The Conservative leader is saying "sorry" over past policy mistakes at least once a week. It shows how wrong the Tories have been over the years.David Cameron has apologised for Section 28. He said the party "had got it wrong" when it introduced the homophobic piece of legislation back in 1988-89 (look here for the Daily Mail's ludicrous reminder of "WHAT SECTION 28 DID"). Now, either:
1) This is a genuine Road to Damascus moment, in which case fair play. Or:
2) the Tory u-turn is part of their political calculation to appear as a 'modernised' party (note that Cameron personally voted to keep Section 28 in the Commons as recently as 2003).
In any case, when you look at the bigger picture, are people seriously ready to vote for a Party who keep getting it so wrong? The pattern is eerily familiar. First they support something obnoxious and backward, then they fight tooth and nail to keep it and smear whoever opposes them, and finally -years down the line- they offer a grovelling apology over their "past mistake".
From opposing the abolition of slavery the 1830s to Margaret Thatcher dubbing Nelson Mandela's ANC "a terrorist organisation"; from their entrenched homophobia of the 1980s and 1990s to the poll tax; from drumming up support for the Iraq war to their hysterical anti-minimum wage scaremongering, the examples of the Tory Party getting it severely wrong over the years and then saying "sorry" are countless.
Quite worrying, as they prepare for another stint in power.
1) This is a genuine Road to Damascus moment, in which case fair play. Or:
2) the Tory u-turn is part of their political calculation to appear as a 'modernised' party (note that Cameron personally voted to keep Section 28 in the Commons as recently as 2003).
In any case, when you look at the bigger picture, are people seriously ready to vote for a Party who keep getting it so wrong? The pattern is eerily familiar. First they support something obnoxious and backward, then they fight tooth and nail to keep it and smear whoever opposes them, and finally -years down the line- they offer a grovelling apology over their "past mistake".
From opposing the abolition of slavery the 1830s to Margaret Thatcher dubbing Nelson Mandela's ANC "a terrorist organisation"; from their entrenched homophobia of the 1980s and 1990s to the poll tax; from drumming up support for the Iraq war to their hysterical anti-minimum wage scaremongering, the examples of the Tory Party getting it severely wrong over the years and then saying "sorry" are countless.
Quite worrying, as they prepare for another stint in power.
2 comments:
The Tories were also against women's vote in the 1920s, lest we forget. I'm surprised this area of potential political capital isn't expolited enough. All the policies that the Tory toffs opposed and then later endorsed.
It show how old I am, but at a Tory conference in the mid-1980s one of the slogans on display was If you want a queer for neighbour vote Labour.
That was the Tory Party that appealed to young Cameron so much that he decided to sign up and become a member.
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