Conservative Party (UK) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This article from Janan Ganesh, published in the FT, should win a UK  journalism prize for the worst political article of the year, in my view.

via Cameron must reclaim his party from the rationalists – FT.com.

I have seen Janan Ganesh publicly criticized previously for his simplistic understanding of economics, so mistakenly took him for a political journalist? Read Ganesh’s article carefully and let me know if you disagree with me?

Ganesh tries to group Tories into “Rationalists” & “Impressionists“; for me his argument does not stack up. Just take a look at the Wikipedia link to the Conservative Party and you get a far more intelligent argument than provided by Ganesh.

For me there are two much more powerful and pivotal bases for policy. Firstly, there is evidence-based policy and secondly, there is ideologically based policy. George Osborne is an excellent example for ideologically based policy judgement; he has consistently ignored hard-evidence from the World’s leading economists plus the IMF. In my judgement, Cameron’s Conservative Party is very light on evidence-based policy and his record must be judged accordingly. Perhaps, Cameron himself needs a third category, political butterfly?

Given the economic, social and political challenges facing the UK, the mainstream media surely have an increasingly urgent responsibility to report effectively and meaningfully to the UK public?

Also, surely a much more interesting story would have been entitled “The Conservative Party must reclaim the party from David Cameron?”

Any thoughts on either open question?

Related articles

• Ganesh Charthurthi Drownings (worldreligionnews.wordpress.com)
• John Major plays Marley’s ghost for David Cameron (hopisen.com)
• David Cameron’s challenge for the general election: win big or go home (blogs.telegraph.co.uk)
• Sticking to the script on Europe – FT.com (dralfoldman.com)
• Osborne has now been proved wrong on austerity – Martin Wolf -FT.com (dralfoldman.com)
• Britain should not take its credit status for granted – Kenneth Rogoff – FT.com (dralfoldman.com)
• Dr Alf’s Two Cents: Britain ought to be thankful for its political class – FT.com (dralfoldman.com)
• UK ‘on the mend’ but with ‘long way to go’ – FT.com (dralfoldman.com)
• Cadbury: The great tax fudge – FT.com (dralfoldman.com)
• What does Mr Cameron believe in? His own ministers aren’t sure | Andrew Rawnsley | Comment is free | The Observer (dralfoldman.com)