heffer is up in arms, you're probably doing something right!
Well it won't be the first time Peter Hitchens has followed like a little lamb where has peers have lead, accompanied by that manly protest that it was his idea all the time! Bless. But I think a good way to get Peter Perfect to do what you want Iain, is to publish a statement that he absolutely won't do something... then he's bound to.
david bowie 5/1/08 12:12
If work doesn't pay a reasonable wage, why would people bother having jobs?
A "reasonable wage" is defined by the benefits you get by not working.
If benefits were better controlled, then working would be a more attractive option.
Take Frank Field's latest bright idea - £25k tax free for anyone with a child under 2 yrs. Do you know how much you need to earn to clear 25k after tax?
Cameron can't afford to ditch the traditional conservative base.
It really surprises me to hear sniping against 'right wing bile' around here.
The give away is the name.
This is a conservative party - and while for some of us it isn't nearly conservative enough you only add your voice to the chorus of labourites who love nothing more than to take a shot at 'right wingers' when you criticise people like Heffer.
Great. All he needs to do now is apologise for the anti-gay slurs against you in the aftermath of the last general election.
I think if Peter Hitchens declares his support, it'll spell the end for Cameron.
Hitchens seems to behave a bit like a teenaged attention seeker - started out a left wing Trotskyist, but when people didn't pay that much attention to him he changed to a hard right angle and got a job as a columnist for the Express and Mail.
Such a change of views, in my opinion, makes small fry of St Paul's coversion.
what a hideous love-in this all is....
Richard
Well we are all seeing where this Labour government has brought us to. I am old enough to have seen the same thing happen in the 60s. the country brought to its knees by labour followed by a leftie Heath government that made matters worse.
You may not like her but Mrs T sorted this country out with a reality check and put us on the right track. now being undone by Labour bit by bit.
People like Richard just do not face up to the real world. that is what the problem is in Britain today. In the end you cannot spend what you do not have.
Conservatism is a broad church - not just defined as "Thatcherism".
I don't get Heffer's assertion that it is *always* better for someone other than the state to be undertaking anything. It smacks of unthinking dogma which is better left to the left.
With friends like these, eh?
Richard at 12.48 has hit the nail on the head. Heffer is poisonous and self seeking. Why does he have so much power on the DT - at least his influence on the Spectator has apparently diminished. Until he leaves the DT group, the newspaper cannot be fully trusted.
I personally detest the idea of the likes of Heffer being a key part of that. The man spews Right-wing bile at every opportunity for the sake of cheap quotes.
Are you sure you are in the right party?
Philipa - I don't agree regarding Peter Hitchens. If anyone marches to his own drum, it's him.
The Conservatives under Cameron are tilting too far to the Euro-socialist model and offer scant pickings for real conservatives who want to conserve what is good about our country, not destroy; and who want independence, not dependence, for the citizenry. That means getting rid of most of the state and that giant, ever-growing blood-sucker, the public sector. Most Conservatives loathe paternalism, but if ever any nominal Conservative leaned to the paternalistic, it's Cameron.
The way to get rid of the minimum wage is to get rid of the state.
I agree with 'rightsideforum' who said (2:11pm) Cameron can't afford to ditch the traditional conservative base.
My previous comment was a tongue-in-cheek glib guess as to the behaviour of a man (I've never met) but to be honest I'm at a loss as to what positive things could be said about Cameron (though Newmania could probably supply a list).
Surely it matters more what WE think about Cameron? I have to say I'm yet to be impressed.
What real influence do you think columnists have Iain? I think news media has quite a lot of influence, especially the tabloids. But can the political columnists have really caused the disgruntlement of traditional conservatives?
Surely Peter Hitchens can only voice his own opinion and comment on the stats and opinions of others who choose to state them? If he is left with nothing positive to say about a politician then that is surely not his fault. (I must stop calling him Shirley)
But Iain, you seem to be suggesting there is some kind of agenda with these highly paid columnists. Or have I got that wrong? The reason I was flippant before was that, though Mail employees often do seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet (careful choice of words there), I find it difficult to believe Hitchens would be the wilful puppet of any political party.
