Success of David Cameron at Keeping the Conservative Party United - Essay Example

? Success of David Cameron at keeping the conservative party united since Success of David Cameron at keeping the Conservative Party united since 2010 Introduction Conservative Party is associated with moderate progressivism, promotion of private enterprises, preservation of the traditional institutions and values and maintenance of strong foreign and military policy (Heppell, 2012). Conservative party is a centre-right political party founded on the philosophies of British Unionism and Conservatism. Conservative party won most seats in May 2010 elections, but lacked the majority thus leading to the formation of Conservative-Liberal Democratic coalition government and election of David Cameron as the Prime Minister (McNaught, 2012). David Cameron and Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg claimed that their actions were of necessity due to the spiraling national debt. As of 2013, Conservative party was the largest single party in House of Commons with its 303 members and still the largest party in local government with 9,391 Councilors. The party is the most powerful in United Kingdom and largest British party in the European Parliament since it has 25 Members of the European Parliament (Quinn, 2012). The strength of the party is also demonstrated by the fact that it is the third largest party in Scottish Parliament and second largest party in Welsh Parliament. Conservative party internal divisions have been evident on the UK’s relationship with the EU, but David Cameron has used various methods to manage intra-party divisions and unify the party leaders (Beckett, 2012, para 3). Some unifying techniques include policy compromise, referendum pledges, and low-cost dissent. Thesis statement: David Cameron has successfully kept the Conservative party united since 2010. David Cameron has maintained party unity through his foreign policy initiatives such as leading international efforts in preventing the massacre of civilians by Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi and ensuring that Libyan citizens have an opportunity to elect their own leaders (Cole & Deighan, 2012). Cameron took a firm position for Britain before EU summit and clarified that he was committed to protecting national interests and would only sign a new treaty if certain safeguards were in place. At the same time, Cameron is geared at ensuring stable Afghanistan and ultimate withdrawal of British troops by 2015 (Cole & Deighan, 2012). David Cameron has been able to get Britain back to work through creating more than 1 million employment opportunities since he became the Prime Minister in 2010. The government policies have led to more than 1.5 million apprenticeships and more than 2,000 families have been accepted to buy homes using mortgages each month. Conservative party has managed to slash down the top income tax rate to 45 percent from 50 percent and there are plans to lower it further to 40 percent. David Cameron is committed to party’s economic policies reducing public spending order to control budget deficit through merging or abolishing some public bodies and removing barriers to job creation (Kulahci, 2012). The number of UK businesses has reached a record high to 4.9 million and the government is committed to helping the businesses create more jobs through cutting National Insurance for each business by 2,000 pounds and Prompt Payment Code for supplies of small businesses to bigger firms. According to Hart & Carr (2013), David Cameron has dealt with the issue of same-sex marriage that presented possible splits by seeking labour votes in Parliament in order to defeat a legislation that was aimed at introducing same-sex marriages. The opposition of same-sex marriages is not entirely based on the ethical grounds raised during the debate since the benchmark voting record on the issue is consistent thus highlighting remarkable consistent and unity of the party towards the issue (McNaught, 2012). David Cameron has successfully managed the issue of referendum on Scottish independence through offering more devolution powers and visiting Edinburgh in order to persuade the leaders to vote against independence (Phinnemore & McGowan, 2013). Cameron has maintained cordial relations with Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond. David Cameron has increased state pension through providing an extra 650 pounds a year to state pensioners in order to enable the workers to save for retirement. The government has also capped the pension charges in order to ensure the management fees and other pension charges do not take away the pension savings (Kulahci, 2012). The triple lock system introduced in 2011 means that state pensions will be uprated by the earnings. The government has also increased the child tax credit and ensured income tax cuts for about 25 million workers. Other related initiatives that have led to party unity include cutting of fuel levy, freezing Council tax and employment of more doctors in NHS and at the same time increasing the access to cancer drugs to more than 5,000 patients in order to take care of the terminally ill patients through the life-extending drugs (Cole & Deighan, 2012). His leadership is also committed towards reforming immigration laws to ensure that family members of the UK residents can receive major health care services such as maternity services and visitors can receive emergency treatment (Cole & Deighan, 2012). The reforms will cater for the hardworking taxpayers through ensuring establishing a cost recovery unit and introducing fees in the immigration bill in order to cater for the NHS treatment costs for those visitors who may not be eligible to pay for their emergency treatment or essential services like maternity services (Bochel, 2011). David Cameron and his conservative leaders are geared at implementing a fair immigration policy through ensuring illegal immigrants cannot access driving licenses or open bank accounts and at the same time stopping the illegal immigrants from using public services (Steves, 2010). Other measures that have unified the party include the proposals on deporting foreign criminals and reducing number of appeals that can be lodged for cases of illegal