ConservativeHome's ToryDiary

The Biggest Beasts of the Conservative jungle

There's an extended profile of Iain Duncan Smith and his social justice agenda in today's Observer magazine: The second coming of Iain Duncan Smith.

The lion's share of the progress that the party has made in this area under David Cameron's leadership - recently acknowledged by the Church of England - is owed to Iain Duncan Smith.  He has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for his Centre for Social Justice and many of the party's policy ideas owe much to his work.  There's much more to come.  A whole range of policy groups are about to report on homelessness, prisons, welfare benefits and housing.  Perhaps most important of all is the little known CSJ Alliance.  The Alliance is a support network for Britain's most effective poverty-fighting organisations.  Within the Alliance there are groups successfully tackling almost every single social ill.  In the years to come the Alliance has the potential to offer a different model to the welfare state and to the establishment voluntary sector.

But Iain Duncan Smith is far from the only big beast in the Conservative jungle.  The talent outside of the Tory frontbench is very considerable.

David Davis is the first name to spring to mind.

David Davis' campaign on historic liberties has captured the national attention even if it has bypassed the Westminster village.  He wins the endorsement of Tony Benn in today's Sunday Telegraph.  He published his manifesto on Friday.  Incidentally, while ConservativeHome disagrees with him on 42 days we support eight-and-a-half of his other ten campaign planks.  Both ConHome editors have recently slept outside of Parliament as part of a Burma protest so we support the right of free speech outside of Parliament but wonder what he means by wanting all restrictions on free speech removed.  Would constant loud speaker protests, including loud music, be permitted?

We may start getting into hotter water with some of our other nominations but three other big beasts stand out:

Sir Malcolm Rifkind.  It is an enormous shame that Sir Malcolm chose to leave the frontbench when David Cameron was elected leader.  His views on foreign policy and the constitution make him a favoured media pundit.  Only today he has penned a very good op-ed in The Sunday Telegraph calling for South Africa to bring Zimbabwe down within one month by turning off Harare's power supply.  Dan Lewis recommended the same on CentreRight just over a week ago.

Ken Clarke.  He is heavily tipped to return to the Tory frontbench if we win the General Election.  A poll of members found that most wouldn't mind or would welcome his return.

John Redwood.  The figure most party members see as the leading champion of 'the Right' outside of the frontbench has blogged a strong endorsement of David Cameron today: "No sensible Conservative need doubt the Leader’s Conservative credentials. This is the man who led his party in its calls for a referendum on Lisbon and to oppose the whole Treaty. This is the man who led his party to advance cuts in Inheritance Tax for the many, as well as the man who has presided over most important work on how to mend Britain’s damaged society. Under Cameron Conservatives know what we believe in – we believe in opportunity for all, with reform of public sector housing and schooling to make that more of a reality for those currently excluded from home ownership and good education by Labour’s clumsy state."

We return to IDS and David Davis as the two most interesting of the big beasts.  They have led the party to take their respective causes very seriously.  Both began to champion their causes while holding high office within the party but have persevered since.  One big gap for a big beast cause still stands out to us: international development and international human rights.  These related issues are still not yet quite top tier within the party.  Who could be the big beast to champion them?

John Major: "The threat to liberty is graver than terrorism"

Former Prime Minister Sir John Major has written for this morning's Times about the many ways in which he sees Labour assaulting Britain's fundamental liberties:

Complicity in rendition: "We now know that, despite repeated denials, our Government was complicit in rendition, or - to put it in plain terms - the transfer of suspects out of civilised jurisdiction to a place where they could be held without charge for a lengthy period.  Although the intention was presumably to garner information, such action is hardly in the spirit of the nation that gave the world Magna Carta, or the Parliament that gave it habeas corpus."

42 days: "The Government has introduced measures to protect against terrorism. These go beyond anything contemplated when Britain faced far more regular - and no less violent - assaults from the IRA. The justification of these has sometimes come close to scaremongering.  After terrorist attacks on London, Parliament doubled the time that suspects could be held without charge from 14 days to 28 days. Probably, that was justified. But soon Parliament will be asked to increase detention without charge to 42 days... There is no proof that an extended period of 42 days would have prevented past atrocities. There is no evidence it will prevent future atrocities. No example has yet been given of why the police need more than 28 days to frame a charge."

