For her sake, let’s hope prospective London Tory mayoral candidate Margot James’ political nous is better than her grasp of history. James, the Conservatives’ first openly lesbian parliamentary candidate when she stood against Frank Dobson last May, is now being heavily tipped to run against Ken Livingstone in 2008. Last December, she was appointed a vice chair of the Tory party by incoming leader David Cameron. Interviewed by the Observer, James waxes lyrical over her heroine, Margaret Thatcher: ‘I will never forget the day she became leader of the party. I secretly took the day off from school to come to London and found myself shaking her hand. It was so inspiring.’ Quite.
But while James breezily dismisses discussion of Thatcher’s anti-gay section 28 (‘a sledgehammer to crack a nut’), she’s not so reticent when it comes to discussing Labour’s alleged failings: ‘Would you have fancied being a lesbian or gay man in a northern constituency association of the Labour party in the Seventies? Because I wouldn’t have enjoyed that experience. Peter Tatchell was hounded out of the Labour party in the most awful way.’
Let’s just remember a couple of facts. Peter Tatchell was not ‘hounded out of the Labour party’. He resigned from the party in 2000 over the decision to deny Livingstone the Labour mayoral nomination. The appalling hounding to which Tatchell was subjected in the Bermondsey by-election was at the hands of the supporters of the Liberal candidate Simon Hughes (for which he has subsequently apologised) and the right-wing press, so beloved of James’ heroine, Margaret Thatcher. And before James next casts aspersions on the attitudes of Labour party members, she might reflect on the fact that, as an openly gay woman, the rights and freedoms she now enjoys have all come under governments that those she disparages have worked tirelessly to elect.
Highland homophobe
Homophobia is, however, alive and well in the Conservative party. The deputy leader of the Scottish Tories, Murdo Fraser, has called on his party to embrace ideals founded on the ‘Judeo-Christian tradition’. The MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife is particularly exercised about the proposals for same-sex adoption currently being pushed by the Scottish executive. Fraser says he has ‘moral qualms’ about the plans, suggesting that ‘the best environment for adoption is by a married couple’. Never-mind 1970s northern CLPs, looks like Margot James might not ‘enjoy the experience’ of being a member of the Scottish Tory party.
‘Rocket-munching Islingtonistas’
Further signs that those around David Cameron are eager to ape Bush’s ‘compassionate conservative’ campaign of 2000 abound. Writing on the invaluable Conservativehome.com website (see Pilgrim, p 38), Cameron’s former chief of staff, Alex Deane, calls on Tory donors to consider investing in a British version of Rupert Murdoch’s Bush-loving Fox TV. ‘It would be unashamedly conservative, patriotic, supporting the national interest,’ gushes Deane. But why the need? ‘On British television,’ he argues, ‘the stories of the day are approached entirely from a liberal perspective. The family, immigration, taxation, the NHS, education – on all of these vital issues, TV in the UK doesn’t even reflect that an alternative view exists.’
Deane is particularly exercised by the ‘soft, left-wing liberalism’ of our national broadcaster. The ‘rocket-munching Islingtonistas’ that staff the BBC, he suggests, simply don’t understand ‘how far leftwards their centre of gravity is’, hence why they choose the likes of Michael Portillo ‘to “debate” the issues on our behalf … The fact that such people are hardly Conservatives (or conservatives) is ignored.’ Doesn’t exactly sound like an ‘end to Punch and Judy politics’, but who knows?
Mincing his words
Deane’s confusion about where his former boss is leading the party is, however, completely understandable. Asked by Sky News on the eve of the local elections what was wrong with the Conservative party that he wanted to change, Cameron’s response was somewhat opaque: ‘Well, I want the Conservative party to change because I want us to offer the people of this country an alternative to the government that I think has failed them. Now, the Conservative party’s got great strengths, you know, we have great strengths in terms of being careful how we spend people’s money. That’s why in local government, Conservatives charge less in terms of council tax. But what I concerned, what I want to change about the party is make sure we are reflecting people’s aspirations today.’ Any clearer?
Vote Castro. Go green
David Cameron’s environmentalism is, however, infectious. In the Guardian, Richard Gott writes in praise of Fidel Castro, ‘full paid-up green campaigner’. The Cuban leader’s ‘personal place in history looks assured,’ he writes. ‘Europeans sometimes seem to feel that Castro is well past his sell-by date, a dinosaur from the long-gone Communist era,’ Gott continues. ‘Yet with the current leftist mood in Latin America, Cuba has become re-attached to the mainland, enjoying diplomatic and trade links unimaginable in the past half century. Castro himself is regarded by Latin Americans as one of their most popular and respected figureheads, recognised by new generations as one of the great figures of the 20th century.’ Castro, however, seems less sure that Cubans share Gott’s judgement – or, at least, not so sure that he wants to risk putting the matter to a vote.
Seeing reds
Having a blind spot when it comes to tyrants is, of course, a trait just as evident on the right. Carla Powell, whose only qualification to comment on the results appears to be the fact that she has just returned to her native country after a 43-year absence, bemoans the left’s narrow victory in the Italian elections. ‘Italy will join Cuba and North Korea,’ she frets in the Daily Telegraph, ‘among the few countries still unreconstructed enough to have communists in government.’ Italy’s previous distinction – one of the few countries unreconstructed enough to have fascists in its government – goes unremarked upon.