Brown, Bush & Cameron

Published Sunday, December 11, 2005 by Kevin Breathnach | E-mail this post

Andrew Rawsley's Observer piece explains why Gordon Brown is already so unsettled with David Cameron, and how he plans to deal with him. Rawsley is, as usual, tremenduously insightful, informative and enjoyable. However, one passage stuck out as both assuming and ill-informed:

One view of the new Tory leader is that he can be negatively defined as a right-winger trying to pass himself off as a moderate. The 'compassionate Conservative' tag was first minted in America. On this reading, his true role model is not Tony Blair at all. His secret hero is George W Bush. He ran for the White House claiming to care. Once installed there, he turned into one of the most right-wing American Presidents in modern history. He will talk left, but act right. This is the perspective on Cameron that the Chancellor has already decided on.

Now, it's not that my undying love for David "Dave" Cameron has propagted some strange frustration at the suggestion of his being insincere, it's the sentence which I've italicised. Since becoming President of the United States in 2000, George Bush has shown himself to be one of the most unrestrained spenders in recent history. Of course, there were the infamous tax-cuts, but conservatives who sincerely believe that government needs to spend less—a small but important Republican constituency—are furious at Bush right now because, if anything, Bush talked right and acted left. At 8.2% per annum, he's increasing domestic discretionary spending - such as health and social security - more rapidly than the 'socialist' Bill Clinton did (2.5% per annum) in his 8 years in charge. Such considerations made, Bush is hardly a nominee for the "most right-wing American President in modern history" award, which is due to be at the end of this year.

That said, descend and read the rest of Rawsley's piece. In fact, bookmark his page because - other than his spiffing haircut - he's one of the best journalists out there for British politics.

While the comments are down, I'd ask anyone who has any thoughts on the matter to send me an email and we'll consider publishing it; maybe even with a rebuttal! The address is in the top-right.

Brown, Bush & Cameron

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