Michael Howard says his protege is heading "the right way"

David Cameron may be distancing himself from Michael Howard's policies on immigration and the NHS but the ex-Tory leader had nothing but praise for the man he positioned to succeed him.  He promised to loyally cheer Mr Cameron from his new position on the backbenches.  Mr Howard told Radio 4's World at One that Mr Cameron had made a "dramatic impact" since becoming Tory leader and that he was proceeding "in entirely the right way".

Today's Independent reveals that Mr Howard's former press spokesman, Jonathan Collett, has become Rupert Murdoch's public affairs manager with responsibility for political relations.  The Indy reads this as a sign that the Murdoch empire is preparing the road for closer relations with Her Majesty's Opposition.

George Pascoe-Watson is certainly warm towards Mr Cameron in his first column as The Sun's new political editor.  Mr Cameron's tactics "are working like a dream," he writes.  He notes that Gordon Brown is increasingly irritated at Mr Blair's "watch and wait" approach to the new Tory leader.  Mr Brown, he reports, fears that this patient approach reflects Mr Blair's knowledge that he won't ever have to fight Mr Cameron and that it is giving the new Tory leader an opportunity to reshape the political landscape.  "Mr Brown feels he is fighting with both hands tied behind his back because he must go along with the Number 10 strategy".   

The Yorkshire Post is also in a positive frame of mind about 'Cameron's Conservatives'.  It says this today:

"Under David Cameron's inspired leadership thus far, the Conservatives are finally moving towards a position whereby they offer a credible alternative to Labour.  His promise not to become a prisoner to his party's ideological past, coupled with a pledge to ditch the Tories' flagship policy of private healthcare subsidies, further highlights Mr Cameron's desire to create a manifesto that reflects the challenges of the 21st century."

The Sun and The YP contrast with criticism in this morning's Telegraph and from Melanie Phillips. Although the Daily Mail's Ms Phillips acknowledges that Mr Cameron has "made politics interesting again" she raises concerns about policy shifts on global warming, academic selection and fair-versus-free trade.

Comments

[James Maskell]

Howard backing Cameron to tell indirectly to the activists that those on the right should support Cameron too instead of feeling ignored by recent policy announcements. Its a party morale thing this one.

[Goldie]

I don't see how holding on to the Communist NHS is a sign of preparing for "21st century challenges" must that must be silly old me.....both the Continent and the US provide much superior health care to their citizens but of course neither use state-provided care. Canada, on the other hand, does and although it funds lavishly it's a mess there too!

[Jaz]

The NHS provides a good system for the people, you are entirely wrong if you expect any leadership to discredit rhe NHS, people value the service and as an MP going PM Cameron has a duty to respect the wished of the people.

The American system leaves something like 1/5 people without healthcare..Thats not acceptable whichever system is used, and its unacceptable where people have less money cant get good healthcare.

[Richard Weatherill]

The NHS does not provide a good enough service for a vast number of people, but has become a sacred cow. The US model is far from being the only alternative.

Just the other day, two British NHS nurses were singing the praises of the French system to me. Their view was that, in France, they do a proper 'repair' job to get you back to work, whereas the NHS is very much a 'patching up' service. (One of them had recently had treatment in France following an accident whilst on holiday.)

[Burkean]

Under the NHS the doctor has become a career bureaucrat rather than a professional. The same is true of nurses since the abolition of the Nightingale wards. As a result, whatever the public believes, British healthcare is among the worst in the developed world, and that includes the uninsured in the US (the correct figure, by the way, is nowhere near the 1 in 5 cited above). Simply because the public wants something does not mean they should have it. Thats what we have representatives for, as Burke noted to the electors of Bristol.

We need to return to private provision of health care, but the current US system is not the model to follow, as it also leads to overuse of the system. A system of tax-exempt individual savings to pay for basic doctor visits, combined with catastrophe insurance to pay for treatment for serious accidents and diseases, would go some way to restoring sanity to the system both here and in the US. Prudence and self-reliance should play their roles in our own approach to health, and wanton disregard of those virtues should be punished.

The continentals can do what they want, of course.

[Bishop Hill]

Re Jaz's comment on US healthcare:

When you say "without healthcare", you mean I think "without health insurance".These are not the same thing. I read somewhere many years ago that the vast majority of uninsured Americans could afford health insurance but choose not to take it up, adopting instead a "pay as you go" approach.

[James Maskell]

The NHS cant be fully replaced. As Richard said its a sacred cow. Instead the Conservatives need to improve what is there. Labours fiddled with it an almighty lot since they came to power. There are lots of options. Pity Labour's nicked a lot of them, say with the Patient Choice idea which has just started.

[Selsdon Man]

Maybe I'm just an old fashioned Thatcherite but I would suggest that he is heading "the left way"!

[Seldon Man]

or even The Third Way!

[Richard]

The reason for high US healthcare costs is explained here: http://www.mises.org/fullstory.aspx?Id=1749

I agree that the NHS is a disaster but it would be electoral suicide for the Tories to advocate replacing it. There is, however, growing public support for greater private involvement. Perhaps we should look towards the European systems for ideas.

[Daniel Vince-Archer]

"George Pascoe-Watson is certainly warm towards Mr Cameron in his first column as The Sun's new political editor."

Where's Trevor Kavanagh these days then?

[Selsdon Man]

I think that Kavanagh has retired.

[A H Matlock]

Kavanagh has apparently been promoted to 'Associate Editor', which sounds rather like a sinecure to me. There was short article about it in today's Sun.

[Richard Allen]

Kavanagh has been "promoted" to Associate Editor

[Selsdon Man]

I stand corrected. A certain member (I will spare him embarrassment) of the Davis team told me that he was retiring.

[Editor]

This (from The Guardian's Matt Wells) on The Sun and the Conservatives is also worth checking out...

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/conservatives/story/0,9061,1676606,00.html

[Selsdon Man]

It's the neo-con connection, Ed!! Murdoch publishes the Weekly Standard. Bill Kristol of the WS is a Patron of the Henry Jackson Society. Murdoch's adviser Irwin Stelzer is a HJS signatory - with Gove, Vaizey and Boles.

[Dontmakemelaugh]

"Michael Howard says his protege is heading "the right way"
David Cameron may be distancing himself from Michael Howard's policies on immigration and the NHS but the ex-Tory leader had nothing but praise for the man he positioned to succeed him. He promised to loyally cheer Mr Cameron from his new position on the backbenches. Mr Howard told Radio 4's World at One that Mr Cameron had made a "dramatic impact" since becoming Tory leader and that he was proceeding "in entirely the right way".

Well, he would say that wouldn't he! So much for Mr Howard's policies then, and which he now cheerfully confines to the dustbin, but maybe to be resurrected later. Who knows? Softly,softly catchee monkey - but it could be a crab.

Alas, there was little of "the night" about Mr Howard - only something of the sunset.