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Monday, January 15, 2007

Cameron moves to head off UKIP

I am a true Tory.....

After another week which saw a few more defections to UKIP, David Cameron writes in the Daily Telegraph to head off the revolt and claim to be a true carrier of the Tory flame of freedom.

Sources close to Mr Cameron insist that he is not reacting to the renewed threat of UKIP but restating his existing position. But in an interview on BBC1's Sunday AM, the Tory leader refused to withdraw his famous dismissal of UKIP as "fruitcakes and loonies and closet racists, basically".

In his leading article in the Telegraph there is even a hint of tax cuts as he says:

"It is why I have made the strongest commitment to supporting the family and marriage that any Conservative leader has made for a generation.
It is why we are pledged to share the proceeds of economic growth between public services and lower taxes, thereby ensuring that over time the state takes a smaller share of national wealth."

A smaller share of national wealth? Does he mean it? Does that mean he expects the economy to grow massively under a Conservative government, but that taxation will remain as it is now, or does it mean there will actually be a reduction in the levels of taxation?

Curly wonders if I should shudder with excitement, or carry a pocketful of cynicism?

Link

The Daily Telegraph

# posted by Curly : 1:32 pm

Comments:

More from new UKIP Lord Pearson, helping to reinforce the image that he merely joined UKIP to use it to influence the Conservative Party:

"I know quite a lot of people who give quite a lot of money to the Conservative Party. I think if you are a Conservative donor and you are worried about the direction Cameron is taking the party then the only thing you can do now is to give to Ukip. You may want to give money to both, but I'm convinced that Ukip is the instrument to use to influence the Conservative Party."

Statements from defecting Tories like this highlight the simple truth they aren't joining because UKIP has a strong ideology, they are joining in the hope of changing the Tory party from the outside. UKIP Leader Nigel Farage is allowing his new tory friends to use UKIP as nothing more than a political pressure group to influence Conservative policy on the European issue.

No wonder UKIP has been described being like a bath with no plug. With Nigel Farage lurching UKIP to the hard right and as right wing ex-conservatives join, UKIP members are leaving and branches are closing.

# posted by

UKIP@HOME : 12:08 am