Though Cowards Flinch

"In the time I've been speaking, the national debt has increased by...um..."

In between searching out the wisdom of crowds (i.e. the political centre-ground), rather than the wisdom of principled ideas, it seems that David Cameron has been speechifying and coming up with nice soundbites about national unity. The leadoff hitting idea was announced yesterday:

Conservative leader David Cameron announced his cross-party war cabinet plans “in the spirit of unity, of a greater purpose than the simple pursuit of politics”.

He said: “If we win this year’s election, I will invite leaders of the main opposition parties to attend the war cabinet on a regular basis so they can offer their advice and insights.

“When a nation is at war, it needs to pull together. I am determined that with a Conservative government, it will.”(BBC)

As a member of the nation in question, I personally don’t feel much of a need to pull together in order to fight the war in Afghanistan. In any case what Cameron is talking about are the Westminster politicos pulling together. Quite a different matter, though it makes for an interesting definition of ‘nation’. I also wonder why Cameron thinks he might find Gordon Brown’s view so valuable when he’s spent so much time attacking it.

It seems to have been casually accepted on ConHome that the measure is intended to nullify potential opposition on the prosecution of the war from Clegg and Brown, should Cameron form a government. I suspect there’s also the question of elevating Cameron to the appearance of statesman, in the face of the commentariat-recited meme that Labour is somehow fighting a class war, regardless of the real evidence.

The real thing nullifying New Labour opposition to the war is more likely to be the fact that New Labour started it. Just a thought.

Tomorrow is the date set for publication of the first chapter of the Tory draft manifesto. Over the coming months I look forward to hearing how Cameron’s Conservatives intend to go ahead with their plan to cut the main rate of Corporation Tax and other taxes, whilst maintaining all the spending promises they’ve made on things like families and the NHS. As Cameron mentions in his speech, at least one element will be forcing people to work beyond sixty-five. Thus is the cost of recovery foisted on to working people.

This what Cameron means when he talks about the nation ‘pulling together’. He means the wealthy getting a tax break and the rest of us working for longer.

I certainly look forward to seeing how Cameron plans to implement the “pupil premium” and concomitant structural adjustments in education, whilst slashing spending. Or how he intends to stand on this particular plank of his platform seeing as it is just continuing the Labour practice of trying to foist schools off on the private sector. Not to mention the indications that the Guppyfish Gove’s favourite policy doesn’t work.

But hey, when ‘national unity’ is at stake, just about any old rubbish will fly.