Modern, compassionate conservatism?

So David Cameron, champion of 'modern, compassionate conservatism' won. Jolly good show.

'The plummy-voiced son of an Oxfordshire stockbroker is the great-great-great-great-great grandson of King William IV and thus a distant relative of the Queen...'

Who says we no longer have a ruling class?

Apparently 'William IV was the last British monarch to appoint a prime minister against the will of Parliament.' Nice.

The Prime Minister William IV appointed in 1834 was none other than Sir Robert Peel -founder of the Met police. Peel drew up the Tamworth Manifesto which came to be the foundation of modern conservatism - 'Peel's basic message...was that the Conservatives "would reform to survive"'.

Brilliant. So David Cameron's insistence that the Conservative Party must reform itself to survive is not particularly modern, but in fact was first thought of in 1834 - about 170 years ago. Given Cameron got the 'compassionate conservatism' slogan from George W. Bush of all people in the US, what is left? One begins to get a sense of the stunning originality and creative genius driving Cameron's politics.

Still, thank goodness Tony Blair could never be associated with boosting police power, conservative politics and getting ideas from George Bush...