No British Understatement From David Cameron

Written by David Frum on Tuesday June 21, 2011

UK Prime Minister Cameron articulated what Republicans struggle to say: a center-right government can cut spending without jeopardizing social programs.

I attended this evening (UK time) the annual summer party of the British think tank Policy Exchange. (I serve on the board of the American Friends of Policy Exchange.)

Prime Minister David Cameron offered a gracious toast to the group, and I was struck by one thing he said (I scribbled my note on the back of a napkin, so I may not have the wording precisely verbatim):  "We can cut spending without wrecking social programs on which people rely."

Center-right politics 101, right? It's the same message Republicans try to convey when they promise to preserve and modernize Medicare. Yet there is something more emphatic and more convincing about the way Cameron phrased the point, no? Which may possibly explain why he is prime minister?