Opportunity for Cameron

Brown’s new line of attack is an opportunity for David Cameron

Edward Leigh MP
For obvious reasons, people have been looking at polls in America in recent weeks. As for polls in this country, one for Comres found last week that 58 per cent of voters say the Government should deal with our current crisis by cutting taxes.
And it seems Labour is listening. Last Thursday the Chancellor himself not only said he would not put up taxes but that he wanted to put money into “people’s pockets” to help them weather the recession.
Apparently Labour MPs are urging him to use extra borrowing to give tax relief to poorer workers in next month’s Pre-Budget Report.
One may not approve of the extra borrowing at a time when the Government is so far in the red, but to propose any tax-cut at all at present is an obvious ploy to outflank us Tories from the Right.
Crude maybe, but effective.
Gordon Brown has recently taken a new tack. He used to say David Cameron was “PR not PM” – all style no substance. Now he says he’s a right-wing “wolf in sheep’s clothing”.

But I think this is healthy for our politics. It enables us to clarify the outlines of what we stand for, and give voters a clear choice between two distinct visions of what is best for our country.

In the current financial climate, one way to play to our strength – to show that being “right-wing” is actually the best way out of our current troubles - is to make the case for smaller government.

All over Europe, other governments are bleating after Brown the Keynesian shepherd.

We should show that wolves have their virtues.