Organisation: UK Conservatives

Boris Johnson is quoted in MoneyWeek as having said to Management Today: "To the banker bashers I say, what's your economic model? We can't ignore and hate the bankers. What would that achieve? Show me how reducing financial services boosts…

What do they teach these people on Oxbridge human sciences courses? First the Cameroons demonstrate their ignorance of what it is that is holding British business back (clue: it isn't that it takes 14 rather than 7 days to register a…

In the long run, it's ideas that matter. And they aren't all equal. Truth is not subjective, and neither are right and wrong. Political tactics and novelty may seem all-important to the chattering class, but expedient can never make wrong…

My copy of Dan Hannan and Douglas Carswell's book, The Plan, arrived today. Haven't read much yet and don't agree with all that I've read, but all the same, if you haven't got a copy, you should. It's well worth the read, and more right…

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a drinks party for a Climate Campaign organized by the Conservative Energy & Climate Change team. The crowd was amiable enough - mostly pin-striped types with a leavening of tweedy country squires and the…

This is a mantra of the right. Martin Vander Weyer voiced a fairly standard version in today's Sunday Telegraph: -Those reductions of state provision will be met in part by a reinvigorated voluntary sector, to which the retired and unjobbed…

It's not true that the Tories don't have any policies. They have a policy for each of us. Do you want lower taxes? They support that. Do you want more public investment? They support that too. Worried about the national debt? They are…

On the front page of today's FT is the headline: "Osborne warns of big spending cuts to come". But in a speech yesterday, he announced 10 measures that should be implemented in the Budget to "kickstart a green recovery". Just his first…

ConservativeHome's ToryDiary reports on a Right-to-Move policy to be announced tomorrow by Grant Shapps. Under this scheme, "good social tenants can demand that their social landlord sell their current property and use the proceeds, minus…

For numerous reasons (some set out on other posts on this site), heat is a huge, vital, yet ignored sector of our energy systems. It is responsible for nearly half the carbon emissions from the energy sector. It is the reason we are so…

I listened this morning to Nick Ross and James Brokenshire (Tory spokesman on Home Affairs) arguing about crime statistics on Radio 4. Brokenshire claims that the statistics show that violent crime is on the increase. Ross accuses him of…

The Times reports that the Tories' hospital campaign "was in disarray last night". One can pontificate on whether the campaign was the right point of attack (no), whether the mistakes are serious (in credibility terms, yes), and whether the…

Are they by any chance related? (Picture of Ted from US DoD via Wikipedia, and of Dave from today's FT. Or is that the other way round?)

George Osborne has welcomed the report of John Redwood's Economic Competitiveness Policy Group, which identifies £14 billion that could be saved by cutting red tape and bureaucracy and recommends tax cuts of £10 billion, as "the most…

Here is Cameroonian Conservatism in action. If people are inclined to avoid paying for goods, get taxpayers to pay for them, so they appear to be "free" at the point of consumption, in order to reduce the temptation to commit unlawful acts…

Cc: Iain Dale, Andrew Mitchell, George Osborne and anyone else interested in really helping the world's poorest, rather than token gestures and photo-ops Read this, and then ask yourself whether the lessons you learnt from a brief trip to…

Andrew Pierce, Assistant Editor of the Telegraph, reviewing PMQs on Radio 5Live today, was laughing at how Brown had once again stolen the Tories' clothes (this time, on border police), leaving Cameron "standing naked at the dispatch box…

A couple of months ago, I suggested that the claims for the benefit of the Tory trip to Rwanda might be inflated. In the current mood of dissatisfaction with David Cameron, much of the media and many private commentators are making cynical…

Welcome to a new blog - ToryHome - that has been setup to put the Cameroonian perspective on stories in the news. It appears to have some relation to Chad Noble, the dormant Centre for Progressive Conservatism, and satiresearch.com. You may…

Tim Montgomery at ConservativeHome thinks "support for nuclear power" should be a core Tory value. I think, if picking a technological winner like that is a core Tory value, that contempt for Tories should be one of my core values. I am…

