Caught Cameron’s speech about ‘character’ the other day and it sent me reeling, truly unable to decide if it was depressing or cheering. He was (or seemed) sincere: a consummate communicator, empathic, thoughtful, sensitive, ready to draw inspiration from passion and belief and from evidence and research. He seemed (or was) willing to discard the old, hateful, Tory rage and resentments, willing to take on the best of the new ‘liberal’ realities. He seemed like a decent bloke. And there wasn’t a word I disagreed with. Not a single Labour or Liberal politician has engaged me in that way for more than a decade. And I think- I know, after that speech- that he’s going to get in, Trojan horse for the old enmities and divisions and brutal lack of curiosity of a party that still worships Thatcher. I hope he means it all and I hope he finds a way to keep his stone-eyed, malevolent mates away from our schools and healthcare and culture: if he doesn’t, the paranoia and collective delusion and principle-vacuum of these last days of New Labour could feel like a golden age.
Jan 132010