Hitchens, Dale & Vaizey on Video

A couple of weeks ago I took part in a panel discussion at the Oxford Literary Festival with Ed Vaizey and Peter Hitchens. The topic for the session was: WHAT'S THE BIG TORY IDEA? The whole thing has now been put on Youtube by the organisers, the Orwell Prize. Click on the links below.

Introduction by Ben Wright & Speech by Ed Vaizey
Peter Hitchens Speech
Iain Dale Speech

Discussion Part 1 - Dale attacks Hitchens who hits back
Discussion Part 2 - Vaizey on a more Tory agenda & Dale on why people go into politics
Q & A Part 1 - Tory schools policy, localism & Europe, Terrorism & civil liberties
Q & A Part 2 - Civil liberties - has it dropped down the Tory agenda?
Q & A Part 3 - Universities & vocational education. Dale & Vaizey disagree...
Q & A Part 4 - Climate change, a hung parliament, leadership & optimism.

I wrote about the event HERE, and was fairly critical of Peter Hitchens' approach to the debate. Peter has sent me the following email, which I am happy to publish. Watch the videos and make your own mind up!

My difficulty with Iain's account of the Oxford Orwell debate is this. What I would really appreciate would be a serious Tory loyalist reply to my criticisms, which are I think quite clear, rather than the misrepresentation of my views and suggestions that my motives are cynical or based upon spite.

I do not say , and have never said (because I do not believe it) , that the Tories lost the last three elections because they were not conservative enough. They lost them because they were the Tories, and beyond rescue.

They still are beyond rescue. As it happens their manifestoes were not specially conservative in any of the last three elections, but I am not sure how much difference this made to the outcome. What is clear is that they now believe their future lies in accepting New Labour's social, moral, cultural( and economic) positions.

Nor do I say that all politicians are careerists. However, I do say that those who pursue office without principle are careerists, and that when or if they get office, they will not be in power. I regard this as a statement of observable fact, not of opinion.

My motivations are not personal, nor the result of bitterness. I am unwounded by my wholly predictable and expected failure to win the Tory nomination for Kensington and Chelsea nearly ten years ago, and in fact remained a member of the Tory Party for some years afterwards. Nor am I a Trotskyist sleeper. My motivations, like those of Iain Dale, are based on a desire to help my country.

I am not thoughtless or destructive for destruction's sake. My prescriptions for national reform are clear from my books (which few of my critics have read, though they have read hostile and mendacious reviews of them) and from my many writings. My conclusion, that the Tory Party is an obstacle to political conservatism in this country, is further explored in my next book, to be published on 5th May, 'The Broken Compass'. Please read it.

Jeremy Hunt Has Got a Blog

Jeremy Hunt has just become the first Shadow Cabinet blogger. Read his new blog HERE. His latest post is about what Hamlet could teach Gordon Brown! Hopefully he will be able to teach his colleague Mr Vaizey the joys of blogging regularly! He's been doing better lately though, it has to be said...

Ed Vaizey Slams Simon Heffer as a "Marxist Sleeper"

In this week's edition of Telegraph TV's Right On Shadow Culture Minister Ed Vaizey launched an astonishing attack on Simon Heffer. Click on the screen above. It comes at about 11 minutes in, after he's watched my latest chat with The Heff. This is what Vaizey said...

I never fail to read Simon Heffer's column. I've suddenly realised of course that Simon is a Marxist because his column is exactly the same as Peter Hitchens, who we all know is a former Marxist, and I think they are subversive left-wing sleepers who are trying to undermine a future Conservative government and that worries me, that the Telegraph gives them a platform.

I expected to see a "I'm only jesting" smile on Vaizey's face as he was uttering these slanderous words, but not a bit of it. It seemed to me he really meant it.

Careless Talk Costs Defections

I have another column in the Telegraph today, which you can read in full HERE. This is an excerpt...

Two years ago, Mark Oaten - then a rising star in the Liberal Democrats - told a leading Conservative that his party's generation was hungry for power and would go out and seek it. He had just published The Orange Book with his political soulmate David Laws, and was taken aback by the opprobrium from Left-of-centre Liberal Democrats. It was at that point that some of the Orange Bookers started to think long term; several found the prospect of 20 years on the Lib Dem benches a pretty soul-destroying prospect and their policy positions on many issues - tax, welfare reform and public services - were not poles apart from those adopted by liberal Conservatives.

