British Conservative leader David Cameron delivered the capstone address at last week’s party conference in Manchester. The speech was designed to reassure British voters, who seem ready to vote out Gordon Brown and his Labour majority next year, that Mr. Cameron – a rather youthful 43 – is ready to lead.
He also, of course, laid out why Labour has run off the rails, a case predicated largely on the idea that the British government is just too big and intrusive, enervating the British sense of personal responsibility and enterprise.
But what I found most interesting is that Cameron took a second to offer outright praise to the Labour Party:
Why are our politics broken? Because government got too big, promised too much and pretended it had all the answers. Of course it was done with the best intentions. And let’s be clear: not everything Labour did was wrong. Devolution; the minimum wage; civil partnerships, these are good things that we will we keep.
It’s hard to recall the last time a presidential candidate of one party fessed up to liking some of the ideas of the other. (Though I do remember after the 2008 State of the Union Speech one of the network anchors asking then-Senator Obama if he could find anything praiseworthy in President Bush’s agenda. He responded that Bush deserved credit for launching PEPFAR, the effort to treat and defeat AIDS in Africa. And I liked him for saying it.)
Cameron is already viewed a bit suspiciously by conservatives who think he may be giving away too much to get elected. His rhetoric on climate change and tax policy will do little to assuage those concerns. And his full-throated embrace of the National Health Service – “this party is the party of the NHS now, today, tomorrow, always” – may be too robust for some.
But Cameron’s experience with the NHS is more than political. Earlier this year, Cameron and his wife lost a child who had suffered from cerebral palsy and epilepsy. He spoke movingly of what the health service means to people at their most vulnerable:
My family owes so much to the National Health Service. No, it is not perfect. But I tell you, when you’re carrying a child in your arms to Accident and Emergency in the middle of the night and don’t have to reach for your wallet it’s a lot better than the alternative.
Cameron’s is a sentiment most people can understand. And coming from a Conservative party leader, it may be one Democrats in this country could seize on.