immigration. The creation of five-year fixed term Parliaments through the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 2011 was a move to strengthen the confidence of the party and gain commitment of the leaders towards the full parliamentary term (McNaught, 2012). However, general elections can be held before the end of the full five years through government defeat in vote of no confidence in the House of Commons and a confirming vote within the next fourteen days. Accordingly, two-thirds of MPs can request for early elections if Liberal Democrats gain the support of Labour party, SNP and other smaller parties (Driver, 2011). However, Conservative party unity has faced challenges that have mounted pressure on its leadership such as the right of the poverty over the European Union (Morris, 2013, para 6). David Cameron was forced to promise the electorate a referendum on continued EU membership after the elections. David Cameron decided to block the EU-wide treaty on Eurozone crisis (Phinnemore & McGowan, 2013). Another issue that presented divide in the party is the abandonment of the land reforms that would lead to changes in the composition of House of Lords and creation of 300-member chamber with 80 percent elected representatives. Conservatives resistance to the proposals led to opposition of the parliamentary constituencies by the Liberal Democrats that denying the Conservatives the intended 20 ‘safe’ Conservative seats (Cole & Deighan, 2012). Conservative party has been accused of deleting its website content especially speeches and press releases of key leaders thus making it impossible for the electorate to compare the current government policies with pre-election pledges. However, the party’s spokesperson clarified that the party was busy ‘cleaning up mess’ occasioned by the Labour party and ensuring hardworking citizens get back their jobs (Driver, 2011). Another challenging issue that Cameron has used to unify the party is the public spending cuts since Conservative party demands more spending cuts as opposed to the austerity measures. The three-fold increase in University fees presented a turning point for the coalition government as Liberal Democrats since they perceived the move as an impediment to access of to higher education (Bale, 2011). However, Cameron has successfully managed the issue through progressive increase in University funding and clarifying that graduates will not contribute towards the tuition fees unless they are earning at least 21,000 pounds and repayment rate is at 9 percent with outstanding repayments being written off after 30 years. In this case, the graduates pay less per month compared with the previous system. In order to deal with dwindling education status and indiscipline among school teenagers, the party was united in empowering teachers to maintain classroom discipline, ensuring accountability and improving the performance of the school system (Bochel, 2011). .Another contentious issue for the coalition was the AV referendum that aimed at electoral reforms such as alternative electoral system that would ensure proportional representation. Conservatives voted against the referendum in May 2011 thus leading to a 68 percent ‘no vote’ thus undermining Liberal Democrats ambitions of joining the coalition government (Cole & Deighan, 2012). Conclusion Despite many challenges presented by the coalition government and eurozone crisis, David Cameron has managed to maintain the unity of Conservative party since 2010. The Euro crisis has sparked Euroscepticism thus encouraging some Conservative leaders to call for revision of relationships with the EU. In this case, some 80 Conservative MPs defied Cameron’s orders in October 2011 and backed a referendum on UK’s membership to the European Union. Cameron promised a referendum on the issue after the general elections and undertook measures to reshuffle his Cabinet by promoting Conservative right-wingers in order to maintain the party unity. Cameron has united the party in rejecting same-sex marriage proposals and rejecting the independence of Scotland. He has done this through offering referendum pledges, reshuffling the cabinet, compromising some policies, allowing for low-cost dissent and commitment to his economic and social pre-election party pledges. Reference List: Bale, T. 2011. Conservative party: from Thatcher to Cameron. Cambridge: Polity Press. Beckett, A. (2012). “David Cameron: where did it all go wrong”, The Guardian Sunday 7 October 2012, Retrieved on 25th November, 2013 from http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/oct/07/david-cameron-where-did-all-go- wrong. Bochel, H.M. 2011. The conservative Party and social policy. Bristol: Policy Press. Cole, M & Deighan, H. (2012). Political parties in Britain. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Driver, S. 2011. Understanding British party politics. Cambridge: Polity Press. Hart, B.W & Carr,R. (2013). The foundations of the British Conservative party: essays on conservatism from Lord Salisbury to David Cameron. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. Heppell, T. (2012). Cameron and the conservatives: the transition to coalition government. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Kulahci, E. 2012. Europeanisation and party politics: how the EU affects domestic actors, patterns and systems. London: ECPR Press. McNaught, M.B. 2012. Reflections on conservative politics in the United Kingdom and the United States: still soul mates? Lanham: Lexington Books. Morris, N. (2013). “Blow for David Cameron as popularity falls to lowest level since general election as polls show Ukip are favourable to Liberal Democrats for first time”, The Independent, Sunday 24 November 2013. Retrieved on 25th November 2013 from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/blow-for-david-cameron-as- popularity-falls-to-lowest-level-since-general-election-as-polls-show-ukip-are- favourable-to-liberal-democrats-for-first-time-8598085.html. Phinnemore, D & McGowan, L. 2013. A dictionary of the European Union. London: Routledge. Quinn, T. 2012. Electing and ejecting Party leaders in Britain. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Steves, R. 2010. Rick Steves’ England 2011. Cambridge: Polity Press. Read More