THEY'RE SO MODERN:

Thatcher-basher Geldof advises Cameron's team (David Charter, 12/28/05, Times of London)

BETTER known for turning the air blue, Bob Geldof has agreed to act as an unpaid adviser on global poverty relief for the new light blue Conservative Party.

The former rock star turned millionaire poverty campaigner famously clashed with Baroness Thatcher in the 1980s but was successful in changing Conservative policy when she eventually agreed to waive the VAT on the Band Aid single.

Like his fellow Irish rock ambassador Bono, who endured the wrath of campaigners by sitting down with President Bush, “Saint Bob” has risen above partisan political concerns to promote his anti-poverty message.

Exorcise these Tory ghosts: David Cameron knows that expunging Thatcherite rhetoric is vital for his party's future success (Bruce Anderson, 12/28/05, Times of London)

IT ALL COMES back to the classics. Anyone who wants to understand the changes that are now taking place in the Tory party should begin by considering a Latin tag — suaviter in modo, fortiter in re. Like most of the best Latin phrases, it is so pithy as to be almost impossible to translate, but applied to politics it means “be firm on the essentials of policy, while using conciliatory language to explain yourself to the public”. That is Cameronism, Even if David Cameron has not said anything about detailed policies, his willingness to think boldly has alarmed a number of Tories who prefer to cling to Thatcherite certainties and Thatcherite rhetoric. [...]

Lady Thatcher has endowed British political vocabulary with two words, “Thatcherism” and “cuts”, which are widely believed to be synonymous. She never used the term “cuts”, but her body language gave it credence. Yet there were no cuts. During her years, tax revenue hardly fell as a proportion of GDP, while public expenditure went on growing, especially on health. Mrs Thatcher once insisted that “the NHS is safe in our hands ”. So it was.

The reality is that Mr. Cameron, like Mr. Bush, is just an advocate of Thatcherism, but smart enough to adopt his opponent's rhetoric to dress that Third Way up in.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 28, 2005 7:46 AM