Word: camerons
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Amid the flattery and the flummery, what truths might a candid friend impart to Cameron? Here are a few thoughts...
Fuzziness is a prerogative of a party in opposition - why commit yourself before it's necessary? - but it's also a function of Conservatism. Cameron may harp on about change, but the changes he envisages are incremental. Discussing Thatcher's impact with TIME, he talks of "an enormously important revolution," then immediately corrects himself. "I'm a Conservative. I don't believe in revolutions ... An enormously important development...
...Cameron once described himself as "the heir to Blair." The comment, over dinner at the 2005 Tory party conference, horrified hard-line colleagues who suspected his brand of Conservatism concealed a dangerously liberal core. What he meant, says Cameron, is that "politicians have to understand what has come before." That includes recognizing strengths - and weaknesses. Cameron voted, with reluctance, for military action in Iraq and later sent constituents copies of a speech Blair made in support of the invasion. "The problem with Blair is that he was a liberal interventionist without a hand brake," says Cameron now. "There...
...been overwhelmed with applications to attend. For much of the past decade, these annual conventions have been downbeat affairs, sparsely attended convocations of fleshy men in gold-buttoned blazers. "Success breeds success. When we were in the doldrums, nobody but the diehards would break bread with the Tories," says Cameron's close colleague...
This last piece of advice is redundant. While Cameron is one of the most focused and determined politicians that Westminster has ever seen, he has an extraordinary gift for perspective, for balancing his public ambitions with his family life. "The thing about David is, he's not a political obsessive," says Tory chief executive Feldman. "If it all ended tomorrow, he'd pick himself up and start on something different." It's an admirable ability but one that seems unlikely to be tested in the near future...