11 May 2010
Witney. David Cameron’s constituency home.
He looks remarkably domestic in that apron, thought Liam Fox as he sat at the kitchen table. Cameron was pottering around the stove, before putting down a pot lid, lifting his face and smiling.
“That should be enough for now”, Cameron said with a smile. “Do you need a top up?”
Fox glanced down at his wine glass. “Um, no. I’m fine, thanks”
“Well, I do”, declared Cameron. He poured a glass of wine and sat down across the table from Fox.
“Doubtless you’re wondering why I asked you to pop by”, said Cameron, sipping his drink.
“Well, yes. Not really ‘popping by’, either, considering we were both in London this morning”, replied Fox.
“I like to get away from the London bubble once in a while. Especially right now. You need to break out into the countryside once in a while”, said Cameron.
“Yes, yes, very praiseworthy – but shouldn’t we, or at least, you, be in London right now?”, asked Fox pointedly.
“Why? The cards are in Brown’s hands right now. Let him make a hash of things. Napoleon’s dictum: never interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake”, said Cameron.
“How so?”
“He’s alienating the Lib Dems, denying financial reality and blundering forwards into a minority Government where all is going to end in tears. He’s looking at the arithmetic without considering precisely how he’s it’s going to go when he has to rely on getting Charles Clarke, Jeremy Corbyn, Dennis Skinner, Frank Field, John Denham and others all pointed in the same direction at the same time. It’s going to be a car crash.”, Cameron explained. “But that’s not why I’ve asked you round today”
Fox raised an eyebrow enquiringly.
“Put baldly – what are your intentions?”, asked Cameron.
Fox blinked at the directness. “Well – I hadn’t really thought too much about it”, he temporized.
Cameron's expression implied mild disbelief. “Let me tell you mine, then”, he suggested.
Fox shrugged. “Okay, then”.
“I started at the Conservative Research Department when Margaret was still PM”, began Cameron. Fox shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Cameron noticed, and said with a smile, “Oh, don’t worry, Liam, I’m not going through my entire career. Tell me, what did you think of what Margaret did?”
“Well, she pulled the country kicking and screaming out of the depths and set it on its feet again, for a start”, said Fox.
“Indeed – she did many things right. Some things maybe not so well, but do you know what her greatest disappointment was?” asked Cameron.
“What are you talking about?” asked Fox.
“She hoped – or expected – that as the richer echelons became better off, we’d see more philanthropy. More voluntary investment in society. And don’t get me started on the misinterpretation of what she said about society – anyone reading her words in context can see exactly what she meant: society is people – families and neighbours and community groups, not the state”, said Cameron. “Over in the US, it was the done thing – if you were rich – to sponsor something. Fund something to give back to the community. Endow your local University, or sponsor your sports stadium. Contribute to a charity. She believed that the reason we saw less of that over here, and therefore more reliance on the State, was that the richer people, and especially the upper-middle classes, had more taken off of them whilst the State had wormed its way into areas where it really wasn’t essential”
Fox was now paying more interest despite himself. “I think I see where you might be going with this”, he ventured.
Cameron continued. “She was wrong. With the rolling back of the State and the release of the financial pressure on the middle classes, nothing happened. No big philanthropy. No big voluntary investments of time or money. And it was worsened by the centralization – which went directly against what she said she wanted to do”
“How so?” asked Fox.
“More power to the people – but with local services in the hands of local councils, people tend simply to vote according to the electoral cycle. Seriously, Liam, how many people do you think walk into polling booths for local elections and cast their vote for who they think will provide the best services rather than for partisan reasons?”, said Cameron.
“Maybe more than you’d think”, suggested Fox.
“Maybe”, said Cameron. “But if so, why can you bet your house on what the local elections will show year on year? The Party out of power gains, the one in power loses. Even when we were at our greatest depths and Blair was at his zenith, we were suddenly making huge gains in 1998 and 1999, when a couple of years back, we were being destroyed. The only thing that changed was that we were out of power and they were in. Can you really look at the results and say ‘The votes made a considered choice on who in their area is best to provide services and suddenly decided that the Tories now were the best choice for local service provision when a few months ago they were abhorrent?’ Seriously?”
“Fine, but …”, said Fox.
Cameron bulled on. “So whilst Margaret was trying to make changes, she was losing councils and the Left were gaining them. Even the really looney-tunes lefties. So it was either ‘accept the looney leftie councils splurging money on whatever they wanted’, or ‘intervene and protect the ratepayers’. So she centralised, and then came up with the community charge to try to make people more responsive to their councils. Not her best move.”