ID cards: "They were to be voluntary. Now it is clear that they will be compulsory. Yet the Government has admitted that such cards would not have stopped the London bombers. Nor will they cut illegal immigration, since asylum-seekers have been obliged to carry ID cards for nearly eight years. Nor will they have any real impact on benefits fraud, as this is typically caused by misrepresentation of financial resources rather than by identity."

Recording DNA: "Under present legislation, DNA can be retained permanently for even minor misdemeanours, such as being drunk. A total of more than four million samples are already on the UK database - far more than in any other country. This includes tens of thousands of children, and a disproportionate number of black men. If this is accepted, it will one day go farther. This cannot be right: for me, it is all uncomfortably authoritarian."

IDS: Voters must see conservatism as good for them and good for their neighbour

Speaking yesterday evening to centre right think tanks and campaigning organisations in Atlanta, Georgia, Iain Duncan Smith has talked about the importance of a conservatism that addresses poverty and social exclusion.  Here are some of his key messages:

Voters want to see a conservatism that is good for them and good for their neighbours: "Because we valued wealth creation, we were seen as indifferent to the poor.  Because we valued stable families, we were seen as hostile to lone parents.  Because we valued independence from the state, we were seen as hostile to the old, sick and disabled who relied on the state to survive.  So whereas many – if not most – voters thought that Conservative policies might be good for them, not enough thought that they would benefit their neighbours."

Fighting poverty can't just be about money: "We have let the left make alleviating poverty just about money. Whilst money is important, it is far from the only factor. I think of the drug addict with a family. If the state gives that person more money and by so doing gets them above the poverty line they and their family will still be in poverty... for unless they reform the way they live their lives and come off drugs, all the money goes on drugs and the family will struggle to find food and clothes.  They nature of your life has a huge bearing on your condition. That is why I have defined the five pathways to poverty as: Family Breakdown, Drug and Alcohol addiction, failed education, debt and the fifth, worklessness and dependency. All of these areas interact. For example we know from the evidence that the children of a broken home are 75% more likely to fail at school, 70% more likely to become drug addicted, 50% more likely to become alcoholics, 40% more likely to be in debt and 35% more likely to become unemployed. But new also know from the report that debt is the biggest cause of family break up."

John Major warns against extra state funding of political parties

Interviewed on Andrew Marr this morning, former Prime Minister John Major warned against further taxpayer funding of political parties.  Politicians are already remote enough from the grassroots, he warned, and any further taxpayer funding would risk diminishing the connections that the party elites had with ordinary voters.

Other highlights of Sir John's interview:

• The loss to Britain of Gordon Brown's mis-timed gold sales is greater than the losses inflicted by Black Wednesday, he said.  In addition it will be "quite likely" that the mishandling of Northern Rock will also cost more than Black Wednesday.
• In the 1980s and 1990s there were individual misbehaviours but there was not a culture of sleaze.  New Labour's behaviour in the 1990s, he said, in trying to paint the whole Conservative Party as tainted was "almost McCarthy-ite".  People would now laugh at Labour if they repeated their promise to be "whiter than white".
• He said that Labour would find it difficult to attack Team Cameron as inexperienced because of the inexperienced nature of its own team.  When he was Prime Minister there were plenty of people of PM calibre - Ken Clarke, Michael Heseltine, Douglas Hurd, Malcolm Rifkind - only Jack Straw is experienced enough to take over today.
• We went into Iraq on a false premise.  Saddam has gone but everything else looks pretty "bleak".  Unemployment is 50%.  Death rates remain very high.  The whole episode cannot be looked upon with pride.

PS Also on Marr this morning was Rory Bremner.  His amusing review of the year including impersonations of Gordon Brown, Ming Campbell and George W Bush but he didn't attempt a David Cameron voice.  He actually performed a PMQs-style exchange on the EU Treaty between Gordon Brown and William Hague.  For the perfect William Hague impersonation ConservativeHome recommends Conor Burns or Jonathan Isaby!

George Osborne is Politician of the Year

The dramatic political effect of Shadow Chancellor George Osborne's inheritance tax announcement has been recognised today by The Spectator's annual parliamentary awards.  Mr Osborne has been made politician of the year for what Fraser Nelson, the magazine's Political Editor, believes was "the single most effective policy ever announced by the Conservatives in Opposition".

