In an article for the New Statesman Oliver Letwin insists that Conservatives will employ liberal means to deliver progressive ends. There'll be real trusting of people and no centralised micro-management:
"Progressive Conservatives have taken an enormous amount of trouble over the last couple of years to develop a policy programme which is post-bureaucratic – a programme that involves the establishment of frameworks rather than the use of centralised micro-management, the provision of incentives rather than the regulation of processes, and the use of politics to encourage cultural change rather than reaching for new legislation at the drop of a hat. This recognition that we are now in a post-bureaucratic, open network age, in which government and the public services need to have a far more open texture, is also profoundly liberal."
I'd have more faith in the instincts of Team Cameron if they had displayed them in their internal management of the Conservative Party. Since assuming the leadership Mr Cameron has presided over endless micro management of candidate selection:
- "Regulation of processes" and "New legislation": The party may not pass legislation but rules were introduced that scrapped the involvement of members in the decisive stage of MEP selection (the part where sitting MEPs were readopted). Hustings were banned to avoid "contentious debate" over Europe. Women received higher rankings than men even if they received fewer votes. And in a snub to any idea of transparency CCHQ refused to publish the number of spoilt ballot papers and the number of members who had voted.
- "The use of centralised micro-management": The selection of Westminster candidates has been less bad but Associations have only been allowed a free choice of candidates if all local members are excluded from the final stage of the selection process. Otherwise they are required to use half-women shortlists. Associations are instructed on the kind of candidate that CCHQ wants.
You can, of course, make an argument that Conservative Party members cannot be trusted to freely make selection decisions but, then again, you can always find arguments and circumstances that justify distrusting people.
Tim Montgomerie
