Spectator debate: Cameron more Thatcher than Heath - just
Thursday, 8 April 2010 12:00 AM
By Marina Kim
Conservative supporters at an event put on by the Spectator magazine yesterday decided that David Cameron does have what it takes to turn the country around, but it wasn't a ringing endorsement.
The motion at the debate held at Royal Geographical Society in Kensington was: Britain's in decline: pity Cameron is a Heath not a Thatcher.
The thrust being that Cameron will not have the necessary radical reforming agenda necessary to halt that decline.
And before the speakers, a naturally Tory audience was agreed: for the motion were 175, against only 89 and 183 didn't know.
Chaired by Andrew Neill, Simon Heffer, Kelvin MacKenzie and Peter Hitchens spoke for the motion, and Tim Montgomerie, editor of ConservativeHome.com, Bruce Anderson and Simon Wolfson opposed.
But while notionally the debate was about the leader of the opposition, much of the rhetoric concerned itself with Gordon Brown.
Former Sun editor Kelvin Mackenzie said: "One more year with Gordon Brown and we'll be twinned with North Korea".
On Cameron, he was scarcely less scathing: "Whenever I saw Dave he was always very nice and very friendly. I'm sure he will make a very good and loyal friend, just like my labrador."
Simon Heffer, associate editor of the The Daily Telegraph was anti-Dave and anti-Gordon, but pro-Heath.
"Heath had a better Cabinet than Cameron. I don't see there is a pool of talent Cameron can rely on. Heath was also more of a leader. Cameron does what his focus group tells him to do. He doesn't have a leadership, he has followship.
"David Cameron doesn't understand the scope of the problems with our economy, the scope of cuts and where the savings will have to come from."
But Independent columnist Bruce Anderson came to the Tory leader's aid: "Cameron is physically, mentally and morally strong. He is stubborn. He doesn't like to lose." he said.
Addressing the concerns about Cameron's team, and George Osborne in particular, Bruce Anderson said that George only appears inexperienced.
"George Osborne has one problem: he looks younger than he is. But a few years in the office will cure that," he said.
"Cameron made the Tory party electable," said Simon Wolfson, the chief executive of Next and a member of David Cameron's Economic Recovery Committee.
Responding to the view that Cameron listens rather than leads, he said: "Do you want someone who comes to discuss things with a baseball bat or with a smile? Maybe sometimes David has an irritating smile but it is a smile."
"Cameron is the best shot we have to get rid of Brown's government," he said.
The opinions on whether Cameron is a Heath or a Thatcher varied. The comment that "Cameron is Cameron" got a fair round of applause. The prevailing view was that regardless of whether Cameron is a Heath or a Thatcher he is better than a Brown or a Blair.
One member of the audience went as far as calling for people to stop arguing and stand behind "our leader", meaning Cameron while another, a Durham student, complained that while campaigning for the Conservatives he had "to deal with northerners."
One man, who suggested that "the worst that could happen to the country is Cameron" was roundly booed.
After the debate, 290 attendees decided Cameron was more a Thatcher than a Heath, with 154 still for the proposition.
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