This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/world/europe/britain-conservative-party-conference-david-cameron.html
The article has changed 8 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 3 | Version 4 |
|---|---|
| David Cameron, at Conservatives’ Conference, Strays From Party’s Themes | David Cameron, at Conservatives’ Conference, Strays From Party’s Themes |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| MANCHESTER, England — Sensing a chance to occupy the political middle ground, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain used a speech at the Conservative conference here on Wednesday to touch on themes not normally associated with his center-right party, promising an “all-out assault on poverty.” | MANCHESTER, England — Sensing a chance to occupy the political middle ground, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain used a speech at the Conservative conference here on Wednesday to touch on themes not normally associated with his center-right party, promising an “all-out assault on poverty.” |
| Mr. Cameron, closing the first convention since the Conservatives’ victory in May, pledged to battle to end discrimination and to fight for equality. | Mr. Cameron, closing the first convention since the Conservatives’ victory in May, pledged to battle to end discrimination and to fight for equality. |
| In returning to ideas he championed earlier in his career, including “modern, compassionate” Conservatism, he announced other, less-surprising initiatives, including plans to increase house construction and tackle Muslim religious schools that preach intolerance. | In returning to ideas he championed earlier in his career, including “modern, compassionate” Conservatism, he announced other, less-surprising initiatives, including plans to increase house construction and tackle Muslim religious schools that preach intolerance. |
| Mr. Cameron said before the vote in May that he would not run for another term as prime minister, and, even though the next general election is not until 2020, the meeting in Manchester had been dominated by colleagues already maneuvering for his job. | |
| The prime minister sought to reclaim the focus on Wednesday and made clear that he was not without his own political goals, promising a “turnaround decade” for Britain and telling internal rivals that he was “starting the second half of my time in this job.” | The prime minister sought to reclaim the focus on Wednesday and made clear that he was not without his own political goals, promising a “turnaround decade” for Britain and telling internal rivals that he was “starting the second half of my time in this job.” |
| Mr. Cameron appears to have identified the middle ground as his for the taking. The May elections left the centrist Liberal Democrats, who had been in coalition with the Conservatives, with just eight parliamentary seats. And the opposition Labour Party has now swung to the left, electing as its leader Jeremy Corbyn, a veteran of the left-wing fringes. | |
| In his speech, Mr. Cameron made an outspoken attack on Mr. Corbyn, whose ideas, he claimed, were “security-threatening, terrorist-sympathizing” and “Britain-hating.” | |
| He also announced that informal religious schools of all faiths would have to register for inspection, and that they could be closed down if they taught students intolerance. | He also announced that informal religious schools of all faiths would have to register for inspection, and that they could be closed down if they taught students intolerance. |
| “In some madrasas, we’ve got children being taught that they shouldn’t mix with people of other religions; being beaten; swallowing conspiracy theories about Jewish people,” he said, referring to Muslim religious schools. | |
| More striking was the spine of the speech, which highlighted the plight of those in poverty, the poor prospects of children in care, and the fact that those with “white-sounding names are nearly twice as likely to get callbacks for jobs than people with ethnic-sounding names.” | More striking was the spine of the speech, which highlighted the plight of those in poverty, the poor prospects of children in care, and the fact that those with “white-sounding names are nearly twice as likely to get callbacks for jobs than people with ethnic-sounding names.” |
| “I want us to end discrimination and finish the fight for real equality in our country,” he added. | “I want us to end discrimination and finish the fight for real equality in our country,” he added. |
| Jonathan Ashworth, a Labour shadow minister, said, “The Tories are failing working people.” | |
| “For all the talk of making life better for people, the truth is, David Cameron is doing the opposite,” Mr. Ashworth said. | “For all the talk of making life better for people, the truth is, David Cameron is doing the opposite,” Mr. Ashworth said. |
| The political positioning of the party has been the main theme of the conference, with potential successors to Mr. Cameron seizing the chance to make their pitches. | The political positioning of the party has been the main theme of the conference, with potential successors to Mr. Cameron seizing the chance to make their pitches. |
| In a powerful speech on Monday, George Osborne, chancellor of the Exchequer, also sought to present the Conservatives as the party of the center, gleefully appropriating a couple of the policies long associated with the Labour Party. | |
| On Tuesday, attention was focused on the home secretary, Theresa May, who shifted her profile to the right with harsh language and a stark warning over rising immigration. If not controlled, she argued, migration threatened to make a “cohesive society” impossible. | On Tuesday, attention was focused on the home secretary, Theresa May, who shifted her profile to the right with harsh language and a stark warning over rising immigration. If not controlled, she argued, migration threatened to make a “cohesive society” impossible. |
