Congratulations to David Cameron for taking to task Bhs’ ‘harmful and creepy’ ‘Little Miss Naughty’ range of children’s clothes. There was, however, no mention of the pre-school ‘So Many Boys, So Little Time’ collection manufactured by Next, whose chief executive, Simon Wolfson, is a long-standing financial backer of Cameron.
While Bhs may not have appreciated the publicity, others may be rather more grateful for a mention by the Tory leader. Indeed, as the Independent on Sunday reports, Cameron has developed a rather nice turn in product placement. In June’s GQ, he could be found praising the new men’s handbag developed by luxury goods manufacturer Smythson, of which his wife, Samantha, is the creative director.
Cameron doesn’t forget his friends, either. On Desert Island Discs, he gave a gentle plug to Isle of Jura malt whisky. The co-owner of the distillery which manufactures it, Robert Tchenquiz, is a major Tory backer. The Conservative leader has also praised Sky TV for having ‘one of the best social responsibility programmes’, and Nike for its community-friendly business practices. Again, however, there was a personal connection: Sky’s head of public affairs, Martin Le Jeune, backed Cameron in the leadership contest, while both Sky and Nike are clients of the PR consultancy Good Business, founded by Steve Hilton, one of the Tory leader’s advisers.
Last month saw the publication of Policy Exchange’s Compassionate Conservatism: What It Is, Why We Need It (see page 6). In his spare time, it seems, co-author, Janan Ganesh, likes to offer his thoughts to Stephen Pollard’s blog, where he recently posted the following cracking little insight into the thinking behind ‘compassionate conservatism’: ‘Let the Sudanese die – it’s none of our business,’ he begins. Ganesh goes on to rail against ‘these half-baked interventions to temporarily stabilise failed states’. These, we learn, are a function of ‘Blair’s ridiculous “Let’s save the world and love each other, guys” approach to foreign policy. How many is it now? Kosovo, Sierra Leone, we’re still in Bosnia – pointless interventions in pointless places.’ But it gets better: ‘Labour politicians just see defence as another cash cow to milk so that money can be blown on nursery schools for inner-city orphans or whatever.’
Tories in Hounslow don’t appear to have got the ‘compassionate conservative’ message, either. Following Labour’s loss of control of the council in May, the minority Tories, reports Tribune, have formed an alliance with the Isleworth Community Group. The founder and leader of the six-strong group, Phil Andrews, is a former National Front parliamentary candidate and employee. Thanks to the Tories’ deal, Andrews – who was sentenced to six months imprisonment in 1986 for causing actual bodily harm to a black police officer – will share responsibility for housing and lead responsibility for community safety on the council executive. Over to you, Mr Cameron.
Compass’ annual conference last month was accompanied by a welter of cheerful predictions that, if it doesn’t change course, Labour is headed for defeat at the next general election. Some, however, appear to have gone one step further and are actively willing defeat. Nearly one-in-four self-professed Labour supporters, according to research published last month by Ipsos-Mori, agree that the party should be defeated at the next election in order to give it ‘a period out of office to rethink what they stand for and what their vision is for the future of the country’. Has anyone else noticed the paradox that it is those who claim the greatest degree of fidelity to a party’s true values, and profess the most concern for its long-term well-being, who seem most attracted by the purifying effects of defeat?
Finally, thanks to Nick Cohen of the Observer for asking why it is that the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament reacts with such outrage to Gordon Brown’s statement on renewing Britain’s independent nuclear deterrent, while also expressing ‘deepest concern’ at the news that the UK, France, Germany, the United States, Russia and China were to report the mullahs to the UN Security Council as part of the anti-nuclear proliferation treaty enforcement procedures. Unless, of course, CND believes that the world would be safer if Iran had nukes but Britain didn’t