COLONEL BLIMP AND THE AGE OF AQUARIUS

I will not be pushed about on tax cuts, says Cameron (George Jones, The Telegraph, October 2nd, 2006)

David Cameron told the Conservative Party yesterday that he would not be "pushed around" as he rejected growing demands from Right-wing members to promise tax cuts at the next election.

He stamped on the first serious challenge to his authority by insisting that the party was back in the "centre ground of politics", away from the ideological wilderness, and there would be no return to the policies of the past.

As Conservatives gathered in Bournemouth for their annual conference, the party leader was faced with a concerted attempt by traditionalists to return to a tax-cutting agenda, including the abolition of inheritance tax, capital gains tax and stamp duty.

Mr Cameron, backed by leading members of the shadow cabinet, including William Hague, the former leader, said he would not "turn the clock back to 1997" when the Tories were ousted by Tony Blair.

"Those people who say they want tax cuts and they want them now — they can't have them," he said. Breaking with tradition, he addressed the conference on the opening day and will close it on Wednesday. He said he wanted to build a country that was more green, more family-friendly, with more local control over the things that mattered. Urging the Tories to become the party of optimism, in contrast to the pessimism of a Labour Party likely to be led by Gordon Brown, he told them: "Let sunshine win the day."

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