Iain, are you suggesting there is an anti-Cameron conspiracy amongst the elite of political journalism?
Or are you very cleverly manipulating political columnists? Then well done you! Heffer is obviously a pussy :-)
I think Heffer's 'views' are part of the reason many people are still wary of supporting 'David Cameron's Modern Conservative Party'. They might like Cameron but they certainly don't want a government full of people with right wing views like Heffer.
DC has done well with the decontamination process - but he still has a mountain to climb. Cameron needs to hang on to his tenacity if he is to succeed.
but to be honest I'm at a loss as to what positive things could be said about Cameron
Seems like many atittudes here are reverting to pre conference Cameron knocking. I have no idea why so many Conservatives don't appreciate Cameron's outstanding qualities, or show any understanding whatsoever of the turnaround in Conservative fortunes in the polls. The media elite certainly give Cameron the cold shoulder and ludicrously inflate the abilities of Brown - even now. If grass roots Conservatives can't appreciate Cameron then in the long run the game will be up for the party.
Yes, Cameron is very much in the Edward Heath/Christopher Patten camp of "conservatism", which is actually socialism in camouflage.
The tapestry of this country has been wilfully unpicked by the foul,unsettling Tony Blair and his cohorts and we need someone strong to pull it together again.
To those lefties who caper about in response shrieking, "Ooooh! Living in the past! Stone age!!!", I'd respond that Conservatism is the most innovative of political beliefs.
Margaret Thatcher took a step that sent everyone reeling because it was almost like going against nature: she privatised state-owned companies. Was this boldness a success or a failure? The evidence is that the rest of the world, saving, I think China and a couple of other hardliners, has privatised telephones, power companies, transport companies and anything else that caught their eye. The world is privatised because a British prime minister saw clearly that state ownership is wrong.
The socialist hark back to the Soviet era; Gordon will be announcing Five-Year plans for tractor production next. The Conservatives always move ahead, conserving the values, not methods.
It is not possible to abolish minimum wage legislation athough a great deal of illegal immigration might be stopped if it was rigorously enforced in places esrving oriental and middle eastern foods. We have learned to live with it without disaster so we should drop objections for simple practical reasons.
The key of what is said to be envisaged is a tougher approach to disabilty benefit cheats. That is likely to gain votes as the cheats either vote Labour or are politically inactive.
We must think seriously about mandatory National Service of some kind for NEETS - there are more tasks other than front-line fighting.
Victor
There is no point in voting for the Tories if they are simply going to be
Labour Lite. It's going to take a great deal for the Chocolate Orange Inspector to reverse my first and continuing opinion of him.
Excuse me,Bill, but I have dibs on the name The Chocolate Orange Inspector,which I invented at the time of the Great Newsagent Chocolate Orange Cull,and I have posted on it often enough to get the stamp of copyright from Al Gore, who invented the internet.
Heffer reveals himself as an odious little sh1t with his comments on the McCanns.
Is he part of their little media circus?
This has brightened up my day. Of course, this might be “a temporary shaft of light” (Mr Heffer’s description of Hillary Clinton’s defeat), particularly as his column is “balanced” by fulsome praise for Gordon Brown’s stance against the loathsome Robert Mugabe. ‘Comrade’ Mugabe (he arranged for Mrs Thatcher to be greeted, on one visit to Zimbabwe, with large signs welcoming “Comrade Margaret Thatcher”, an undoubted first) as he likes to describe himself is, indeed, a vile personage but I do not think that there were any heroics in Gordon Brown’s absence from the relevant summit, as absence from such events seems to be his normal stance.
Why should you care what Simon Heffer thinks? Like all newspaper columnists, the man speaks only for those who cannot think for themselves. The fewer of them we have, the better our newspapers will be. They are grossly overpaid and underworked, and while the current welfare arrangements are in dire need of change, they should be to stop writing people off, not to allow Heffer, Hitchens et all even more extravagant lifestyle.
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