David Cameron – Tea Party Tory

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Cameron angryBy Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Both Freddy Gray at the Spectator and Benedict Brogan at the Telegraph have spotted the quote from Pat Buchanan (doyen of the American hard right) that Cameron is a “Tea Party Tory”. Both realise that this is a label Cameron will want to avoid – with Gray wondering what Steve Hilton will make of this development, whilst Brogan chooses to preface his post with “uh-oh”. The quote from Buchanan is:

“Before the Tea Party philosophy is ever even tested in America, it will have succeeded, or it will have failed, in Great Britain.”

“For in David Cameron the Brits have a Prime Minister who can fairly be described as a Tea Party Tory. Casting aside the guidance of Lord Keynes – government-induced deficits are the right remedy for recessions – Cameron has bet his own and his party’s future on the new austerity.”

What both Brogan and Gray seem to be suggesting is that the “Tea Party Tory” label is unfair – that this is a presentational issue. This isn’t strictly speaking true though. If anything the presentation of Cameron as anything but a state-shrinker is testament to the excellent PR work of Hilton and others, and shows why the PM is no seen to cling to his “Big Society” fig leaf.

The guiding principle of the Tea Party movement is said to be the rapid shrinking of the state. Whilst of course no-one would suggest that is all that the Tea Party seeks to achieve (or that Cameron shares all of their aims) – but that Cameron is receiving support from such quarters should jolt back to reality anyone who is any doubt of the severity of these measures.

Cameron and Osborne are overseeing the most severe fiscal tightening of any major world economy. Their theories (and that is what they are) remain unproven at best, and at worst risk causing untold, long-term damage to the economy. Economically at least, they are what the Tea Party movement in America aspires to, and for many ‘moderate’ conservatives that should be a sobering thought.

Perhaps this isn’t “Osbornomics” in action after all – it’s “Palinomics”.

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