I seem to be David Cameron’s main apologist here, which is not a position I like to hold given his boneheaded, unconservative policies on the environment and other areas. Nevertheless, I think he deserves credit for basically proposing global Thatcherism – see, for example, his speech to the Centre for Policy Studies, which is pretty hard to find anything wrong with. One the other hand, one of these days people will notice how several of his statements contradict each other – the main problem with announcing the principles you’re going to work on before working out what policies those principles require. There has been too much public relations and not nearly enough thought in these early days.

Nevertheless, I have to say I think the current “Thatcher” row is genuinely more one about presentation than philosophy. And I can’t really criticize it when I suggested something similar was necessary back in 2002:

Couching Tory policy in terms like these will go a long way to casting off the image of the party as the uncaring, Southern, bosses’ party. Only once that ghost has been laid can the party go on to capitalise on the natural Northern working-class support for its policies on asylum and the Euro, for instance. That will also entail one important change to campaigning strategy. Margaret Thatcher is deeply hated in the North. The reasons are entirely unjust — few realise that it was the uncompetitiveness of their industries that forced them out of work in the ’80s rather than personal decisions of Mrs T. But she and her “ism” have become shibboleths of hatred across the Northern counties. If a Northern campaign were to succeed, it would have to be announced very early on that the party had moved on from the days of Thatcherism. The Lady herself could no longer be welcome on the campaign trail. Like Kaiser Wilhelm and Bismarck, it would be time to drop the pilot.

The best place to follow all this remains Conservative Home. The post on Cameronism is probably the best place to start.