The cover feature of the FT's Saturday magazine is a profile of members of the new Tory establishment. It's a very good read.
One of the descriptions attached to my own profile is the conclusion that I am "well to the right" of the Cameroons. I don't mind particularly - not least because the same label is attached to The Spectator's Fraser Nelson and the Centre for Social Justice's Philippa Stroud. Fine company.
Three qualifications, though:
- I'm not sure that "right" is the most helpful of describers. The more interesting debates are between centralisers and localisers, managers and transformers, doves and hawks, social liberals and social conservatives.
- The FT is probably the most Europhile newspaper on 'Fleet Street'. If it defines Eurosceptic as "right-wing" I should imagine at least 80% of the British people are "well to the right".
- I'd also like to think I'm not a cardboard cut out right-winger. I have been arguing for the social justice agenda for much of the last ten years. I support David Cameron's pledge to spend 0.7% of national income on overseas aid. I support an earned amnesty for illegal immigrants. I have supported civil partnerships for same sex couples for a number of years. I believe in liberal interventionism. I'll stop there.