William Hague is also recognised.  His speech on the anniversary of the abolition of slavery wins him the speech of the year award.  BritainAndAmerica covered it at the time.  It was a great speech.

Baroness Thatcher is Peer of the Year.  The Spectator have recognised the year in which everyone wanted to be seen with the Iron Lady... most notably Gordon Brown but also Rudy Giuliani.  Her impact on Britain still recognised as profound.

Iain Duncan Smith's remarkable political rehabilitation has also been recognised by The Spectator.  The former Tory leader is the magazine's Campaigner of the year for his success at putting social justice at the heart of the public debate.  I'm in Washington DC with Philippa Stroud and Cameron Watt of the Centre for Social Justice for a conference on poverty-fighting.  We'll raise a glass of bubbly to Iain later.

Other award winners:

• Nick Clegg, newcomer
• Liam Byrne, minister to watch
• Alex Salmond, parliamentarian of the year
• Tony Blair, resignation of the year
• Ian Paisley, "marathon man"!

Related link: Last year's Spectator awards

Who was the best leader: Hague, IDS or Howard?

It's been a quiet news day so far. So, time for a debate...

The three leaders the Party had after Major and before Cameron were the first leaders of the Party not to make it to Prime Minister since Austen Chamberlain in the 1920s.

• William Hague got something of a hospital pass but impressed at the Despatch Box and tried to make the best of a bad situation.
• Iain Duncan-Smith struggled with his parliamentary colleagues but set in motion a policy agenda that is now central to the Party.
• Michael Howard professionalised the Party somewhat but failed to persuade the public at the election.

What do you think their relative merits were?

Deputy Editor

Previous debates: Labour or the LibDems - who is worst? and Ousting Maggie or Black Wednesday - Which event hurt the Tories most?

IDS tearful as Conference awards him sustained ovation

A tear or two appeared in Iain Duncan Smith's eye this afternoon during a sustained standing ovation.  He had addressed the Conference without notes on the cause that has come to define his politics - the mending of Britain's broken society.  I have to say I was a bit tearful, too, as I stood watching at the back.  Earlier today I'd spent over an hour with Iain and Betsy and he then only had a sketchy idea of what he was going to say.  He spoke from the heart this afternoon on a subject he has come to understand so well.  Don't just think it was me - Ben Brogan describes Conference's response as "huge".

After describing the nature of Britain's broken society he recommended support for marriage, ending the couple penalty, pioneer schools inspired by the USA's Charter model, premium pay for inner city headteachers, a massive increase in drug rehab, encouragement of credit unions and support for a more independent voluntary sector.  He ended by saying that the Conservative Party couldn't be a truly patriotic party if it didn't love all of Britain's people.

I am so proud of the Centre for Social Justice and all that it has achieved under Philippa Stroud and Cameron Watt.  Even in the BC period (Before Coulson), David Cameron's enthusiasm for this social justice project made the election of a Conservative government worthwhile.  With this week's announcements on tax its doubly worthwhile.  I hope David Cameron can capture some of IDS' passion for his speech tomorrow.

Hague wishes he entered Parliament 200 years ago

Andrew Billen interviews William Hague in the Times today about his career, and his nostalgia for the era of great parliamentarian William Wilberforce. Comparing Pitt the Younger and Wilberforce, the subjects of his biographies, he says:

"Pitt is the ultimate career politician: Prime Minister at 24, dead at 46, having worked and worried and drunk himself to death. Wilberforce, same age, enters Parliament at the same time, great friend of Pitt, but becomes the ultimate noncareer politician who exercises more influence than most prime ministers while never actually holding office himself.”  

On his own failings as a party leader:

“I’m very interested in foreign affairs and some other areas of policy, but I probably did not have the all-round interest that a party leader needs, and not necessarily the patience to spend every day dealing with everybody’s little complaint that the party leader needs to have. So I think I have certain flaws. Those probably became apparent when I was a party leader! And I’ve no intention of ever doing it again.”

On Cameron's abilities as a party leader:

"It is clear after the last three elections that I think what David Cameron is doing is right, that we have to recapture the centre ground. And he’s set about it very energetically, very effectively. [...] He is very good. He is, all round, the most accomplished politician of all of us who’ve led the party in recent times... I think since Thatcher. But he’s also got real tenacity, which I think people have seen in recent weeks. The media has had a big downer on him this summer, but that hasn’t ruffled him. He has got the steel to come out the other side. I have huge respect for the man, actually. And I wouldn’t be doing it otherwise."

