A Young Tory Surge

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15 Oct 2007 08:09 am

British politics hasn't been this exciting for over a decade. In two weeks, the parties have switched positions in the polls and the Conservatives have their biggest lead over Labour in 15 years. Labour hated Blair by the end of his tenure; but they're beginning to realize why they put up with him for so long. Some Blairites are already stirring things up for Brown. William Rees-Mogg surveys the new - and young - Tory team:

This young group of Cameron, Hague, Osborne, Fox, Gove and Johnson – there are others of promise – are individually more than a match for the Labour ministers they shadow. I find them impressive; they have real political talents; several of them, particularly Mr Gove and Mr Cameron himself, are natural speakers.

They are people of serious political beliefs. They share a liberal-conservatism that reminds me of Keith Joseph and Edward Boyle. Their average age is still only 42; they have the prospect of four full parliaments ahead. I cannot remember a time since the early 1960s when any party had as strong a core of young talents in Parliament.

David Cameron is five years younger than Barack Obama. If an election were held today, he'd be prime minister. No one running, by the way, is related by blood or marriage to any previous prime minister. No one's wife is running to inherit the country. But, hey, Britain is a mature meritocracy.

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