The Blogosphere’s Best Thinking – Must Reads Monday 13th December

Tim Mongomerie’s blog on “Mainstream Conservatism” has kicked-off one hell of a debate. His contention is that the leadership is mistakenly focused on pursuing a narrower form of “Liberal Conservatism”. Fiona Melville wrote for Coffee House about where we stand on all this. Archbishop Cranmer points out that it’s not a betrayal of either conservative principles or the Conservative Party for this coalition to continue; not least because the party itself has always been a coalition. ‘ Liberal Conservatives’ live in the Westminster bubble – says fellow resident Fraser Nelson - while “Mainstream Conservatives” live on Main Street. His conclusion is that Cameron is a pragmatic person and he needs to find a balanced answer. It hasn’t surprised Iain Martin that a growing number of Tories are saying “This far and no further”. At the end of the day, as Janet Daley points out, it is voters who will decide what they want. For Peter Hoskins the vast majority of voters still want a full range of choices when they enter the ballot box.

 While all this has been going on Labour has made their first serious pitch to the Lib Dems. Ed Miliband wants Lib Dems to input into Labour’s policy renewal process.  Richard Grayson, former director of policy for the Lib Dems, is interested in setting the foundations for a possible future Lab-Lib pact. Mary Ann Sieghart is spot on about the need for some Lib Dem voters to grow-up.

 Eric Pickles has launched one of the Coalitions flagship initiative: the Localism Bill. More on this in the next few days. Julian Dobson may suffer from instinctive cynicism whenever anyone in the Coalition talks about ‘Big Society’ but he does make some good points about what localism actually is. According to Political Cream the key challenge for Big Society advocates is to convince citizens of its benefits without drawing attention to the enforced nature of its implementation.

Related posts:

1. The Blogosphere’s Best Thinking – Must Reads For Monday 6th December
2. The Blogosphere’s Best Thinking – Must Reads Wednesday 1 December
3. The Blogosphere’s Best Thinking – Must Reads Wednesday 8 December
4. The Blogosphere’s Best Thinking – Must Reads For Monday 22nd November
5. The Blogosphere’s Best Thinking – Must Reads Friday 3 December