A noble, but mercifully short, national struggle

Baroness Thatcher (pictured then and now, thanks to the Telegraph) has given a speech (text/audio) commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War. She concluded her words by relating it to the present:

"So, as we recall - and give thanks for - the liberation of our islands, let us also recall the many battlefronts where British forces are engaged today.

There are in a sense no final victories, for the struggle against evil in the world is never ending. Tyranny and violence wear many masks. Yet from victory in the Falklands we can all today draw hope and strength.

Fortune does, in the end, favour the brave. And it is Britain's good fortune that none are braver than our armed forces."

Dr Nile Gardiner of the Thatcher Center for Freedom has written a must-read paper expanding on the lessons from the Falklands:

"The world needs a confident, powerful Britain that stands as a warrior nation in the defense of freedom and Western civilization. To all intents and purposes, Britain and America today are at war globally against a vicious enemy and ideology that seeks their destruction."

Deputy Editor

Mrs T is top PM says BBC's History Magazine

Historian Francis Beckett has decided that Margaret Thatcher is the most effective Prime Minister of the 20th century.  Mr Beckett, who authored a highly critical biography of Mrs Thatcher, put the Iron Lady in the same '5 out of 5' category as Clement Atlee.  They were judged to have (1) a clear idea of what they wanted to achieve in office, and (2) they went on to deliver what they wanted to achieve.

Edward Heath ends up ahead of Winston Churchill in the second tier of Prime Ministers.  But succeeding in taking Britain into the European Economic Community can hardly equal keeping Britain out of a Europe run by Hitler?

Few Tories will have a problem with Tony Blair's mid-table ranking.  Tony Blair is at the bottom of the '3 out of 5' grouping of twentieth century PMs.

Three other Tories - John Major, Anthony Eden and Neville Chamberlain - sit at the bottom of Beckett's list.

Hague: I don't ever want to be leader again

A synopsis of Isabel Oakeshott's interview with William Hague in the Sunday Times:

• He has had a remarkable transformation from failed anorak to immensely popular politician and speaker (his latest Conservative Member's Panel rating will be revealed on Monday).
• "There is a completely different atmosphere in politics when you have a good chance of winning".
• Hague qualifies his "disproportionate" statement on the Lebanon crisis, saying: "our concern about Israeli actions has been those that appear to have been only tenuously or unrelated to Hezbollah".
• In response to the firestorm caused by the statement - with strong disapproval from both Party donors and the Conservative Friends of Israel he says: "We’re not going to frame foreign policy on the grounds of who’s going to get upset. If we tried to do that, we’d never be able to say anything at all".
• Forcefully denies Cameron knows little about foreign policy, and says they carefully agree on everything together.
• Being a successful leader of the opposition "requires the right sort of food, sleep and exercise, which needs rigorous policing". He advises Cameron to eat vegetable soup.
• Do you miss being leader? "I’ve got that all out of my system. Totally...I’m a fan of DC and I enjoy working with him, and I’ve only come back to help him win the next election. I don’t ever want to be leader again myself. I could happily write books instead. I enjoy that at least as much as politics."
• Some party insiders claim he suffered a near nervous breakdown in the aftermath of his exit. He says that his resignation "taught him that there’s more to life than politics".
• On having more women candidates, he wishes he has been more radical when he was leader but believes the party is now "very willing to accept change".
• Ahead of travelling to India with George Osborne and Liam Fox, Hague advocates a reappraisal of British foreign policy (to that of the Cavaliers?): "It has been too Eurocentric in the past 20 years. A much higher level of engagement with the Pacific and Indian Ocean nations is important.".
• He believes that military force and espousal of democracy are not enough to defeat Islamic terrorism.

Deputy Editor

Partial victory for IDS' WWI veteran campaign

Defence Secretary Des Browne has announced that The Queen has agreed that there will be a national memorial day and service at Westminster Abbey to mark the passing of the last World War I veteran.  This is not quite the proposal for a state funeral for the last veteran, that was proposed by Iain Duncan Smith, but it is a victory for the campaign that IDS led.  It is very possible that today's announcement would never have been made if Mr Duncan Smith's cross-party campaign had not taken place.

