Fox 'Let Freedom Reign' speech seen as start of his bid

Liam Fox, Tory Co-Chairman, will draw on the success of America's Republicans in a speech to the Politeia think tank. Liam Fox recently held talks with Karl Rove - "architect" of Bush's 2004 victory. The speech entitled 'Let Freedom Reign' - a phrase used by George W Bush when oversight of Iraq was passed to the country's interim government - is expected* to argue for a major transfer of power from politics to people.

Dr Fox was a leading supporter of Michael Howard's ‘core vote’ strategy. More than twelve months ago he argued that there was little wrong with William Hague's 2001 campaign - only that it was four years too early. In the early months of Mr Howard's leadership Dr Fox told Radio 4 that immigration, Euroscepticism and crime should remain central issues for the Tories.

Bookmakers see Dr Fox as the leading right-wing rival to David Davis - the favourite aspirant to the leadership.

Comments

[Bob B]

According to a report in the Financial Times, Ian Taylor obviously doesn't share the enthusiasm here for Dr Liam Fox:

"Ian Taylor, the former minister and confidant of Mr Clarke, says: 'David [Davis] is a real politician. If he reaches out and can convince one-nation Conservatives, then maybe he's got a chance.' . . .

"Mr Taylor says of Mr Fox, a GP by training: 'Liam Fox is somebody I hesitate to go and have medical appointment with let alone a political appointment.'"
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/340bb3e6-c026-11d9-b376-00000e2511c8.html

[Simon C]

It is a shame that Ian Taylor cannot bring himself to engage the debate about the future of the party and the leadership in constructive terms. As the 44% manifesto suggests, the Conservative debate about the future needs to be conducted in a way that appeals to voters - i.e. in a generous-spirited way that recognises that, when all is said and done, we all must remain members of the same party.

Ken Clark's leadership campaign in 2001 was marred by personal attacks on IDS, not from Ken, but from some of his supporters. I hope we aren't going to see a repetition of that

[Bob B]

Quite. What I recall most about Ian Taylor's pronouncements on politics after he stopped being a DTI minister in 1997 is his unbridled enthusiasm for Britain to join the Euro as soon as possible. Just look at the comparative performance of the Eurozone economy - higher rates of both unemployment and inflation than Britain and lower rates of employment of working age people and GDP growth. On the evidence, Taylor's judgement on economic policy issues is evidently deeply flawed. Ah well.

[Simon C]

It was pretty depressing to see Hezza say the other day that the referendum on the European constitution will be "deeply divisive" for the Conservative Party.

It needn't be - provided that Conservatives play the ball and not the man, and reserve their fire for arguments on whether the Constitution is a good thing or not. Euro-philes can surely recognise that they are in a clear minority in the party now, and conduct themselves with good grace. The rest of us should accept they they are sincere in their beliefs, however misguided we think they are.