“Fine, fine. She made mistakes. So?”, asked Fox.
“So – she pulled the British economy out of a death-spin. She tamed the unions. She restored our national pride. But her hopes for society went totally unfulfilled and now she’s remembered for all that, as well as for creating a divided society focussed on the greedy. We’re remembered for that. When what she wanted, and what we want, is to achieve the best for everyone.”, said Cameron.
There was a quiet pause as both men sipped their drinks. Cameron kept his eyes on Fox.
“That’s why I went into Parliament in the first place. Why I ran for Leader when everyone said it was too soon. Why I pushed the Big Society when all the responses have been ‘Hunh?’. Why I’m still pushing it. Why I pushed it throughout this hell of a campaign. And why I’m going to continue. Because I want to see that dream completed. The other half of it in place. A society where people contribute voluntarily rather than throwing their problems at a faceless State. Where the fortunate give back to the society that gave them their chances – out of choice, not compulsion. And why I’m going to stay pushing it until I’m in Downing Street and able to push it with actions rather than words”, Cameron said forcefully.
“Why do you think that you’ll succeed where she failed? If people won’t do it voluntarily, does that mean that you agree that the Labour way of legislating for everything – imposing targets here, pushing the State forwards there – is the way ahead?”, Fox asked.
“Christ, no!”, said Cameron. “We’ll nudge. Make it easier to volunteer, or put things forward. Get the legislation out of the way. And then do whatever nudge tricks we can to make it attractive to contribute. Once the juggernaut is rolling, it’ll take on its own momentum – but we have to get it moving. That’s what she didn’t know”.
Fox remained silent.
“I need you, Liam. On side and helping. I want you to go through the UKIP manifesto and pull out bits that march well with our one from the last campaign. You know as well as I do that this ‘left-right’ thing isn’t a monolithic rule, but a blend of things from everywhere. Find me the libertarian aspects. Find me the ones that appeal to the populace without being reactionary. The commentators all said at first that the only reason Congdon got support was the shock value – but we heard too much about his policies being listened to and getting traction. Find me a half-dozen or so that will ring the bells of right-leaners that didn’t go for us, without scaring off the middle ground of floaters. Help shape our next campaign for me”.
Fox kept quiet and then spoke. “Can we actually win, David? With UKIP in the field – is it going to be too much for anyone? I won’t lie and tell you I haven’t considered a challenge – I do think that if we’d tacked more to the right, we’d have got more from Congdon – but all of the geeks I’ve spoken to tell me that there’s plenty of UKIP votes we’d never have got anyway.” He put down his glass and looked Cameron straight in the eyes.
“Cards on the table – I hadn’t decided anyway. What use is it for me to become the Leader if I end up cursed to Opposition in any case? UKIP voters are going to be hard to pull away now anyway. I think I’d have done a lot better than you, but we’d never have got a majority under me, either. And now, we are where we are. Yes, I want to be Leader – but I’d rather take over when we’re in power and we’ve proved we’re not baby-eating monsters”, said Fox.
Cameron gave a half-smile. “Thanks for your candour, Liam. I’m not going to promise anything on the succession – that stupidity castrated Blair for so long it wasn’t even funny – but I’m obviously not going to continue forever. Yes, I would like George to have a strong role after me, but above all else: I. Want. To. Push. The. Big. Society. Will you give me a shot to see that?”
Fox barely hesitated. “A shot. Let’s see what happens after one more shot. I won’t promise more than that”
“And I won’t ask you to – because I can‘t promise anything back other than I won’t go on forever.”
“How do you see it working?”, asked Fox.
“We nick the most populist policies and stances from UKIP that fit in with our overall theme. Wrap all up in a libertarian and classic liberal stance – we may need the Lib Dems on board. The Orange Bookers, anyway. We promise a referendum on EU membership. I’ve got Ollie Letwin doing the same with the Lib Dem manifesto – there’s already a hell of a lot of overlap between us anyway.”, said Cameron.
Fox shrugged. “Maybe”
“There is a plus side to this entire debacle with UKIP: they do pull votes from Labour where we can’t go”, said Cameron.
Fox snorted. “The Heineken Party. Refreshes the parts other parties cannot reach. With any luck, we can see the bastards panicking in their safe seats, in the North and in the cities. You have a plan to bring them down, then? Trigger a new election?”
Cameron tilted his head. “Not just yet. Let them run for a while. Even Balls will have to make cuts or declare national bankruptcy within the year. Let them continue paying the price of power for a twelve or eighteen months or so. Then we’ll try to bring them down”