toryleadership

The Dimbleby Leadership Debate - Concluding Remarks

In concluding remarks David Cameron promised to be someone who would face up to the big challenges facing Britain.  He would deliver a strong economy, good public services and bring people together.  He said that he would lead a modern compassionate Conservative Party that would enter the mainstream.

David Davis says that he would be a principled champion of the victims of state failure - the pensioners, parents and patients who hadn't got a good deal from Labour.  He would deliver real reforms (and with a hand movement towards Mr Cameron) not "bogus reforms".

Both said that they would serve in each other's shadow cabinets.

The Dimbleby Leadership Debate - Part 3

Invited to pursue a crackdown on binge drinking Mr Davis offered a tough response.  Binge drinking was making town centres a nightmare, he said, and alcohol accounted for 40% of violent crime.  When I become PM 24 hour drinking will come to an end, he said.

DC said that there was not enough pursuit of existing laws - stopping sale of alcohol to minors, for example.  He said that he did not support 24-hour drinking but did not think it was sensible for every pub to stop serving at 11pm.

DC said the two keys to the challenge of drugs were education and treatment.  Britain needed proper residential rehabilitation.  He rejected suggestions that he was soft on drugs but that it wasn't credible that ecstasy and heroin were in the same drugs classification.  He promised that Tory policy would be set by the shadow cabinet as a whole.

DD said that the reason why ecstasy and heroin were in the same category was that they both killed.  Downgrading cannabis always causes harm and sent a disastrous signal.  Rehab was important, he said, but DC's approach to classification was dangerous.

Both contenders agreed that the government's paternity rights might be imposing a unreasonable burden on small employers.

The Dimbleby Leadership Debate - Part 2

Responding to the murder of a Bradford WPC and Lord Stevens' call for capital punishment for police killers, DD said it was the wrong time to propose such things in the wake of such a tragedy.  He said that he did not agree with Lord Stevens' call.

DC said that he opposed capital punishment but that a life sentence should mean 'life'.

Both men opposed "routine" arming of the police but called for more armed response teams.  DD said that police may need more bullet-proof clothing.

A questioner accused DC of being "vague" on tax.  Mr Cameron said that Britain needs lower taxes and better public infrastructure.  Rather than clarifying the balance of tax cuts/public spending he means by "sharing the proceeds of growth" he attacked David Davis' specific tax cuts promises.

Mr Davis said that "there is no alternative" with today's  intense global competition for Britain to cut taxes and regulation.  With his growth rule he said that he would still be able to raise public spending but not as fast as the growth of the economy.  The difference between spending growth and economic growth would pay for tax relief.

Mr Cameron said that Tories must not be so obsessed with tax and that tax must only be one part of a wider economic strategy.  He challenged David Davis to state whether he would still cut taxes in a recession and with debt levels growing.

David Davis responded by saying that a recession was precisely the wrong time to raise taxes.  He said that Mr Cameron's "sharing the proceeds of growth" formulation meant nothing.  He said that we needed tax cuts in order to boost the economy or there would be no proceeds to share.

Asked about health Mr Davis reaffirmed his support for the patient's passport policy.

Mr Dimbleby put it to DC that his u-turn on the patient's passport policy was another example of his inconsistency.  Mr Cameron said that Conservatives were wrong to give "the impression" that they wanted people to opt out of the NHS.  He implied that he never agreed with the shadow cabinet's support for the PP policy.

Mr Davis countered that he never remembered a big argument in shadow cabinet.  He took issue with Mr Cameron's use of the word "impression" and said that on the patient's passport - as on tax - the Conservative Party should decide what was right for Britain and then communicate that for the whole of the parliament.  It should not be cowed into intellectual submission by today's opinion polls.

The Dimbleby Leadership Debate - Part 1

A few highlights from part one of this lunchtime's encounter:

David Davis promises to tackle difficult issues head-on - like tax.

David Cameron accuses DD of appealing largely to core voters.  He promises, instead, to tackle other issues like climate change and childcare.

DC stressed the support of 115 Tory MPs - including William Hague and Liam Fox.  He said that he hoped to bring the "stars" of the Conservative Party into his shadow cabinet.  He promised not to oppose Labour where Labour's reforms were in the right direction.

DD said that there was a real danger in backing Labour's timid education reforms - which were already being watered down further.  He said that Conservatives must not be accomplices to Labour when it puts forward 'second hand car' legislation.

DC responded by saying that Conservatives should not be voting with Labour's Old Labour dinosaurs when Labour's "timid" reform measures were being debated in parliament.

DD warned DC that his policy shifts on immigration and tuition fees were open to charges of opportunism.

DC said that if Conservatives did not learn the lessons of election defeats, the party would be defeated again.