DAVID CAMERON has published a second beefed-up version of his “mission statement” on Conservative values to try to get rank-and-file members interested in the document.
The Tory leader produced the first version of Built to Last in February to underline his break with the party’s Thatcherite past. He expected the document to infuriate rightwingers, who would campaign against it in a promised referendum of all 270,000 party members, helping to press home the point that the party had changed.
Sensing a trap, however, the Right refused to oppose it. Even Lord Tebbit, the former party chairman and a leading critic of the direction in which Mr Cameron is taking the party, refused to condemn it, merely dismissing it as clever marketing.
Members complained that it was so bland that no one could disagree with its contents. In an attempt to rescue the exercise, which will cost more than £70,000, Mr Cameron published a new version yesterday, wrapping in all the policies adopted since February.
Officials said that it would form the basis of the next election manifesto. The new 12-page statement, twice as long as the original, contains plans for a new Bill of Rights to replace the Human Rights Act. That was rubbished by Kenneth Clarke, the head of Mr Cameron’s constitution policy group, as legal nonsense.
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It is likely, however, to be strongly backed by members. They may take issue instead with the commitment to put economic stability before tax cuts, made this year.
The new version promises to scrap ID cards and introduce more streaming and setting in state schools. There is a lengthy section on the environment, with a commitment to impose binding annual national targets on carbon emissions.
Mr Cameron said in a foreword that the party would oversee a revolution in personal and professional responsibility. “That is the mission of the modern Conservative Party: a responsibility revolution to create an opportunity society: a society in which everybody is a somebody, a doer not a done-for.”
Copies will be posted to members on August 26 with a voting slip attached to accept or reject the document. The results will be announced before the party conference in October.
Officials said that they would be delighted with a resounding vote in favour. “It will silence critics who say David Cameron lacks direction of travel and policy,” a spokesman said. “It illustrates what modern Conservative values mean and what a future Conservative manifesto might look like. If it is supported by the whole party it will show the Conservatives really are changing.”
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Labour said the relaunch was evidence that the modernising agenda was running out of steam. “David Cameron’s first Built to Last document has been scrapped after only six months. Today’s relaunch should be called Built to Last A Bit Longer,” John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, said.
THE MAIN TORY PROMISES
TAX
“Sharing the proceeds of growth between investment in public services and tax reduction” is still high on the Tories’ list of aims
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ENVIRONMENT
“To meet the great environmental threats of the age, to enhance the environment and to increase general wellbeing”
HEALTH AND EDUCATION
To improve the NHS by “trusting professionals and giving choice to parents, patients and families”. Education policy will focus on “giving schools greater control over their own affairs”
CANDIDATES
“We will represent our country in all its diversity”