Old college friend says Cameron a “dry-as-dust” Thatcherite

Alex Smith

Thatcher CameronBy Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

Unlike Margaret Thatcher, David Cameron does believe there is such a thing as society, it’s just not the same thing as the state. Unlike Margaret Thatcher, David Cameron has apologised for Section 28, though his voting record apparently shows he has never voted with his conscience in Parliament on that matter when the opportunity arose.

But Cameron’s old university pal, Toby Young, says the Tory leader might not be so drastically changed or diferent from Mrs Thatcher. In a blogpost yesterday, Young wrote:

“I was two years above Cameron at Brasenose, also studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and would occasionally engage him in debate about the political issues of the day. This was in 1985 in the aftermath of the miners’ strike and I can report that, back then at least, he was a dry-as-dust Thatcherite. He was a braying, triumphalist Conservative who made no concessions to the leftwing atmosphere of Oxford in the mid-80s – no hint of the Wet he was to become. If the child is the father of the man, Fraser can rest easy.”

Young was referring to Fraser Nelson’s Keith Jospeh Memorial speech earlier in the week, in which the editor of the Spectator urged Cameon to throw off the “Compassionate Conservative” image for a more traiditional Tory agenda.

Young notes that Nelson is in a camp of people – seemingly increasingly vocal – that wants Cameron to “govern as a true blue, movement Conservative.”

Few people in the Labour Party expect anything different should the Tories win the election.

Tagged in: Election2010, Opposition, People.




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