In this ConservativeHome series on Project Cameron’s key achievements we look at our party’s recent record of influencing and changing government policy. In part one we looked at the renewal of the party’s one nation tradition and part two we noted the unity of the real Top Tories. Next we’ll look at the ‘sharing the proceeds of growth’ formulation.
Here are a few of Project Cameron’s ideas which have been embraced by Labour:
- The emphasis on the environment. Chancellor Gordon Brown hardly mentioned green issues in his Budgets until David Cameron put the issue on the agenda. ConservativeHome shares the reservations of grassroots members about the Tory leader’s approach to climate change but there can be no doubt that he has changed the political climate on this issue.
- Brown’s recent reduction in corporation tax followed a call by George Osborne to relieve the burden of business taxation.
- One of our new Prime Minister’s first acts was to declare a series of constitutional reforms. Many of those reforms – including ending the right of the executive to declare war and the establishment of a National Security Council had been proposed many months earlier by Conservatives.
- The most brazen copying of Tory policy came a couple of weeks ago when Gordon Brown announced the creation of a single borders police force. The idea lacked some crucial ingredients proposed by the Conservatives but it was clearly a Tory idea that had been rubbished by Labour only a few months ago.
- Another welcome policy steal was the decision to reverse the disastrous downgrading of cannabis. Michael Howard and Iain Duncan Smith both opposed the move at the time and Labour has now – belatedly – had to admit that the drug’s increased potency and its link to mental health problems means that cannabis deserves a stricter classification.
Governing by proxy is something of a consolation for out-of-office Tories but not much. Most depressing is seeing good ideas discredited by Labour’s consistently inept implementation.