The Right Combination

Daveybloke, the Cuddly Conservative, has pledged to put an end to Tony Blair's "doctrine of liberal interventionism" because, although it is "morally correct" it fails to "strike the right balance between realism and idealism". Apparently the idealism consisted in a lack of scepticism about "the ability of states to create utopias" by bombing and invading people's countries in order to steal their oil. The realist component, no doubt, was the bit about sucking up to the White House, a tradition Daveybloke presumably intends to retain, while adopting the said scepticism and calling it "liberal conservatism". Liberal conservatism is one of two principles which Daveybloke believes represent "the right combination of realism and idealism that we need to deal with the serious dangers of the modern world." The other principle is "national security first". Daveybloke noted the idea of several eminent military thinkers that "no campaign will succeed unless you secure your home base first" and reasoned from this that "only from a position of security at home can states confidently promote security abroad". It seems we shall need a few more restrictions on Muslims, single mothers and other hazards before we can think about invading anywhere new.