The two Davids set out their policy platforms in The Telegraph

Over the last two days The Telegraph's editorial pages have given us an opportunity to directly compare the policy platforms of the two Davids battling it out for the Tory leadership.  On Monday Mr Cameron made his pitch.  Yesterday Mr Davis made a slightly shorter case for his agenda.

Listed below is a colour-coded comparison of what the two men said about key policy areas.  I've chosen magenta for Mr Cameron and cyan for Mr Davis.  [And please don't read anything into my choice of colours!]

EUROPE: "The flow of new regulation from the EU must also be reduced: our aim should be to take back control of employment and social regulation" / "I want to see an open Europe, with a lightly regulated single market at its core, in which other powers are returned to Parliament. And let me be absolutely clear: as prime minister, I would insist on powers being returned."

TAX: "We must reduce and simplify taxes." / "We need an unequivocal commitment to lower and simplify taxes."

TECHNOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT (FOR MORE): "We need to harness the power of the market... to generate the advance in technology needed to control climate change." / "We should, for instance, harness new thinking and technology that could... drive real progress in tackling climate change."

URBAN BRITAIN: "Create the urban revival that can alone prevent the urban exodus that threatens our countryside and natural environment." / "Unless the party offers hope to the hard-working urban majority, it won't deserve to win power."

LAW & ORDER: "Elected police commissioners responding to the priorities of local people." / "In New York... no-nonsense "zero tolerance" and "broken windows" policing, has reduced crime."

HEALTHCARE: "Opening up the right to supply healthcare to all qualified providers." / "France and Germany provide first-class healthcare even for the least well-off through mixing private and public provision."

SCHOOLING: "Real school autonomy and more parental choice, freeing schools over admissions and allowing them to establish their own identities. But that autonomy must operate against the background of strong leadership to ensure rigour throughout the system. Restoring the credibility of A-levels, radical reform of the QCA, synthetic phonics at the heart of literacy... I'm ready for a huge battle with the educational establishment to banish the "progressive" theories that have done such damage for so long." [A longer list - reflecting, no doubt, that DC is Shadow Education Secretary!] / "Sweden funds parents to exercise school choice." + "Anyone who aspires to be prime minister has to be able to offer a coherent programme to deliver excellence in health and education to the majority who can't buy their way to a better deal."

FAMILY: "I've never believed in preaching... My approach will be guided by the evidence, which shows that children do best when both parents are involved in their upbringing. So we should ensure that the tax and benefits system encourages couples to get together and stay together." / "Without judging anyone, we should recognise the central position of the family in underpinning strong and stable communities. The tax-and-benefit system should help this aim, not hinder it."

POLICY FORMULATION: "We must use the next three years to make the Conservative Party the engine room of new political ideas - engaging with academics and think tanks; the brightest and the best minds producing detailed policy for the long term, not policy by headline." / "We need to build lasting new solutions and a new consensus, using centre-Right ideas to achieve social justice. That means re-energising the party's policy-making, opening it up to the think tanks, academia and public service professionals, spreading our ideas among Britain's opinion-formers."

My goodness!  These two men appear to believe in very similar things!  There's hope for a united Conservative Party...

Themes addressed by DC but not by DD:

• "We will never get good schools, universities, hospitals, transport or police on the cheap - so we must share the proceeds of economic growth between tax reduction and public service investment."
• Co-payment ideas like tuition fees and road pricing.
• "No ID cards, No religious hatred laws."
• Sub-Sahraran Africa's poverty.

Themes addressed by DD but not by DC:

• Asset-based welfare and prosperity:  "So I want to build an Opportunity Society in which every citizen has the chance to claim a stake in Britain's success. We should empower people through increased ownership of property, shares and capital."
• "We should reverse welfare dependency through brave reform that supports the weak but rewards those who work hard."

Some themes addressed by neither (in these articles):

• Drugs!
• Nuclear energy.
• Pensions.
• Iraq.
• Arms trading and defence spending...

I apologise to all the Fox and Clarke supporters who feel left out but Dr Fox has written for The Telegraph today and I'll try to blog something on it later!  Those interested in the case for Dr Fox should please click here for Simon Chapman's compelling Platform piece about the Shadow Foreign Secretary.

Comments

[Tom]

sounds like cribbing to me. I assume that most of that came from cameron bearing in mind that he has been policy coordinator but it does bode well for the future. If they essentially agree the quetion is who is going to be the best to translate the policy to the electorate and make the country vote conservative. Got to be smarmy dave no?

[Rick]

Neither France nor Germany can afford their healthcare system: Germany is closing hospital beds and doctors have been striking. Read up on events at Charite in Berlin.

I doubt the average British family would like to fork out £300/month for healthcare - a sum matched by employer. Nor would they like to pay 16% VAT on prescriptions as German health insurers do.

Maybe Germany and France have bankrupted themselves and are looking at cost control in the UK as a way forward. It seems strange to take two hugely indebted countries and boast about their health care system which has bankrupted them both as populations age.

German and French doctors are emigrating - there is a huge shortage of doctors in rural areas of Germany and Germany has started on rationing demand by user fees at surgeries of £7/quarter. Demand rationing will be the way forward in the UK with people paying to see a GP to cut down demand but none of the Tory candidates will dare suggest what the policy papers tell them is inevitable.

[wasp]

At least you can't say they're not learning from Blair. As soon as one of them has an idea, the other ones copy it.

[Selsdon Man]

The Dr's policies are similar on most issues. All candidates supported the war in Iraq.

It is only fair to point, editor, that Mr Cameron has talked about pensions and the need for possible compulsion.

The main differences will be on drugs, Europe (EPP) and criminal justice policy.

[Selsdon Man]

Does anyone know the views of Davis and Fox on road pricing? It is a personal interest.

[Rick]

All politicians are in favour of compulsion on pensions on the revenue side even if they call it "Contributions"; it is the expenditure side we need to be wary of, because that is where they cut the entitlement and the level of payout. Just as Barbara Castle brought in SERPS Margaret Thatcher outsourced it and cut the earnings link on pensions

[Michael McGowan]

DC's enthusiasm for "co-payment" and "user fees" is something to be concerned about. In the Blairite form in which he advocates them, they are simply a form of tax. You might as well describe VAT and stamp duty as a "user fee".

I also find the sniping at the French and German healthcare systems overdone. There is little evidence that they are any more bankrupt than the NHS. Moreover, as a very grateful recipient of life saving treatment from the French system, I know that it provides a level of patient responsiveness unheard of in this country outside the private sector. Yes, there are wasteful aspects to the French and German systems but these are not integral. Both countries currently have surplus healthcare capacity. Why does the Government not simply buy in some of that capacity en bloc to clear NHS waiting lists? I thought that was the whole point of the EU Single Market. Perhaps Cameron should suggest this ......but in public at least, he seems to subcribe to the myth that the NHS is the envy of the world.

[Peter]

I can't understand on a flat tax why people are getting rid of the top rate first rather than the basic rate. Cost less(twinned with VAT) and hopefully with inheritance and capital gains done away with would be a vote winner?

[Jack Stone]

Its clear that on policy there are few differances at the end of the day between the two but I think what gives DC an advantage over DD is that he as the ability to sell the party better to voters who would never think of voing for a DD lead party and also I think DC as realised the scale of the change the party as to go through to become electable whereas DD seems to fall in the one more heave camp or as I think of it as "one more defeat".