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?
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- 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)
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- What does Mr Cameron believe in? His own ministers aren’t sure | Andrew Rawnsley | Comment is free | The Observer (dralfoldman.com)
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Dr Alf poses interesting questions which throw up more questions and conclusions.
To begin with David Cameron is not a true Conservative and should be removed as an inept loser forthwith.
The division of Conservatives proposed by Janen Ganesh is nonsense, either you are a Conservative or you are not, the differences come in the form of being right wing or left wing.
When it comes to Chancellors, Prime Ministers and Ministers the choice breaks down to great, good, average and utterly incompetent, or competent but unsuited to the role being performed.
David Cameron is on all key measures incompetent:
–He cannot win elections even when faced with a useless opponent like Gordon Brown
–He insults people publicly,lectures them about human rights and loses us jobs,money,credibility and exports time and time again
–He introduces irrelevant and expensive policies which the country cannot afford
–He squanders money on overseas aid while 365,000 of our own people rummage in dumpsters and go to Trussell Trust and Knights of Malta foodbanks
–He sells our troops down the river,breaches the military covenant and warmongers,expecting other nations to fight and die for bogus reasons
–He does not understand the need for exports ,economic growth and a slimmed down public sector
–He undermines his own Ministers attempting reform and cuts and runs at the first sound of “gunfire”
–He fails to grasp the need to make our citizens more productive or challenge them to do better
–His agenda is to make the UK part of a United States of Europe
–He cannot negotiate effectively
–He fails to see that if he remains the Conservatives could well disappear but he is supposedly already planning for a 2nd Coalition because he lacks “streetfighting capability”
George Osborne the Chancellor is not qualified to do the job he does and is economically illiterate, whilst Dr Cable the so called “Business Secretary” is slow, complacent and out of his depth.
If they were employees of a private business, they would all have been sacked a long time ago but we can only live in hope that the “Men in grey suits” will administer the coup de grace rather more effectively than DEFRA’s marksmen have been failing to blast TB carrying badgers into oblivion in Somerset!