Because of what he knew then, he's got a new job now

Today's Times and a number of other newspapers report that former Tory leader Michael Howard has landed a top job as "Chairman of the European arm of a corporate espionage company set up by former agents of the CIA, MI5 and Soviet Intelligence."  Mr Howard, who recently announced his intention to stop being an MP at the next General Election, told The Times:

“A great deal of my experience and knowledge is relevent (sic) to what they do. There’s a growing need for intelligence gathering in this age of globalisation, with people having to deal with parts of the world which they may not be familiar with."

Mr Howard is expected to earn a six-figure sum and may announce further directorships in the coming fortnight.

Thatcher beats Carol Vorderman in best PM vote

Zoo makes Loaded look upmarket and I am not a regular reader but I did part with £1.30 this morning after I heard that Margaret Thatcher had bested Carol Vorderman in a readers' vote.  The most shocking finding was that some readers of Zoo must watch Newsnight as they made Kirsty Wark runner up in the best PM stakes.

For those interested... Jade Goody was the readers' favourite to 'stop from ever speaking again'; Jennifer Anniston was the ideal wife; and Kate Moss topped the 'get a bit fatter' vote (Charlotte Church won 'see get thinner').

Should Prime Ministers be limited to eight years in office?

I pose the question because the suggestion has been raised by former Prime Minister John Major in a forthcoming interview for Radio 4.   According to The Guardian Mr Major will say:

"I think we have seen examples of politicians carrying on too long.  I personally believe - although I'm not quite sure how you enshrine it - that the American system of somebody serving only eight years is very sound.  If you look historically at prime ministers who have served beyond eight years, it has usually been downhill once the eight-year mark has been passed.  So I think as a self-denying ordinance, leaving after eight years is a very smart piece of politics."

Mr Major may be right that most Prime Ministers and Presidents would be best advised to go after eight or so years but, as he hints, it is difficult to legislate for term limits.  It is easy for politicians to become lame ducks when everyone knows that they are 'on the way out'.  Tony Blair has lost much of his authority because the whole of his government is now looking to his successor for future direction and patronage.  Surely it is for voters to decide whether a political leader has run out of steam or not?

Comparing the end of Blair to the end of Thatcher

On Radio 4 this morning, Jim Naughtie presented How to Topple a Prime Minister.  It was a reflection on the end of the Thatcher premiership and included interviews with Ken Clarke, Geoffrey Howe, Kenneth Baker and John Wakeham.  The programme looked for comparisons with then and the looming end of Tony Blair's own premiership.  The graphic below summarises some of the programme's observations and adds a few of ConservativeHome's own.

Tories were first on earnings link

Later today the Government will confirm that it intends to raise the retirement age and restore the link between pensions and earnings.  This morning's Today programme noted that it was Mrs Thatcher who broke the link a quarter of a century ago.  Today did not remind its listeners, however, that the Tories had already made the policy shift nearly three years ago.

In his last major act as Tory leader, Iain Duncan Smith made the policy change in a bid to revive the savings culture and deliver social justice for pensioners.  Devised by David Willetts the commitment was savaged at the time by Labour as "a cruel deceit on pensioners" and as "unsustainable".  Despite an otherwise nightmare Tory conference the very popular restoration of the earnings link helped give the Tories a 6% lead in a YouGov poll and was due to be rolled out in a massive programme of regional events and mailshots.  Michael Howard had next to no enthusiasm for the policy and when he became leader he did not pursue that programme or ever seriously promote the £5bn commitment.

Philip Hammond MP, Shadow Work & Pensions Secretary, has attacked the failure of Labour's new pensions package to provide fairness for women.  Commenting on the fact that 'only' 30 years of National Insurance contributions are now required for a full basic state pension for women retiring from 2010, Mr Hammond told ePolitix: "It does not seem fair that a woman retiring on a April 1, 2010 will get a full state pension based on 30 years' contributions, but that a woman retiring on March 31 with the same contributions will be condemned to a lifetime on a partial pension."

State funeral for last WWI veteran meets resistance

Imperial War Museum photo (1918) of British soldiers blinded by gas.