Oaten came very close to defecting to the Conservatives in the autumn of 2005. As Lib Dem home affairs spokesman he was frustrated by the party's opposition to his tougher approach on crime, and, in particular, terrorism: but the Tories were choosing a leader and Oaten's bargaining position was weak, so he stayed put. David Cameron nearly claimed his first scalp two months into his leadership. Rumours had been swirling around Westminster of an imminent Lib Dem defection. I wrote on my blog that David Laws was about to jump ship. It was then that I received a phone call from someone close to the Cameron set who asked if I could tone it down a little as things were "at a delicate stage".

If Laws is to be believed, George Osborne's attempt to lure him across - then, or later - was less a political seduction than a "wham bam, thank you ma'am". Laws has been telling Tory MPs this week that Osborne asked abruptly, without any political foreplay, whether he wanted to defect or not. He was so taken aback that he spluttered "not".

In a GMTV interview at the weekend, Osborne confirmed that he had held discussions with Laws and was also talking to Labour MPs. The first rule of political defections is that you not only keep any discussions secret from your own side, you don't talk about them on television either. Afterwards, Osborne knew he had made a mistake, but the damage had been done.

The Tories and Lib Dems are becoming allies of convenience on issues where they have common ground. Nick Clegg, the Lib Dems Home Affairs Spokesman and leader-in-waiting, has been astonished at how similar his views are to those of David Davis, whom he had previously regarded as a hardline Right-winger. Cameron confidante Ed Vaizey has been deputed to cosy up to the Lib Dems. His recent trip to the Arctic Circle with Nick Clegg may not have resulted in a defection, but eight hours a night in an igloo can hardly have failed to bring them closer.

The Cameron inner circle ought to remember the Second World War maxim: careless Talk Costs Lives," except they should replace the "lives" with "defections".

UPDATE: More councillors defect to Tories HERE.

Brown Undermines British Films & Cranmer Celebrates

Ed Vaizey has an interesting post on the state of the British film industry, which having supported with massive tax breaks, Gordon Brown has now massively undermined. Read it HERE.

And a very happy birthday to Archbishop Cranmer who is one year old today. It's also tha 451th anniversary of his sad demise. His blog is a role model for niche blogs of all descriptions. Thoughtful, erudite and provocative.

Now, a film on Cranmer. That WOULD be something I'd go and see.

The Vaizey/Clegg Affair - From the Horse's Mouth

Ed Vaizey is interviewed on GMTV's Sunday Programme about his trip to the Arctic Circle with other MPs, including the LibDem Nick Clegg.

Ed Vaizey: You’re on this tiny wooden sled which has two runners at the back so it’s a bit like skiing and Nick Clegg, it turns out, the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman, used to be a ski-instructor – little known fact about Nick! – So he was the best at that. But I fell off quite frequently.
Steve Richards: When you weren’t falling off [the sled], the odd rumour that’s got back that you and him had such a rapport in the Arctic that you were talking quite a lot about Con/Lib pacts when you had a moment together away from the drama.
Ed Vaizey: Absolutely, yeah. No, I’m trying to tempt Nick over and he wasn’t taking any of it but….
Steve Richards: You’re trying to get him to defect to the Tories, not agree to form a relationship with you after the election…
Ed Vaizey: We have different views on different issues but I do think that Nick is a very, very impressive politician. He’s got leadership skills I have to say from the five days I spent in the Arctic with him. He’s a very nice and charismatic fellow. I do think he’s in the wrong party: he thinks he’s in the right party. Unfortunately
we have to leave it at that.

A Different Kind of Westminster Challenge

It was reported in yesterday's Evening Standard that Ed Vaizey's favourite part of his Arctic adventure was when fellow MP and charity fundraiser, Emily Thornberry, fell off the top of the igloo they were building together. I wonder what Emily's high point was? It might have been watching the relations develop between one of Cameron's nearest and dearest and everyone's favourite tip for the next Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg. I'm told that the two MPs became quite close during the trip - perhaps a sign of easing relations paving the way for a possible coalition after the next election? Probably not.

What is for sure though, is that the first Westminster Challenge has been a major success. The initiative, led by former Tory Party Conference Chairman, Richard Stephenson, has generated huge amounts of media coverage and raised a great deal of money for the charities, Crimestoppers, The Children's Society and Cancer Research UK. At the welcome back party hosted by the Lithuanian Ambassador this week, Stephenson announced plans to ballot MPs on the destination for the next expedition due to take place in 2008. Possibilities include; trekking across the Namibian desert, climbing Mount Kenya, a jungle adventure in Ecuador and rafting through Lithuania - strangely nobosy suggested a trek through Chechnya... Click HERE for more on the Westminster Challenge. Ed's take on the trip is HERE. He's says Nick Clegg an't budgin'. Well, he would, wouldn't he!