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.
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