Iain Duncan Smith's cross-party plan for a state funeral for the last veteran of World War One has met resistance from the Government.  During a parliamentary debate yesterday Don Touhig MP, the veterans minister, argued that there was an "impossibility" of identifying the last survivor with any certainty.  He also told MPs that certain veterans opposed the idea: "A number of known World War One veterans have indicated that they, and their families, would not welcome any intrusion".  The Guardian reports that the government believes that "a national memorial service would be more appropriate".

Perfect freedom

It's Easter Sunday and I hope the more secular readers of ConservativeHome will forgive a dollop of Christianity for today's ToryDiary.

The Cornerstone Group has posted an excellent Margaret Thatcher speech from 1978 on to its website.  The speech is a great insight into Mrs Thatcher's early thinking and includes some powerful references to a proper Conservative and Christian concern for the poor in Britain and overseas.  The speech lauds the superiority of private welfare over state welfare and contains warnings against utopianism and big government.

One theme of the speech - the morally mature citizen - is the main subject of this post, however.  Mrs Thatcher understood that all societies are ultimately sustained by the virtue of their citizens.  Few conservatives expressed this permanent truth better than the great Russell Kirk:

“It has been said by liberal intellectuals that the conservative believes all social questions, at heart, to be questions of private morality. Properly understood, this statement is quite true. A society in which men and women are governed by belief in an enduring moral order, by a strong sense of right and wrong, by personal convictions about justice and honour, will be a good society—whatever political machinery it may utilise; while a society in which men and women are morally adrift, ignorant of norms, and intent chiefly upon gratification of appetites, will be a bad society—no matter how many people vote and no matter how liberal its formal constitution may be.”

Michael Howard's criminal record

The last few days have seen much discussion of Tory policy on imprisonment.  Michael Howard was on last night's Newsnight (available to view again until 2230 tonight) to defend his famous 'prison works' policy.

I was not an admirer of Michael Howard's brief time as Tory leader but I believe that he was a truly great Home Secretary.  The fact that he reversed decades-long increases in crime puts him in my premier division of post-war cabinet ministers.  He was certainly the outstanding success of the Major years.  On last night's Newsnight he fronted a film that spotlighted his four policy changes that produced four years of falling crime rates:

1. The widespread introduction of CCTV into urban centres - former Met Chief John Stevens appeared in the Newsnight package to agree that the funding of CCTV had had important deterrent and detection effects.
2. The introduction of the DNA database - former Cabinet Secretary Richard Wilson noted that this was a far-reaching reform.  Britain currently leads the world in DNA records and where DNA tests are available conviction rates rise from 26% to 40%.
3. The withdrawal of the right to silence - since it was possible for juries to make inferences from a defendant's refusal to co-operate with police and prosecutors there has been a 50% fall in people staying silent.
4. Greater imprisonment - Dr David G Green of Civitas agreed that the incapacitation of habitual and serious offenders had made a major difference in the war on crime.  There is a wealth of evidence on the Civitas site to support Dr Green and Michael Howard's belief in imprisonment.

Michael Howard was on good form on Newsnight.  The great mystery for me is why he made so little use of his crime-fighting credentials during the General Election campaign and concentrated so much on dog-whistle campaigning on immigration...?

Cameron and Thatcherism

In last month's Prospect Magazine Robin Harris explained why he was unimpressed with David Cameron:

"It was predictable, of course, that Cameron should use his first public speech as leader to distance himself from Margaret Thatcher. New Tory leaders generally do — and then ask for her help in fundraising. But Cameron has gone further than that. He has systematically repositioned the party to the left..."

Cameroonian policies on tax, grammar schools, public service reform and redistribution all concerned Mr Harris, a key aide to Mrs T when she was in Downing Street.  Nicholas Boles - of Policy Exchange and a key ally of David Cameron - has responded this month.  (Unlike for Mr Harris' article you need a Prospect subscription to access Nicholas Boles' piece.)

Michael Howard to stand down

CCHQ has just confirmed that Michael Howard will tell his Folkestone & Hythe Conservative Association that he will be stepping down at the next General Election as the local MP.  In a brief statement the Tory leader says:

"By the time of the next election I will have been a Member of Parliament for twenty six years.  I have been very privileged to serve as a Government Minister for twelve years and in the Shadow Cabinet for six years but the time has now come to move on."

Highlights of his career include...

