ROTW: A better week for Tony Blair

This ROTW is a bit late and I apologise that I missed doing one for last week altogether.  I'll now try and get back on track...

TOPIC OF THE WEEK... smoking.  Parliament passed a total ban on smoking in public places.  The fact that the ban covered private clubs outraged many... including Robert Halfon, who wrote about his concerns for ConservativeHome. 

A GOOD WEEK FOR... Tony Blair.  The week began with David Cameron attacking the PM's 'ineffective authoritarianism' but after recent embarrassments on religious freedom and the 90 days vote Mr Blair won Commons support for his ID cards plan (despite an excellent speech by David Davis demolishing his case) and for the 'glorification' of terrorism.  Mr Brown also accelerated announcing his own non-economic policy agenda.

A BAD WEEK FOR... George W Bush. The Guantanamo Bay and prisoner abuse controversies got new legs with a critical UN report, new photo scandals plus some finger-wagging from William Hague (who delighted Tories with his PMQs performance)... and then there was that little matter of Dick Cheney's shooting accident.  This blog did its own little bit to point out that - on Darfur, tax relief and support for marriage - there remains much to commend America's 43rd president but one is beginning to feel that defending Bush is a lost cause within BBC-land. 

TORY POLITICIAN OF THE WEEK... Liam Fox.  Dr Fox's speech on keeping the military options open on Iran to the Heritage Foundation was much the most relevant of the speeches delivered in Washington by the Tory delegation.  Its focus on Iran was the right, pressing, national security issue for a British Conservative to highlight.

PLAY OF THE WEEK... Iain Duncan Smith.  I am biased, of course, but his campaign to give a state funeral to the last WWI survivor is not only the right thing to do... it is also the sort of non-political thing that captures the public imagination.

CONSERVATIVEHOME POST(S) OF THE WEEK... All those regular visitors who have written personal profiles for the new community blog.  [email protected] is waiting for all you other regulars to submit your own pen portraits...

EXTERNAL BLOG POST OF THE WEEK... The Taxpayers' Alliance on Tories using tax against Gordon Brown:

"The need for lower taxes goes to the heart of the competitiveness debate and it is an area where Gordon Brown is vulnerable - having raised taxes significantly and even having provoked the normally-placid CBI into criticising him. Gordon Brown will not be able to establish ownership of the competitiveness debate if tax is a key factor in that debate."

THE POST THAT RECEIVED THE MOST COMMENTS...

• The four factors that have ended Cameron's honeymoon (100)

THE POST THAT RECEIVED THE FEWEST COMMENTS...

• MPs reinstate "glorification of terror" measure (5)

CELEBRITY COMMENT OF THE WEEK...

Stewart Jackson MP defending David Cameron from Fraser Nelson:

"In my opinion, Mr Nelson's article draws inferences from the thinnest evidential basis. He was obviously tasked with doing a counter-intuitive "Things are going wrong with Cameron" piece. Just one fact: At the equivalent point post-2001 General Election, the Conservatives trailed Labour by 14 points in the ICM poll - we are now 1% ahead, giving an indicative swing of 7% since early 2002. This is enough to garner large seat gains in the local elections and I expect this to happen and Mr Nelson to eat humble pie."

BEST COMMENT OF THE WEEK...

William Norton on possible names for the Cameron baby...

""David" would be the safe option: but surely the Camerons need to take risks at this stage in the baptismal cycle?

"Tony" builds on the Heir To Blair theme, but can they afford to alienate traditionalists?

"Norman" would be a gracious olive branch, but would it raise fears of a reversion to a core vote strategy?

"Winston" plays to the anti-EPP Eurosceptics but won't win friends in Curtisland.

"Kylie" is probably a shade too aggressive in its courting of metrosexual metropolitan liberal support."

Comments

[James Hellyer]

Stewart Jackson's comment is wholly spurious. Most of the improvement he's talking about occurred under Michael Howard's leadership. Cameron cannot claim the credit for a 13 point swing over five years...

[Chris Palmer]

The Cameron honeymoon link actually send you to the Law and Justice thread.

[malcolm]

I thought Hagues speech was more important than that of Fox from the standpoint of the future of the Conservative party.
It accepted the political realities that huge mistakes have been made in Iraq and also that Bush is very unpopular(a lost cause?) in Great Britain.A brave speech given the circumstances but there has been no comment at all on how the Americans have reacted to it .

[Editor]

Thanks Chris - the link is now good.

Malcolm - you and I have different views on Iraq which probably explains why we prefer the two different speeches! I haven't seen any US comment on the Hague speech.

[Daniel Vince-Archer]

"All those regular visitors who have written personal profiles for the new community blog."

What happened to Peter Cuthbertson's profile? It was there one minute, gone the next!

[Editor]

It'll go up tmrw, DVA.

[Matthew Oxley]

I agree Fox is the man of the moment, well done CH for spotting it.

[Frank Young]

There was a sense of demotion about Liam Fox being given the Shadow Defence post however I suspect we might find that the Hague-Fox pairing in foreign affairs one of the most significant appointments of Cameron's leadership.

The pairing of these two avowedly hawkish/euro-sceptic MPs gives the party's foreign affairs position a distinctly right-wing flavour, more so than any other area of policy to date.

While the media saw the Fox appointment as a demotion I wonder if in reality he is actually one of the influential MPs in Cameron's Shadow Cabinet?

[malcolm]

I think you misunderstood me Editor,Iraq has nothing to do with it.Fox speech was sensible if predictable,Hagues speech in my opinion was anything but predictable.I had expected him to praise the US to the hilt but he didn't! This speech would have been suprising if delivered in London .The fact that he was brave enough to give it in Washington shows courage and in my opinion a degree of honesty that has been sadly lacking in our foreign policy speeches in recent years.