Do the Tories have a Foreign or Focus Group Policy?
The weekend's newspaper reading makes fascinating reading. Commentators from left and right of the Neo-Con divide complain that Tory Foreign Policy is a mush. Martin Newland in the Guardian examines the apparent retreat from neo-conery, whilst Matthew Parris in The Spectator argues if there has been a retreat, then the Tories need to sound a shrill trumpet and let people know where they really stand. Also in The Spectator, James Forsyth suggests that the Tory coalition could fall apart over policy towards Iran.
As Watlington already argued in a previous blog, the real Tory fault line is over Foreign Policy. Whether Messrs Osborne, Fox and Gove sit by if there is a retreat to a more realpolitik foreign policy remains to be seen. One thing is clear, unless Mr Cameron and Mr Hague give a clear indication as to where they really stand on this great foreign policy debate - and stick to it when the going gets tough - the party risks being torn asunder a la Maastricht. When John Major tried to please both sides over Europe, he ended up pleasing neither. The results were plain to see. Let us hope that history does not repeat itself.
To read more by Watlington, see Watlington.
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People don't care about the Neo-Cons. They did care Brussels. So the faultline if it exists is trivial politically. Who cares about ideology, LOOK AT THE POLLS!
Neo-Conservativism is so over, buried in the failures of the adventurism it inspired. It was neither new or conservative. Conservatives would never sacrifice the blood of their sons for anything less than the national interest.
Posted by: Guido Fawkes at October 22, 2006 03:21 PM