Kenny Farquharson: Call-me-Dave goes for the Killers quote

Published on Saturday 10 October 2009 19:59

Cameron has shown willing to challenge the nastier instincts of the nasty party

DAVID Cameron is a big fan of The Killers. Do I have to explain to you who The Killers are? Oh, come on! Keep up, daddyo! The Killers are a band from Las Vegas led by a Mormon frontman called Brandon Flowers, who take their inspiration from the British pop of the 1980s and are therefore accessible to 40-somethings like Cameron and, er, your columnist. Call-me-Dave went to see them in concert at the Royal Albert Hall last year and in a BBC interview said of their most recent recording: "That is my, like, favourite album at the moment."

Yes, I know. I shuddered too at the "like" in that quote. It made Cameron sound as if he was channelling Rachel from Friends. Not a pleasant thought. Not pleasant at all.

Anyway. When Cameron walked out onto the stage at the Tory party conference in Manchester last Thursday afternoon, the accompanying music was a wonderful Killers track called All These Things That I Have Done. A truly great song. But the wrong choice for this occasion. A more fitting Killers track would have been one of their more recent hits, a song called Are We Human? Because this was the speech where Cameron had to persuade those who are still not convinced his "progressive" and "compassionate" Conservatism is really any different at its core to cold-blooded Thatcherism.

What people reviled about Margaret Thatcher was not her economic arguments about the failings of state-owned industries or her political arguments about the overweening power of the trade unions. What they most objected to was her seeming indifference to the damage her remedies inflicted on communities in every village, town and city in the land.

Cameron talked glibly last week about "broken Britain". Does he really believe the damage was inflicted by New Labour, or, as he somewhat bizarrely claimed, by "big government"? No-one else does. Yes, of course Labour's efforts to eradicate poverty and tackle social fracture have been frustratingly slow. But the brokenness of Britain has its roots in 1980s unemployment, when the millions on the dole were deemed by Thatcherite ministers as "a price worth paying" for economic reform. It was this unemployment – in particular the effect of male joblessness on the rate of family breakdown – that sowed the land with salt.

Cameron at least showed last week that he understands some of the failings of Thatcherism. He seems to appreciate that one of Britain's problems is the legacy of 1980s individualism – not individualism in an empowering sense, but in a "I don't give a toss about anyone else" sense. Deliberately contradicting Maggie's infamous statement that "there is no such thing as society; there are individual men and women and there are families", Cameron said in his speech: "There is such a thing as society, it's just not the same as the state." The three touchstone words that were repeated throughout his speech – family, community and country – all value common purpose above individual endeavour. This, from a Tory leader, is a political shift of seismic proportions.

Cameron also invited comparisons with Thatcher when he echoed her quoting of St Francis of Assisi on the steps of Downing Street just after she won the 1979 election. Remember? "Where there is despair, may we bring hope..." Cameron's version went like this: "If you put in the effort to bring in a wage, you will be better off. If you save money your whole life, you'll be rewarded. If you start your own business, we'll be right behind you. If you want to raise a family, we'll support you. If you're frightened, we'll protect you. If you risk your safety to stop a crime, we'll stand by you. If you risk your life to fight for your country, we will honour you." One of the best bits of a rather brave speech.

Much is made of the observation that Cameron is simply doing what Tony Blair did – making himself electable by going against the grain of his own party to win over the middle ground where elections are won or lost. I suspect, though, that it was easier to persuade the Labour party to embrace individual choice than it will be to persuade the Tories to embrace communitarianism.

Cameron certainly seems to have made a break with the Conservatism of the past – but it still seems more of a tactic than a transformation. When he says, as he did last week, that "it falls to us, the modern Conservative party to fight for the poorest who (Labour] have let down", you have to applaud his chutzpah – but does it really ring true?

Back in July, I was at T in the Park with my sons and heard The Killers play All These Things That I Have Done as the final song of their headlining set on the Saturday night. It was a magical moment, and one of my favourite memories of the summer. But now, I'm afraid, the song will never quite sound the same again. Its appropriation by Cameron has spoiled it for me, and I suspect, a lot of other people. And I wonder if, when he looks in the mirror, Cameron truly believes he can live up to the expectations in its soaring, epic quality. One of the lines goes: "I wanna shine on in the hearts of men." On last week's less than charismatic showing, that may be a wish too far.

Cameron has demonstrated a willingness to challenge the nastier instincts of the nasty party – the party that hated gay rights, the minimum wage and Scottish aspirations for self-government. He is still odds-on to be the next Prime Minister. And so far, in the most part, the spirit of his rhetoric has been carried through to the detail of his party's policies. But I question whether he truly has his party at his back. And I wonder if, once he gets to Number 10, the Tories will revert to type.