Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Return to Punch and Judy Politics.

This afternoons Prime Ministers Question Time saw the spectacle of David Cameron making far too much political capital out of Gordon Browns decision not to call a General Election. This would not be quite so distasteful had the Tories genuinely wanted one.

The depths of Cameron playing 'Judy' in a return to the Punch politics he promised to avoid came when he accused Brown of being Phoney and stealing all the Conservative policies.

The term, Pot, Kettle and Ethnic Minority springs to mind. In the village of Westminster this is of course all good sport. On the Radio Sets and TV screens across Britain it does little to raise Cameron's profile out of his old Eton common room.

Then again Tories seem to like this style of politics. From reports I have heard, heckling and tearing people apart in committee rooms may be creeping into our own council, following a new intake of Conservative councillors in Warwick.

Of course many of yesterdays announcements were in fact Lib Dem ideas,

  • Charging aviation tax on planes, not passengers (passed by Liberal Democrat conference in 2004)
  • Taxing non-domiciles (passed by Liberal Democrat conference in 2007)
  • Increasing the inheritance tax threshold (passed by Liberal Democrat conference in 2007)

I suppose this is where recently Conservative and Liberal Democrat policy has something in common. Lib Dem Policies are voted for by members at the Lib Dem conference whilst at the same time Tory Policies are voted for by Lib Dem members at the Lib Dem Conference. I was there and voted for these three myself.

I guess if Cameron shouts about it loud enough people may really think they were Conservative policies all along.

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