Last night Charles Moore, former editor of The Daily Telegraph, spoke at the Policy Exchange think tank. Charles Moore has replaced Michael Gove (Surrey Heath’s new MP) as Policy Exchange’s Chairman.
It first struck me as a slightly surprising appointment. Policy Exchange and C-Change are associated with the more liberal wing of the Conservative Party whilst Mr Moore, a devout Roman Catholic and supporter of the marriage-centred family, is more of a traditionalist.
But as set out in Part (V) of conservativehome’s 44% Manifesto the future of the Conservative Party depends upon its different factions making peace with each other. It is also true that Charles Moore is not so much of a traditionalist as some would think. As Editor of The Telegraph he allowed the editorial line to become more ‘metropolitan’ and less ‘provincial’. This was exemplified by the fact that the Peterborough Diary was scrapped and replaced by London Spy. Telegraph leading articles endorsed Labour’s liberal policy on cannabis. Labour and libertarian writers started to fill the comment pages.
Last night Mr Moore encouraged the Conservative Party to learn from the US Republican Party’s use of internet campaigning and the policy experimentation that is possible by devolving power to local (state) governments.
Localism is certainly one of Policy Exchange’s big ideas. Localism and a renewed civil society may offer one way for traditionalists and liberal-modernisers to come together. Liberals like the diversity that can be created by localism. For traditionalists true localism provides churches and charities – with distinctive, non-mainstream worldviews – the space in which to flourish.
There was little else new in Charles Moore’s speech. He was at its best when defending the liberation of Iraq and the democratic movements that that liberation has encouraged. Conservatives, he said, must be enthusiasts for global democracy, freedom and the defeat of terrorism. What we had seen, however, from Michael Howard’s Tories had been an obsessive focus on footnote 2 of page 97 of the Hutton Report. Let’s hope Liam Fox, a friend of America and supporter of the war on terror, uses his new role as Shadow Foreign Secretary echoes Charles Moore’s strategic advice.
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