I started writing this post just before the London election, when I returned from my local Waterstone's where I was struck by a special display on books about the US Presidential candidates. There were books about, and crucially by, all three of the then candidates, John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and they seemed to be selling well.
It set me thinking - should David Cameron publish a book, and if so, what about? It would need to be both sellable and sincere (unlike Brown's "Courage: Eight Portraits" or his "Britain's Everyday Heroes") . It should be both topical and likely to remain so for at least the next two years. It would also need to set out a clear policy vision and not be just about modernising the party (unlike Tony Blair's "New Britain: My Vision for a Young Country").
David Cameron might choose to write a general policy tract. If so, he should take a look at my favourite book, pictured here, Ronald Reagan's Call to Action, from his almost successful 1976 run for the Presidency. Costing just $1.75, it provided 173 pages of analysis and argument, all in a pocket-sized paperback, with chapters whose meaning has outlasted that campaign itself. The sections on "The Individual", "The Family", "Work", "Welfare" and even "Land Use and the Environment" still have real meaning and relevance today.
The most appealing aspects of the book are these: there is almost no mention of any other politicians, friend or foe, and each chapter sets outs a set of principles which are easy to understand. Despite the huge problems facing the US in 1976 in the aftermath of Vietnam and Watergate, Reagan's book was characteristically full of confidence and optimism. Ironically, Reagan saved some of his harshest criticism for pre-Thatcherite England. He said:
"There's no question that the self-sufficiency and material well-being of Americans are being diminished by government. We're following England down the road to intellectual and financial destruction."
He added:
"It's tragic to look at England today and compare it to the England that fought the battle of Britain 35 years ago. To think what they withstood and what they accomplished: the nobility of that entire people. I doubt it could happen today."
Reagan was thankfully wrong on the latter. Six years later, Margaret Thatcher and British forces pulled off an improbable victory in the Falklands.
Returning to David Cameron, I think his book should be either, like Reagan's, a short guide to the major issues, starting from a set of principles, avoiding attacks on the Blair/Brown legacy, or alternatively be a more detailed tract outlining his proposals to cure our "broken society" or what the Sun calls "broken Britain". It's hard to judge where the UK economy might be in 2010, but it seems almost certain that Brown will find no answer to our social problems by then.
Iain Dale has previously offered to write a biography of David Cameron and got no takers. The sort of book I am suggesting would be crucially different, and if he takes on the social justice agenda, then I think he will be tapping into real public interest both in the Cameron name and in the broken society issues.
There's another good reason for doing this, of course. Despite the releases of the policy commissions in the summer of 2007, and almost twice-weekly policy pronouncements on a huge range of topics over the year since then, there is almost an article a day attacking David Cameron's Conservatives for being supposedly policy lightweight. A book like the one I propose would allow a general set of principles without the need for over-detailed, forensic proposals two years before a likely election. There is a risk here, but also a real opportunity to seal the deal with the voters.
