I attended a DEMOS event last Thursday. It was the launch of DEMOS's three year project on progressive conservatism. It was an interesting afternoon. David Cameron, above, talked about the desired 'progressive' 'ends' of fairness, equal opportunity, sustainability/green, safety and he talked about the conservative 'means' of how to get there; de-centralization, govt. to strengthen institutions that help that eg. family, economic growth and living within our means.
To be honest, my view of him was a media friendly, young, energetic, Tory version of Tony Blair, though not as good (though I never saw Blair speak at such close quarters). He had presence, though not charisma, and isn't someone I would readily warm to even if what he said made good sense.
The interesting stuff came later. Philip Blond theologian, philosopher, and self-proclaimed 'red conservative' who is heading the DEMOS project, was provocative and interesting. He spoke of the poor being progressively decapitalised, of the market state and the welfare state being insufficient and advocated a 'civic' state, where the end result isn't monopolies or oligarchies (as he sees in the market state) where ownership is for all and there is equality in participation.
After the break, there was a panel discussion that included Will Hutton , Oliver Letwin and John Gray . It was excellent. It started to throw up issues like the extend and duration of government involvement in the markets (and therefore society at large), whether Margaret Thatcher was really a Conservative at all and belonged to the traditional Conservative lineage or whether she was really a free-market liberal and Conservative outlier, how did progressive Conservatism differ from compassionate Conservatism (or even, to my mind one nation Toryism) or liberal Conservatism.
The Cameron speech was well reported in the press, though more for his comments on Labour's handling of the recession than anything else.
The photo was, as you can probably guess my now, taken with my trusty blackberry camera, and on zoom this time, just to add to the grainy quality.
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2 comments:
This is very interesting. I've always wondered why there seems to be no place in this world for people like me, who is socially liberal, but at the same time believe in free markets and small governments with little intervention, and that free markets and equality can co-exist. In fact, that's the role of government -- to the extent we need them, it's to create an environment for free markets to exist while preventing their ills. Sounds like I should be part of this progressive conservatism project!
Do you have any reading materials that I can have?
I'll keep you posted, and link to any useful sites. CB
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