A great speech focussing on responsibility and morality:
I think the time has come for me to speak out about something that has been troubling me for a long time. I have not found the words to say it sensitively. And then I realised, that is the whole point.
I missed this speech. The Conservatives at least are thinking seriously about food security.
Highlights from the conclusion, starting with the three action points:
Making a genuine free market by ending – once and for all – production subsidies, so British farmers can compete fairly with foreign competitors.
Creating a level-playing field of regulations so British farmers are not put at a disadvantage.
And helping farmers re-connect with consumers at home, so more money is being spent on more British food, meaning more profits for British farmers and more investment in British agriculture.
And how this ties in with the Conservative vision:
If we give farmers greater freedom – by creating a genuine free market for you to work in, by changing our whole approach to regulation, and giving you the means to connect with your customers through proper food labelling and the ability to set up food co-operatives…
…we are literally giving them more power and more control over the decisions that affect them.
Once you have that power, as a Conservative, I fundamentally believe you will become far more conscious about the way you use it.
More responsible about your environmental impact.
More responsible about the kind of food you produce as you’ll be judged by consumers not government.
And more responsible in making sure you reduce your costs, meet rising demand and produce more of our country’s food. And the overall affect will be to make Britain greener and safer.Yes, reduced carbon emissions.
But absolutely fundamentally, guaranteed food security.
I believe this vision can become a reality.
Today, I met David Cameron.
He’s taller than you imagine and even fresher faced. His speech and his responses to questions were positive, optimistic, realistic and balanced. There was a real sense that David is a decent, honest and committed man who wants to make Britain the country it ought to be.
I’m beginning to believe.
Mark Mardell points out that the French are changing their constitution to avoid a referendum:
The French politicians from both houses were meeting to change the constitution so they could go ahead with the adoption of the Treaty of Lisbon.
I do wonder at the imperative among Europe’s political elite that makes them behave in this manner. If they are so sure their electorates would say “no” to this messy constitution, surely the only democratic response is to take a different course?
The freedom message brings us together; it doesn’t divide us. — Ron Paul
What about this man?
… but it confuses the right-wing media, who want government out of our lives, but who also want to blame government for every crisis. At least I am not alone in spotting that Cameron is ahead of the game.
In rare moments of calm the focus switches from a troubled Government to a partially recovered Conservative Party. When it does so David Cameron’s admirers and critics tend to argue in unison that the Conservative leader should set out his political purpose more clearly, implying that he lacks a compelling or coherent narrative.
The criticism is both unfair and slightly odd. Whatever his failings, Cameron outlines in most speeches a vision that is potentially revolutionary in its implications, one that could at the very least transform the political culture in Britain and might bring about more sweeping changes.
Cameron envisages an extraordinary transfer of power away from the centre to local community groups, users of public services and to local government. Take a typical speech he delivered last month to the Young Foundation. Cameron began by arguing that a much greater degree of local control allows communities to apply solutions best suited to meet their needs. He added also that diversity works at a national level. Local innovation would allow others to copy the best.
The article is here.
