Articles

28 May 2012

Cameron must quickly rediscover progressive conservatism

Gavin Kelly, Financial Times

The Conservatives’ dismal spring has served to remind us how a political project, however painstakingly put together, can easily come apart. It also appeared to mark the end of David Cameron’s modernising agenda.

Progressive conservatism – a hazily defined attempt to forge a centre-right politics that is socially liberal and green on the one hand and concerned with improving the plight of the disadvantaged without invoking the big state on the other – seems to have disappeared before it was ever fully formed.

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Goodbye to the good life

Gavin Kelly and James Plunkett

In the three months from July to September, Britain’s economy actually grew—by 0.5 per cent. That performance was less bad than many had feared, and some have seized on it as a source of hope. For Chancellor George Osborne it was a “positive step… laying the foundations for the future success of the country.” Even Bank of England Governor Mervyn King, hitherto the nation’s self-appointed prophet of economic doom, recently said that the squeeze “is now beginning to come to an end.” Whether or not such sparks of hope prove justified, they obscure a much bigger question: even if the economy recovers, will living standards improve?

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