I spotted this over on CentreRight (part of ConservativeHome) about why some members, mostly on the right of the party, are unhappy with David Cameron. My reaction to most of the reasons was confusion on what the problem actually was; so I'd thought I'd respond to each of the points.Remember each of these is a reason why the right is unhappy with Cameron.
1, Accepting the climate change consensus.
I'm sure nothing I can say about this would change the mind of the original author about climate change; but if he doesn't believe the world's leading scientists when they say we've got a major problem on our hands then there's no hope for him. What is certain is Conservatives don't like needless waste, so why is turning off the lights when they're not in use such a bad idea?
2, Opposing grammar schools.
Well, I wasn't aware that Cameron was opposed to grammar schools. He's supporting the (very good) idea of city academies insofar as he wants to give control of schools back to headteachers.
3, Accepting 50p tax.
I'm not too happy about 50p tax myself, but there's not much you can do about it in opposition. If and when the Tories come to power then the rate can be put back to its original state, but not before the country's books are brought back to respectability. Remember, the Tories would probably have to put up taxes otherwise.
4, Declining to say he'll reverse Lisbon.
If Ireland vote Yes in their second referendum, and the treaty is ratified in the Czech Republic and other countries that still require to do so, then the treaty will be in force. It would then become impossible to withdraw from the treaty without also withdrawing from the European Union.
We don't want to pull out of the EU, we just don't want to have a federal Europe that Lisbon would put us on the path to. The only option available would be to renegotiate our membership of the EU. However there are a lot of ifs before we get to that stage, so there'd be no point in working out what we'd do in a hypothetical situation, and we'd by very stupid to try.
5, Cutting defence spending but increasing NHS spending.
Cuts in defence spending have occurred in every single government since WW2, and will be a necessary evil after the Conservatives inherit the state of the public finances.
Cutting spending on the NHS, however, isn't a very good idea. Apart from it being the quickest method of throwing away votes, it is apparent the NHS is still underfunded in many areas. Just think of the many drugs that aren't available on the NHS because of costs.
6, Forcing Catholic adoption agencies to accept homosexuality (I'm gay btw but support freedom of association).
Well I'm not gay, but homophobia is something I believe shouldn't be tolerated in the 21st century. I'm also a Christian, and I know that for every mention deploring homosexuality in the bible there's half a dozen calling for tolerance and equality.
7, Backing extra state funding of political parties.
Clearly this is something coming out of the old argument of limiting how much any one person can donate to a politcal party. It would be a compromise for Labour in particular in stopping the unions giving so much to them. Don't worry, it's never going to happen.
8, Making air travel too expensive for poor families.
Eh? I'm not sure where this one comes from, but I suspect you should substitute the answer to 1 above.
9, Supporting positive discrimination for women and ethnic minorities.
As usual, there has been a misunderstanding of what equal opportunities means. It isn't about quotas or gender balancing, but giving everyone the same opportunity to get that job or enter that competition. The most effective way of doing this is for application forms to have a detachable personal information section that the short-listing panel don't see. That way there can't be any prejudices against, or indeed in favour of, a particular candidate.
The party, as well as everyone else, needs to learn this.
10, Backing for shooting galleries for drug addicts.
No idea. Next!
11, Cuddling up to Obama while shunning Bush.
Bush was terrible. He's also gone, so what does it matter.
As I have previously blogged, electing McCain would've been madness. Not because of McCain himself, but because of Sarah Palin (see that blog post for more information). Since it looks like Cameron will be PM in twelve months time, it would be stupid to start bad mouthing the US President since Cameron and Obama will be working together on a number of global issues.
12, Opposition to nuclear power stations.
OK, I agree with this. So that's 1 so far!
13, Dumping of the Patient Passport.
This is beginning to scrape the bottom of the barrel though. Think about it, the party was peddling this idea around for well over two years before the previous general election, and it never got off the ground.
The patient passport could've taken pressure off some hospitals in some areas, but would've heaped it on another hospital, stretching their resources and time, and we're back to square one. It would've also subsidised many private hospital operations for people who really didn't need the subsidy. It wasn't a very good policy, and it was rightfully dumped!
14, Silence on immigration.
Um ... Border Police Force, more stricter powers, not really silence is it. Apart from that though, it's not all that bad an idea to only bring it up every now and again when you've got parties like the BNP around!
So I make that 1 from 14 that I agree with.
JR
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