But I am not. I feel sorry for those Conservatives who have spent so much time and effort trying to convince the Tory leader that the voting public in the UK are not just sick of NuLabour, but are also sick of the massive levels of state interference in their everyday lives.
I feel sorry for David Davis, who put his job on the line to make his point, I feel sorry for Dan Hannan and Douglas Carswell who only two weeks ago published what was essentially a Libertarian manifesto.
I feel sorry for them because now they have nowhere to go, no place in a Conservative government, not without backtracking on their convictions that is.
Perhaps this show of Libertarian ideals in front of the Conservative conference was little more than political ploy, a sham, a case of 'here's what you could have won' like the gloat at the end of the Bullseye game show.
Cameron tried to convince conference today that Libertarianism meant a free for all, when he said:
But freedom can too easily turn into the idea that we all have the
right to do whatever we want, regardless of the effect on others. That
is libertarian, not Conservative - and it is certainly not me.
For me, the most important word is responsibility. Personal responsibility. Professional responsibility. Civic responsibility. Corporate responsibility.
For me, the most important word is responsibility. Personal responsibility. Professional responsibility. Civic responsibility. Corporate responsibility.
In his efforts to downplay the Libertarian ideals of his own party members, he forgets that these are the very ideals that guide Libertarianism in the UK, those statements of responsibility that you find in our Manifesto and our Party constitution, but its nice to hear Cameron being honest for once. He is right, he is not a Libertarian.
He goes on to explain:
Every big decision; every big judgement I make: I ask myself some simple
questions. Does this encourage responsibility and discourage
irresponsibility? Does this make us a more or less responsible society?
Social responsibility, not state control. Because we know that we will
only be a strong society if we are a responsible society.
Having taken Miliband to task over his analogy that there is only the state and the individual, nothing in between, Cameron makes the same mistake, that there is only the State and Society, no people.
Both of them forget that individuals make society, they both believe that it is government's role to shape society, in Miliband's case confrontational state control, in Cameron's world by 'nudging' people to the right conclusion.
No, when times are tough, it’s not a bigger state we need: it’s better, more efficient government.
The effects on the public will remain the same, State interference on a massive scale. No mention of reducing the size of the state, just glossing over the way in which it will be used on you. A new sugar coating, bolstered by a multitude of ex Blair advisor's newly hired into the Conservative big tent.
In terms of how he perceives Westminster and its relationship with the public, he had this to say:
But no-one will ever take lectures from politicians about
responsibility unless we put our own house in order. That means sorting
out our broken politics. People are sick of it. Sick of the sleaze,
sick of the cynicism. Copper-bottomed pensions. Plasma screen TVs on
the taxpayer. Expenses and allowances that wouldn’t stand for one
second in the private sector.
How right he is. However I find it unfortunate that he has not already taken the actions necessary to change this, leading from the front before he addressed conference. He has had ample time to sort out those in his own party who abuse the system, MP's like the Winterton's for instance.
In the end, this is about the judgement to see how important this issue
is for the credibility of politics and politicians. And it’s about
having the character to take on vested interests inside your own party.
As with everything else about Cameron, we can only judge him on his actions, not his fine words.
With the NHS, again it will simply be more of the same:
We will not bring about long-term change if we think that all we have
to do is stick with what Labour leave us and just pump some more money
in.
This merely tells me that although the Conservative planners know what is wrong with the NHS, they don't have a clue on how to fix it. Cameron gave examples of how he will tinker around the edges, but nothing of substance, nothing to stop the rot. More importantly nothing to say about how he will stop this monolith from eating ever more of your tax money by the bucket load.
His understanding of the Broken Society made me smile however, for again, those wrapped up in the Westminster bubble still cannot see why the public is so apathetic, where our youngsters turn to drink, drugs and crime, where it is more rewarding to sit on your backside rather than work, and where the promotion of single parents has developed generations of children who have never known a father and role model.
Come with me to Wandsworth prison and meet the inmates. Yes you meet
the mugger, the robber and the burglar. But you also meet the boy who
can’t read and never could. The teenager hooked on heroin.The young man
who never knew the love of a father. The middle aged failure where
no-one in the family has known what it’s like to go out and work for
two generations or maybe more.Miss the context, miss the cause, miss
the background and you’ll never get the true picture of why crime is so
high in our country.
In every case, it is the dead hand of Government that is the primary cause. People have just switched off, government interference has systematically stripped the individual of their will, their pride and in many cases their prospects, killed off by databases that will not let employers forget or forgive the smallest of misdemeanour's, no matter how long ago. They no longer have an interest in participating, so they just want to sit back and take the money, or participate in crime to fund their particular habit to help them forget.
But today, the returns from endless big state intervention are not just
diminishing, they are disappearing. That’s because too often, state
intervention deals with the symptoms of the problem. I want us to be
different: to deal with the long-term causes. That will be the test of
our character and judgement.
How right he is. However, it is only when Cameron and other politicians begin to understand, truly understand that it is individuals that make up society, then perhaps they will stop trying to shape it. When they start to give the public back their personal pride, then perhaps, maybe people will begin to participate responsibly in that society again, one that is determined by individual participation, not government nudging.
I could go on, about Schools, Families, Welfare, but there is little point. Cameron I must admit can give a good speech, all credit to him, but the content saddens me.
A Conservative government will unfortunately mean more of the same, state interference, big government, high taxes. This speech was about sugar coating, the same message in a new coat, nudging rather than 'in the face', tinkering with the presentation, but the message to the public is, unfortunately is the same.
There has been little about the database state at this conference, Cameron did give an interview on radio today where he undertook to scrap the ID Cards, the NIR and the childrens database, but much like Osborne's financial promises, we know the EU wont let him.
He cannot scrap the surveillance, he cannot scrap the plethora of anti-terror laws, he cannot scrap the databases, he cannot scrap the tax rises, he cannot scrap the road charging from coming into force, he cannot stop the rot.
They may let him make changes to the window dressing, to put an acceptable face on it, because an EU directive is an EU directive not a request, and Dave of all people should know, does know, that because successive Conservative and Labour governments have now given away so much of our sovereignty, that unless he confronts the EU directly and takes us out of the union, he as a Conservative Prime Minister of the UK cannot really change a damn thing.
But then, there is always the Libertarian way......
