Project Cameron – in search of an idea?

In a thoughtful recent New Statesman article, Dominic Sandbrook berated the politics of our age saying that above all “one thing is missing, perhaps the most important thing of all: the big idea…there is little evidence that the general public has lost its appetite for big ideas.” And of Cameron he said “it is almost impossible to discern any genuine ideological vision behind the tree-hugging photo ops. There is no sense, for instance, of him being informed by perhaps the only genuinely innovative political idea of the past few years, Phillip Blond’s ‘Red Toryism’, which calls for a decentralised conservatism breaking with laissez-faire capitalism and favouring traditional values, local communities and small businesses.”

Surely, if nothing else, Project Cameron’s Big Idea ought to be a vision of how we can live in a greener, leaner and fairer society?

Ask any UK observer of the ‘politics of green’ and they will say that there is an open-goal for the Conservative Party. Indeed many will also – perhaps grudgingly – say that David Cameron’s rhetoric on sustainability and wellbeing issues has been leading the debate on these issues for many years in the UK. The Conservatives led on pressure for a CC Bill. Tony Juniper – recent past-head of FOE – has said “David Cameron’s high profile embrace of the green agenda has been one of the most important recent factors in British green politics.’

Tim Montgomerie has said recently on ConservativeHome “The Conservative Party has always been a powerful political force but if it raids deeply into Labour territory over the next few years – planting the Tory message deeply into the soil of social justice and green politics we could be talking of realignment. The Left thought it had a monopoly of ‘values voters’. No longer. It should be worried.”

As The Blueprint of a Green Economy report said in 2007 “It is an unhappy reflection on the inadequacy of government that one film of Al Gore and the evident commitment of David Cameron have done far more to engage the UK public with the scale and urgency of climate change than ten years of Tony Blair.”

Elsewhere others on the centre-right have also been actively incorporating sustainability and wellbeing into their political philosophy with President Sarkozy for instance being very bullish about the need to control new airport runway developments and setting up the Stiglitz ‘Beyond GDP’ commission released last month.

David Cameron has often spoken on his views of these issues saying for instance “The Spirit of the age today demands social values as well as economic value. This means focusing not just on GDP, but on GWB – General Well-Being….Well being can’t be measured by money or traded in markets. It’s about the beauty of our surroundings, the quality of our culture, and above all, the strength of our relationships. Improving our society’s sense of well-being is, I believe, the central political challenge of our lives.”

On many of the Quality Of Life policy recommendations the Party has been strong. The Tory sponsored Sustainable Communities Bill, the position on Heathrow, on CCS emissions standards, the Low Carbon Economy, Carbon Levy and Housing consultations – all represent leadership positions.

However the Party has seemed to reduce the number of speeches on these issues over time and has been criticised for being much better on presentation and rhetoric than firm commitments or political discourse. Sustainability has also failed to be mentioned as one of the Party’s top priorities in local election campaigns and at the 2008 and 2009 Party Conferences.

A coalition of all the major green NGOs had this to say in 2008 “In September last year, the Quality of Life Commission published its report to the Conservative Party. The report contains a clear vision and a mix of taxes and incentives that would help transform our society and economy to live within environmental limits and improve our quality of life. It has therefore been a huge disappointment that over the past twelve months the Conservative Party has not backed the ambition of the report nor made firm commitments to the policies within it. The Conservatives have said they are taking a “drip drip” approach to adopting the report’s policies, but this will not realise the report’s ambitious agenda”.

Anne Widdecombe warned In August 2009 that there were many in the party unhappy with David Cameron’s approach on climate change. She said: “It so happens that I know that an awful lot of people in our party – and by that I mean a lot – are deeply unhappy with the way that we’ve signed up apparently quite blindly to the climate change agenda. “It isn’t that they don’t want sensible things like recycling, it isn’t a silly rebellion. “But there is a deep unease that we’re rushing in virtually to a theology: those who asked questions are ‘deniers’.”

Polls by ComReS and the LGA have found that over 30% of Tory MPs question climate change – far more than the other two main party’s MPs. David Cameron has also found it difficult to explain his keenness for Nicholas Taleb’s work, despite the fact that Taleb is an outspoken climate change denier.

Many are still saying that it is yet unclear if David Cameron’s Compassionate Conservativism will be anything more than rhetoric. To paraphrase Otto von Bismarck: “When they say they agree with a thing in principle, they mean they have not the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice.”

At the same stage of ascendency to power, Tony Blair said all the right things about ‘green’ issues. But many would say he failed to deliver. Can Britain’s citizens hope for David Cameron do any better?

Those close to David Cameron are keen to say ‘the proof will be in the eating’ and that once in power he will show that he is indeed fully committed to do everything it takes to deliver and sustainable economy. But we feel it is important that at this time we ask questions to probe deeper into the direction of travel.