Campbell promises principle over fashion
The Liberal Democrats are the party of principle, leader Sir Menzies Campbell argued today, dismissing David Cameron as a product of fashion.
Recognising widespread public cynicism of politicians, he claimed that replacing fashion with principles will restore faith in politics.
He acknowledged this could at times place politicians outside mainstream opinion, pointing to the Lib Dem’s championing of emissions cuts before other politicians and business groups accepted this was necessary.
“That is what our politics is about,” Sir Ming said. “An adherence to principles even when the prevailing fashion is ranged against them.”
He added: “We didn’t need to wait for a focus group to tell us what to do. The other parties may favour fashion over principle. But we won’t.”
Campaigning in Watford ahead of the local elections, Sir Menzies blamed ten years of Tony Blair’s government for fuelling disillusionment.
“People wonder what happened to the party that promised that politics would change for good,” he said.
Sir Menzies accused Labour of chasing headlines while presiding over a “failing” criminal justice system. Calling for a new approach on crime, he pledged to make prisons work to cut re-offending, empower communities to close pubs, create a victim compensation fund paid for by prison work, and establish honesty in sentencing.
Unusually, Peter Mandelson, once dubbed the ‘godfather of Labour spin’ agreed today that the Labour party had been overly focused on spin during its first few years in office.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme to mark a decade of Labour government, Mr Mandelson said: “We were perhaps too ready to place emphasis on our management of the media in those early years of government rather than concentrate on a more policy-driven process.”
However, he insisted this had been the right thing to do, and said by the end of his first term, Mr Blair had been “deeply immersed” in the detail of policy and reform.
The other political parties are increasingly capitalising on Mr Blair’s own unpopularity and ‘celebrating’ his anniversary in their own election campaign, in a bid to court the ‘anti-Blair’ vote. However, Mr Mandelson insisted the prime minister’s faltering popularity was the result of a general cynicism in politics.
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