| Then, lacing a highly political speech with trademark humor, Boris Johnson, the charismatic lawmaker and departing mayor of London, appealed to “one-nation,” or inclusive, Conservatives, while keeping open the possibility that he could back a British exit from the European Union in a referendum that Mr. Cameron has promised by the end of 2017. | Then, lacing a highly political speech with trademark humor, Boris Johnson, the charismatic lawmaker and departing mayor of London, appealed to “one-nation,” or inclusive, Conservatives, while keeping open the possibility that he could back a British exit from the European Union in a referendum that Mr. Cameron has promised by the end of 2017. |
| Yet the Conservatives face their own internal strains, notably on issues including Europe, migration and welfare. Mr. Cameron’s promise to hold a referendum on British membership in the European Union has heightened passions on a subject that has been divisive for Conservatives since 1990, when the prime minister at the time, Margaret Thatcher, was ejected by her own party, partly because of her resistance to European integration. | Yet the Conservatives face their own internal strains, notably on issues including Europe, migration and welfare. Mr. Cameron’s promise to hold a referendum on British membership in the European Union has heightened passions on a subject that has been divisive for Conservatives since 1990, when the prime minister at the time, Margaret Thatcher, was ejected by her own party, partly because of her resistance to European integration. |
| Mr. Cameron has said he wants Britain to stay in the European Union, providing that he can negotiate an improvement in the country’s ties with the bloc before holding the vote. On Wednesday, without providing many new details about those talks, he repeated his hopes of ending the bloc’s largely symbolic commitment to “ever closer union.” | |
| One of his demands is that Britain be allowed to impose restrictions on welfare entitlements to migrants. | One of his demands is that Britain be allowed to impose restrictions on welfare entitlements to migrants. |
| The coalition government, which Mr. Cameron has led since 2010, has failed badly in trying to reach its stated goal of reducing net immigration to less than 100,000 a year. | The coalition government, which Mr. Cameron has led since 2010, has failed badly in trying to reach its stated goal of reducing net immigration to less than 100,000 a year. |
| Ms. May, who once appealed to Conservatives to shed their image as what she termed the “nasty party,” promised on Tuesday to shake up the asylum system, perhaps because there is little she can do to restrict migration from within the European Union. | Ms. May, who once appealed to Conservatives to shed their image as what she termed the “nasty party,” promised on Tuesday to shake up the asylum system, perhaps because there is little she can do to restrict migration from within the European Union. |
| Europe could also be a problem for Mr. Osborne, who has a leading role in the European Union renegotiation. Should the talks fail, or voters reject membership in the referendum, his prospects would take a battering. | Europe could also be a problem for Mr. Osborne, who has a leading role in the European Union renegotiation. Should the talks fail, or voters reject membership in the referendum, his prospects would take a battering. |
| Not so for Mr. Johnson, who once reported from Brussels for The Daily Telegraph as a young euroskeptic journalist, and who many say would benefit from a no vote. He took a few swipes at the bloc on Tuesday, while arguing that the health of British democracy depended on “getting the right deal now from our European Union partners, as I know David Cameron can.” | Not so for Mr. Johnson, who once reported from Brussels for The Daily Telegraph as a young euroskeptic journalist, and who many say would benefit from a no vote. He took a few swipes at the bloc on Tuesday, while arguing that the health of British democracy depended on “getting the right deal now from our European Union partners, as I know David Cameron can.” |
| He seemed to be taking aim at Mr. Osborne’s plans to restrict tax credits, which subsidize low earners, changes that are likely to hurt some families on low incomes. | He seemed to be taking aim at Mr. Osborne’s plans to restrict tax credits, which subsidize low earners, changes that are likely to hurt some families on low incomes. |
| “We must ensure that as we reform welfare and we cut taxes that we protect the hardest working and lowest paid: shop workers, cleaners, the people who get up in the small hours or work through the night,” Mr. Johnson said. | “We must ensure that as we reform welfare and we cut taxes that we protect the hardest working and lowest paid: shop workers, cleaners, the people who get up in the small hours or work through the night,” Mr. Johnson said. |
| Among the contenders to succeed Mr. Cameron, Mr. Osborne is currently the man to beat, because his stewardship of the economy since 2010 is credited by many with bringing the Conservatives election victory. However, he has long struggled to connect with the public. | |
| “Something about his black curls and pale face,” Charles Moore, a former editor of The Daily Telegraph, wrote of Mr. Osborne in 2008, “make him look like a powdered French aristocrat in 1790 staring affrighted from the window of his carriage as the sans-culottes start trying to turn it over.” More recently, others have likened his new haircut to that of Julius Caesar. | “Something about his black curls and pale face,” Charles Moore, a former editor of The Daily Telegraph, wrote of Mr. Osborne in 2008, “make him look like a powdered French aristocrat in 1790 staring affrighted from the window of his carriage as the sans-culottes start trying to turn it over.” More recently, others have likened his new haircut to that of Julius Caesar. |
| Mr. Osborne has made a concerted effort to humanize his image, and, in a preconference interview in The Mail on Sunday, he discussed how he wooed his wife, how he went on a diet for fear of becoming “fat and flabby,” and his fondness for the rap group N.W.A. | Mr. Osborne has made a concerted effort to humanize his image, and, in a preconference interview in The Mail on Sunday, he discussed how he wooed his wife, how he went on a diet for fear of becoming “fat and flabby,” and his fondness for the rap group N.W.A. |