07 December 2005 Blog Home : December 2005 : Permalink
LONDON (Reuters) - Newly elected opposition leader David Cameron turned politics on its head on Wednesday, offering to help Prime Minister Tony Blair pass laws which many in the Labour party oppose. [...]
In his debut parliamentary joust with Blair, the relative newcomer confounded tradition, declaring he wanted an end to the adversarial debate which characterises British politics.
Cameron rose to his feet in a baying House of Commons then virtually silenced it by saying: "The first issue the prime minister and I are going to have to work together on is getting the good bits of his education reforms ... into law."
Many on Blair's side seemed at a loss at how to react.
I hope this is part of an deliberate Tory strategy because I think it holds considerable promise. Blair has been identified by numerous commentators as the best Conservative PM Britain has never had (or similar) and certainly he has shamelessly stolen the best parts of successive Tory manifestos for himself. If the Tories start publicly taking credit for this and simultaneously damning with faint praise as in "getting the good bits passed into law" this could cause a nasty split within ZANU Labour. Given the existing fractures between Blair and Brown and the fact that Tax'n'Spend is looking like a bit of loser as taxes rise higher but we see little improvement in government services this could well help the Tories regain the perceived centre ground that Blair so cunningly stole from them.