To St Thomas’s Hospital last night for joint Progress and Policy Exchangedebate, “Has David Cameron Changed the Conservative Party for Good?”.
On the panel, for the Conservatives, the double act of Fraser Nelson andMichael Gove while Progress put forward Labour’s immigration minister Liam Byrne and Times columnist David Aaronovitch.
The meeting was, if not packed, then certainly busy with a few hundred eager politicos from across the spectrum there to hear the debate. No real surprises in any of the arguments put forward – which Fraser neatly summarises here.
What was interesting was the paucity of arguments from Liam Byrne. The attack – same old Tories just a bit more media savvy – seemed limp and reminded me of the Tory’s confused campaign strategy in 1997 which tried to convince the public that Tony Blair was nothing more than an old Labour statist who would bring the country to its knees.
David Aaronovitch’s analysis was better argued: that there has been a failure inside the Conservatives to address the changing world we live in. And our position on Europe puts the party out-of-step with the public and global real politick. I’ve argued before that we need to talk more about the world and less about the EU, but I disagree that the thinking isn’t there. The party simply needs to talk about it more.
So, a debate about change in the Conservative party. At the end of the evening had anyone changed their mind? Of course not.
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