Following my post on the story in the News of the World about a couple (Sean and Chloe Ash) who have been driven apart by the benefits system, someone has posted a reply in the name of Sean Ash, wanting to put the record straight. Of course…

Well done to ConservativeHome for pointing out the story in today's News Of The World about the couple who are splitting up because they are financially better-off living apart. Not so well done to both CH and the News of the Screws for…

Paul Newman, an Islington Conservative, has admitted on his blog that Dave Cameron may not be being entirely frank with us. His response to my challenge that "You may buy the line that he can change the balance of the tax and welfare system…

Two excellent Camoronisms spotted yesterday: Tim Worstall picked up Dave's ignorant currying of favour with the music industry. Hoping for some "Cool Britannia" credit at the next election? Or just dumb? Snafu at Not Proud of Britain…

The results are in. As expected, the Government has won Gold, while the Conservatives have had to settle for Silver (Gilt). It's a creditable performance, but not quite competitive. Close, but no banana - is this a taste of things to come…

The tensions that have been festering in the Conservative Party since the end of Dave Cameron's brief honeymoon (and, indeed, much longer than that) are breaking out into open sores (again), following the unfortunate coincidence of Tory…

It is no secret that I rate the Tories chances of winning the next election, on current form, at next to zero.  It seems Quentin Davies MP for Grantham feels the same.  He has defected from the Conservatives to Labour via an open letter to…

I get a distinct feeling that the Tories are rapidly moving back to square one at the moment. It may well be too early to say with any conviction that they are back in Hague/IDS/Howard territory, but the signs are there. They have had a…

The debate over David Willetts' accidentally controversial speech on education continues to rumble on. As Willetts and Cameron have themselves kept the debate alive, through Willetts' appearance on Sunday AM, and David Cameron's…

The Willetts speech on education is causing waves in Tory circles, as they vie with each other for who has the best idea for the standard (or perhaps two-model) offering that should be provided to other people's children. It's yet another…

Clemency Burton-Hill (a multi-talented individual and real fox to boot, so I'm sorry to have to take the piss, but this is too good to ignore) reports in this week's Spectator that the Tories are "fighting back" against Gordon Brown's lead…

Fascinating briefing by Peter Riddell in today's Times on the ideas of Oliver Letwin. Of course, Riddell is limited by the space constraints of newspaper reporting. On the one hand, he could have got by with a lot less space, if he had…

Getting a few hits from Boris Johnson's site after JG posted a comment there. I feel we ought to reciprocate and put Boris in one of our blogrolls. But here's my dilemma: should I put him in with the individualists or with the…

Francis Maude argued on tonight's Question Time that it would be good for there to be a serious contest for the leadership of the Labour Party, as Gordon needed to be tested. Was he admitting that members of his own party are not capable of…

Anyone (other than the specialists who get paid to produce them, or pressure groups and politicians who use them to justify intervention in favour of their special interests) who has looked with a critical eye at the Cost-Benefit Analyses…

I missed the story two weeks ago on Cheryl Gillan's proposal to voucherise charity funding. If I'd been in the country (I was skiing), I'd have laid into it at the time, but for such an idiotic proposal, late is better than never. The…

The Tories are trying to work out the best way to develop our transport network, including consideration of the installation of a magnetic levitation (MagLev) railway line, or the extension of the Channel Tunnel rail link as a British…

According to the Lib Dems, the Conservative's "may have started to talk green but are continuing to act dirty": David Cameron switched to a supposedly green hybrid Lexus GS, but it is so big that it is more polluting than the 10 best…

The Telegraph nearly wrote this entry for us. They have listed the winners from the recommendations of Michael Forsyth's Tax Reform Commission: A couple with two children, one under five, with one earner working 30 hours a week and earning…

David Cameron and the Daily Telegraph think we should subsidise rural Post Offices to keep them open, even though 800 of them get fewer than 16 customers per week. It's funny how people who preach about competitiveness forget about their…

David Cameron has vowed to find jobs for the disabled, on the basis that "We have a social responsibility to help disabled people into the workforce". What could be more sympathetic and just than the government giving people a leg-up who…