Word: reformer
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...very serious for the parties," says Takao Toshikawa, a Tokyo-based political analyst. Abe, who needs a strong LDP showing in July to stay in office, refused to see Higashikokubaru's win as a loss for his party, instead hailing it as "the voice" of the people demanding reform. With his own approval ratings falling below 40%, Abe could be the next object of reform himself...
...this great division between the center right and the left. We wanted to be part of NATO and to deploy cruise missiles. They wanted to leave NATO and unilaterally disarm. We wanted to privatize state-run industries. They wanted to nationalize the top 100 companies. We wanted to reform the trade unions. They wanted to give more power to the trade unions. There were huge, ideological divisions. That has changed. With Blair, the left has accepted much of the settlement that we're a free market economy with good public services but an enterprise culture and all of that...
...getting something done, you're sticking to your principles. It ended up actually being intensely embarrassing for the government because they were relying on us to pass their legislation. So, in the end the message came out: if you want a united party that knows about public service reform, that's the Conservative Party. Alternatively there's the Labour Party, deeply divided, it can't deliver public service reform. So it was an interesting moment in British politics...
...David Cameron: We need reform of party funding and I'm the only leader of a major political party that has set out a clear and coherent way that we do it. We should have limits on donations that should apply to individuals, businesses and trade unions. I've suggested ?50,000 a year as the limit, and in response to that some modest state funding of political parties which you could offset by cutting the cost of politics, reducing the size of the House of Commons and cutting the amount that's spent during a general election. That...
...David Cameron: Part of the package I suggested was some modest tax relief on smaller donations. And when we do reform party funding, it's very important we encourage small donations and parties to have strong grassroots and to have a strong and growing membership. But reforming party finance is one of the things we need to do to stop the cynicism about politics. People think that parties are somehow open to be bought by rich individuals or rich businesses or rich trade unions. We've got to get rid of that impression and so party finance reform is part...