Christopher Chope OBE MP
On 5th November David Cameron will be CWF’s Guest of Honour at the President’s Dinner (for details see back cover).
With the State Opening of Parliament fixed for 6th November, this will be a special ‘Eve of Parliament’ occasion. We hope that David will be addressing us as our newly elected Prime Minister. But if Gordon Brown refuses to call an autumn General Election, there will still be plenty for David to talk about. Please join us.
The Government has been energetically clearing the decks in preparation for facing the electorate. Disengagement from Iraq, policy reversal on super casinos and a rethink on cannabis are examples. Politically popular nuggets from the Comprehensive Spending Review such as defence shipbuilding contracts, vital for Labour constituencies, have been preannounced.
Conservative Party policies such as border police and more prisons have been ruthlessly finessed or trumped. Gordon Brown is intent on neutralising the traditionally strong Conservative appeal on law and order, immigration and defence. He has been aided and abetted by some na?ve and/or disloyal senior Conservatives who should know better.
Gordon Brown’s strategy is designed to seduce voters into forgetting his own central role in the failed policies of the last ten years. He hopes to cast the Blair era into oblivion by writing it out of history.