Cameron’s liberal lie

After two and a half years of working for the Tories, including being press officer and believing in

David Cameron has embraced Barack Obama’s ‘plan for change’ slogan for this week’s Conservative party conference in Birmingham.

But while I believe the Democratic presidential hopeful’s promises are genuine, I find the claim absurd that the Conservative Party under Cameron has changed to such an extent they can now be called “Liberal Conservatives”.

Obama’s life epitomises the American dream. In America they celebrate the individual, the idea that when you grow up you are told that you can do anything.

He is a liberal who transcends party political borders and to most Americans, even those who will never support him, there is agreement that Obama’s candidacy represents real change, even if on the superficial level of his race and family background.

But in Britain, Cameron still has to convince the British public that he’s not just another Tory leader from a privileged background who parachuted into politics from an already comfortable life. Eton smoothes the way and it has done that for Cameron.

For the last two and a half years I have worked in and around the Conservative Party. In particular, I have spent the last 11 months within the press office, serving as a spokesman for the Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, Shadow Leader of the House and the Conservative Head of Policy.

Sadly over this time I have become disillusioned with the Tories and I feel on a very personal level that I cannot wholehearted support them, and it didn’t work out for me.

When I started working for the Tories I was convinced that because they had no idealistic anchor they could adapt, becoming what they needed to be to suit the age. So when Cameron claimed he is a ‘Liberal Conservative’, like many others I fell for it, and I was so wrong.

I’m sceptical of the idea that you can be both socially liberal and politically conservative. With the economy facing recession, a Tory government will have to rely more on its politically conservative instincts at the expense of any liberal agenda.

The Tories talk about social mobility and opportunity for all. This is hard to believe when the party itself hasn’t changed at the core.

Firstly, the Conservative parliamentary party is unrepresentative of modern Britain. In the two and a half years that I worked in and around Conservative Party Campaign Headquarters, I encountered only a handful of staff from black minority ethnic backgrounds.

Cameron’s top table is even more elitist, looking like something out of a 1960s American boardroom, pre-civil rights movement.

As for Cameron’s credentials as a ‘Liberal Conservative’, it was he who authored the Conservative manifesto at the last election, with its dubious undertones of “are you thinking what we’re thinking?” on immigration.

When David Davis took the principled and liberal stand of resigning over 42 days, Cameron failed to put the full weight of the party behind him. It was not an issue that Cameron thought was important.

Two weeks ago, Theresa May launched a campaign for equal pay for women, but Cameron was not involved in the publicity and there was hardly any coverage.

It was not an issue that resonated with readers of the right-wing press, so it did not get the full backing of Tory high command.

And on the issue of the family, I agree with JK Rowling when she criticises Cameron for excluding single parents from tax breaks for married couples.

In the US, the Democrats are the only genuine home of the liberal and during this American presidential election campaign they are reaching out to young adults like me.

The message of hope from Obama’s nomination as the first black candidate for President, and by the tenacity shown by Hillary Clinton, has re-engaged me with politics.

I can’t identify with any of the three leading parties in Britain with adequate conviction that I would be comfortable knocking on people’s front doors in the hope of convincing them to vote red, yellow or blue.

Neither Labour, the Lib Dems nor the Tories have sparked debate on key controversial issues in the way in which Obama has done – on race and religion in politics.

Bring Hillary into the picture, and the Democrats embrace three of the key issues that I feel most strongly about: social cohesion, cultural integration and women in politics.

By contrast, political correctness in Britain has driven all of these issues into the background where they are neither openly discussed nor openly addressed for the issues that they are.

Young people want to be more politically active but are left with nothing to be politically active about.

In Britain, in place of hope, aspiration or stimulating political debate, we have to endure the protracted death of the current administration in anticipation of the next, which holds little promise of change.

Obama’s rock star persona, however much maligned, would do it for me. He is representative of American society, while Cameron doesn’t represent British society at all.

That is why I am leaving for the US to race across the country and help campaign for Barack Obama to become President, for real change that I can believe in.

Ashish Prashar will be blogging on newstatesman.com about his time in the US where he will volunteer in Pennsylvania for the Democrats.