Tory spokesman backing Democrat

[Tony_FLADEM]

Tory Alan Duncan has said he is prepared to work for the Democrat campaign of John Kerry to prevent a second Bush term in the White House.
The constitutional affairs spokesman says he is an "instinctive Republican" but is concerned at the influence of Neo-Conservatives in Washington.


<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3749401.stm>

[MikeG]

1. Tories and Democrats are closer in idology than you think.

Tories are more liberal than Republicans.
And they would leave socialized medicine in place.

[Alerter_]

2. didn't they say Kerry is "our kind of Tory"

Imagine the pro-monarchy wing of the UK establishment wants Kerry while Labor Blair is in Bush's pockets. Interesting times.

[tigereye]

3. that does seem kind of odd doesn't it?

Blair is an odd mix... I don't really get why he continues to ride Bush's coattails when it has done him little good with his own party and his constituency. Most Brits are highly opposed to Irag-invasion. Almost seems like Britain, in the form of Blair, drooling after another shot at (our form of) colonialism. I used to like Blair, and I really admired his wife, but I am not sure what they are playing at now. I don't know that his countrymen really liked him so cozy with Clinton either, but at least that made a little more sense.

[Alerter_]

4. blackmail

there was a "sex" and "pervert" scandal in the Blair government before the war.

[Lorien]

5. A Brit's take on NOW with Bill Moyers:

By European standards, almost no one in the current democratic party is anything less than a right winger. Listen to what this British writer had to say this weekend on "NOW with Bill Moyers":


BRANCACCIO: If you're going to make any sense of this election year, you have to try to understand the soul of the Conservative movement that brought George Bush to power, and the Republican majority to both houses of Congress. To help us with that, we've asked two reporters to join me tonight. Michel Martin is a correspondent for ABC news, and a regular contributor to NIGHTLINE. Adrian Wooldridge is Washington correspondent for THE ECONOMIST, and the co-author of a new book. It's called THE RIGHT NATION, CONSERVATIVE POWER IN AMERICA. Welcome to NOW.
MARTIN: Thank you.
WOOLDRIDGE: Good evening.
BRANCACCIO: Adrian, knowing full well that there are 31 definitions for the word "right" in the dictionary, how, right is America right now?
WOOLDRIDGE: In this book, we try and argue two things. The first is that America contains a right nation, which is a vigorous, well-organized, well-distanced, conservative movement, unlike anything that exists in the rest of the world. But we also try and argue in this book that the center of political gravity in the United States is very much to the right of the center of political gravity in Europe. So, in one sense, the whole of America is a right nation, in the sense that they're more conservative on all sorts of measures than any single European country.

(snip)


BRANCACCIO: I was getting the impression, reading the book, Adrian, that it doesn't matter who wins in November. The notion is that the Conservative movement in America has already won, is the take away point that I was getting.
WOOLDRIDGE: I think there's a lot of truth in that. I think if you look at America in 1960 and now, this is a country that has moved very, very far to the right. Whoever wins the election in 2004, this will still be a right wing country, compared with Europe, but also compared with the America even of Richard Nixon.
It's not that it's irrelevant who wins. But the center of gravity is very much further to the right. I think a lot of Europeans think that this country has been hijacked by this right wing fleet of lunatics, and that their motto basically is waiting for the nightmare to end.
But I think if Kerry wins, the nightmare for Europeans won't end. There will be a brief honeymoon period. But on Iraq, on Israel, on Kyoto, on the projection of power abroad, on the virtues of the use of power versus the use of negotiations, America will still be an outlyer. And the Europeans will still be very discontented of America's attitude.
MARTIN: You know, I agree with you that the key difference between George Bush and John Kerry is not what, but how. I mean, this is a man who voted for the Iraq resolution, who has proclaimed that he is for America as the strongest military force in the world. That he wants to project American power. That's clearly necessary to win the election. But it also, I believe, is a core belief…
WOOLDRIDGE: Absolutely.

(snip)


BRANCACCIO: And from the European perspective, we really do, as a country, seem sort of off the charts conservative. There are European conservatives who think we're too conservative.
WOOLDRIDGE: Absolutely. I remember during the primary campaign in Iowa, going to look at Dean's supporters. And I was talking to one who happened to be Swedish.
What a Swedish person was doing working for Dean, I don't know. But he told me that Dean was the one person that he could work for. But only with a certain heavy heart.
Because Dean was really, in Swedish terms, a far right winger. And he said that Dean's attitude to health care, saying that you needed you know, basically some... is something that needed to be solved by the private sector was extraordinary, by his standards. But at least he was better than George W. Bush, and some of the other candidates. And…
BRANCACCIO: But you were back in London talking to some British conservatives…
WOOLDRIDGE: Absolutely.
BRANCACCIO: And what did you find?
WOOLDRIDGE: I talked to a lot of British conservatives. And they were very, very hostile to George W. Bush. They considered him to be far too right wing and far too…
BRANCACCIO: Tories in London…
WOOLDRIDGE: Tories, this is the closest ally that Britain has in Europe, this is the party that's most closely aligned to the American Republican party. Remember the days of Ron and Margaret, and all that sort of stuff. And these British Tories now think that George W. Bush, he's just off the charts.
Just too right wing. And they're much happier with Kerry. They're Kerry conservatives, almost.
BRANCACCIO: And luckily for all concerned, we dumped that tea into Boston harbor. And we don't have to really care…

(snip)

More: http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript322_full.html

[Alerter_]

6. very interesting interview

Kerry Torries, who would have thought?

[DaveSZ]

7. It is sad

I think Reagan really dealt the left a deathblow and swung the country far to the right.

I wonder if Bush's incompetence has done the same to the far right?

[Lorien]

9. And Dean, in Swedish terms, is a far right winger

we've drifted a long, long way since the late sixies. :-(

[JPJones]

8. This alone settles the 'foreign leaders have told me'

issue. Even if this is not one of the foreign leaders - it doesn't matter. Foreign leaders aren't supposed to endorse our candidates. Having even one do it, let alone a Tory, settles it.