Bad karma

I'm not going to pretend that David Cameron has so far been the leader I would have wanted the Conservatives to have. He's spurned numerous gaping opportunities to attack the Government from extrememly firm ground, and in so doing has allowed them to get away scot-free with many things any one of which would have done significant damage to the last Conservative government. Many think he's doing this to keep Blair in office as long as possible because a) most people hate Blair now - I was here first - and the longer he stays the fewer people will want to vote Labour, and b) if Gordon Brown is still Chancellor when his house of cards economy collapses, people will know whom to blame and won't want to vote for him as Prime Minister. Perhaps these are worthwhile tactics, but right now I'd rather see someone stand up for grammar schools, for example, and also take this institutionally corrupt government down a few pegs.

The really frustrating thing is that, despite, or perhaps because of, Dave's questionable tactics and notable lack of, well, Conservatism, the Labour party appears to be scared. Scared enough to pay various people to conceive, design and host this total-waste-of-time website (actually hosted at labour.org.uk, you may note), for example, and to write the 12-page Word document you can download therefrom. And certainly scared enough to resort to their classic get-out-the-vote tactics for the May 4 council elections. The merest mention of the BNP is usually good for an extra couple of percentage points on Labour's vote tally.

But the question is, which approach would yield better results? Cameron thinks he can win more votes by aping the statist policies the people in this country have been conditioned relentlessly to admire and expect from government. But the trouble is, if he wins votes this way he'll actually have to act like it in power, and I think he's too smart and, behind all the gloss, a man of too much conviction to betray his country in that manner.