• As Secretary of State for the Environment he had some responsibility for the community charge, oversight of water privatisation and led steps towards international action against global warming at the Rio summit.
• As Secretary of State for Employment he helped to negotiate John Major's opt-out from the Social Chapter at Maastricht.
• The prison works policy (for me his greatest achievement) which contributed to an 18%  reduction in crime - after years of remorseless increases.
• As Conservative leader his dog-whistle strategy led the Conservative Party to gains of more than 30 MPs at the 2005 General Election but may have reinforced the party's image as uncaring.
• In his last few months as Tory leader he was unsuccessful in his bid to strip members of their vote in the leadership election but he did position David Cameron to be his successor.

I am sure all ConservativeHome readers wish Michael and Sandra Howard a happy retirement from parliamentary life.

Nicholas Soames "insulted" by Churchill statue

The mental charity Rethink has defended a controversial new statue of Winston Churchill (pictured right).  The statue, on display in Norwich, portrays Britain's wartime leader in a straitjacket.  Sir Winston Churchill did suffer from periods of depression, which he called his 'Black Dog'.  Of this 'Black Dog', Sue Chance MD has written:

""Black Dog" was Churchill's name for his depression, and as is true with all metaphors, it speaks volumes. The nickname implies both familiarity and an attempt at mastery, because while that dog may sink his fangs into one's person every now and then, he's still, after all, only a dog, and he can be cajoled sometimes and locked up other times."

A spokeswoman for Rethink told The Sun that “Churchill was a great leader and this is an illustration of what people with mental illness can achieve.”

Grandson Nicholas Soames MP joined Theresa May in criticising the statue.  Mr Soames said:

“It’s not only insulting, it’s pathetic.  This is probably a good cause in search of publicity and they have let some idiot ruin their case.  It is grossly offensive to Sir Winston and his millions of admirers.”

IDS heads campaign for last WWI veteran to receive state funeral

The defence minister responsible for war veterans - Don Touhig MP - has reacted positively to an all-party campaign to grant a state funeral to the last WWI veteran to die.  The campaign is spearheaded by Iain Duncan Smith and has the support of 90 MPs in all.  Simon Weston, the Falklands conflict veteran, and Andrew Motion, the Poet Laureate, are non-parliamentary supporters of the campaign.  Mr Duncan Smith's early day motion states the following:

“That this House notes with enormous gratitude the sacrifice made by all United Kingdom Armed Forces through the ages in defence of this country and its values; notes particularly the very special nature of the sacrifice made by those who fought in the First World War in appalling conditions and with terrible loss of life; further notes that there are very few veterans of World War One still living in the United Kingdom; and urges the Prime Minister to recommend to Her Majesty that the particular nature of their sacrifice be acknowledged and celebrated by granting a state funeral to the last British veteran of the First World War at the time of his death.”

Today's Telegraph quotes Mr Duncan Smith as saying that there are probably ten surviving WWI veterans although two have told The Times that they would not want a state funeral.  If Mr Duncan Smith's wish is granted it would be the first time that "an ordinary person" had received such a honour.

Ronald Reagan

Twenty-five years ago Ronald Reagan became the United States' 40th President.  A great ally and friend of Margaret Thatcher, their elections marked the beginning of a great era for Conservatism.

Today's Wall Street Journal notes that "more wealth has been created in the U.S. in the last quarter-century than in the previous 200 years."  Part of the reason for that is the Reagan tax cuts and the economically liberal supply-side reforms that he and Mrs T pioneered.

He also helped accelerate the end of communism and helped to build the conservative infrastructure that has sustained the modern Republican Party.

His morning in America optimism was, perhaps, his most endearing quality, however.  His enthusiasm, patriotism, warmth and humour characterised his whole political outlook.  This is what Margaret Thatcher said at his memorial service in 2004:

"In his lifetime, Ronald Reagan was such a cheerful and invigorating presence that it was easy to forget what daunting historic tasks he set himself. He sought to mend America's wounded spirit, to restore the strength of the free world, and to free the slaves of communism. These were causes hard to accomplish and heavy with risk, yet they were pursued with almost a lightness of spirit, for Ronald Reagan also embodied another great cause, what Arnold Bennett once called "the great cause of cheering us all up". His policies had a freshness and optimism that won converts from every class and every nation, and ultimately, from the very heart of the "evil empire.""

Ronald Reagan - a good man and a great conservative.