Like its right wing counterparts in America the website is one of the great success stories in giving a lively voice to free market and Conservative views. It reflects the wide gamut of party opinions on Europe, crime, benefits and taxation. It is to the embarrassment of Tory spin doctors at Central Office singularly unafraid of carrying blogs criticising the Cameron leadership.
Witness the recent public debate on the site over whether Cameron was out of touch and living in a protected bubble from the rest of the party as he roamed round Parliament.
Something you might expect more on Labour Home than Conservative Home. Despite being funded by billionaire Tory donor Lord Ashcroft there appears to be no heavy hand of censorship and some Tory stars like Eurosceptics David Davis and John Redwood are more popular on Conservative Home than members of the present Shadow Cabinet.
Much of its success is due to the personality of Tim Montgomerie, a Christian Tory who is less abrasive than his anarchic right wing counterparts, Tory Bear and Guido Fawkes. He appears to have taken the view that a well read website should not have to toe the party line and can produce uncomfortable facts for the leadership. It is almost a Christian view of ensuring the leadership have to turn the other cheek when they face a problem.
This is fine while the party remains in opposition but what would happen if it came to power. Now most of the criticism of Cameron is hidden in a deluge of comment attacking New Labour or as many Tory bloggers call it, Nu Labour. It is very easy to take pop shots at Brown over bullying, or slam Ed Balls for his ruthlessness.
Attacking Harman and the Milibands is no doubt very helpful to the Tory leadership. They can be blamed for broken Britain. But in power it would be different and the signs are that the real Tory party is nothing like the one the Cameron leadership presents to the electorate.
It would be extraordinary if the right wing blogosphere that has none of the old guard deference to the leadership did not organise against it with same ferocity it attacks Nu Labour.
I know this is already happening. Provided, of course, one million people sign a petition. And UKIP has said to me that with many of their friends on Conservative Home sympathising with their views on Europe, they think that debate would have to take place soon. The appointment is for the chair of the body and it has gone to Dr.
He will now lead until a committee of people who will both comment on future benefit changes and do independent research on the effects of the benefits system on the poor. She wrote an article for Conservative Home calling for the abolition of child benefit for millions of people and taxing the Disability Living Allowance. Read it here. The appointment process for Dr Brien was marred from the start. The works and pensions committee was never informed of the recruitment process which is a breach of Cabinet Office guidelines as the appointment has to be scrutinised by Parliament.
They learnt about it after a member of the committee staff spotted it. It is reproduced here. Not only did Mr Timms complain about the omission but also some subtle change in the wording of the job specification. The appointment process looked fair — though the small number of applicants were overwhelmingly white with just one disabled person. Six were ruled out without an interview including the disabled person. Six made the interview including one BAME person. Four were women and two men but only three were considered appointable.
Yet his CV is pretty questionable on this matter. This is where he developed the idea of Universal Credit and this is the body that wants to deprive people in their late 60s and early 70s of a state pension by raising the age to This was the time the Treasury insisted on speeding up the rise in the pension age to 66, refused to introduce national insurance auto-credits for women born in the s while keeping them for men and imposed other welfare cuts.
See here. I wonder. It depends on the balance of being friendly and critical. Either he will use his knowledge- he claims to be passionate about social security since he was to try and make the new system work better.
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