Blair in a blue tie

Much is being made today on Cameron's speech promising to give power to the people.

“I believe there is only one way out of this national crisis we face," he said. "We need a massive, sweeping, radical redistribution of power.

“From the state to citizens; from the government to parliament; from Whitehall to communities; from Brussels to Britain; from judges to the people; from bureaucracy to democracy.

“Through decentralisation, transparency and accountability, we must take power away from the political elite and hand it to the man and woman in the street.”

Yeah, yeah - fine words, but with little meaning behind them. With as much as 80% of our laws originating from the EU Commission, rubber stamped by our parliament and implemented through the direction of a myriad of quangos and agencies with no public accountability there is no prospect of this happening under a Cameron government anymore than there is under a Labour or Lib Dem government.

As long as we remain part of the EU we can not change that and Cameron is committed to keeping Britain in the EU.

I'll give Cameron credit for being able to tap into the mood of public opinion as well as Blair used to do, but he also shares with Blair an empty void of principle behind the rhetoric.

Cameron knows he can't deliver the promise of moving power from "Brussels to Britain" without withdrawing from the EU - and without that first step he can not decentralise or reverse the corporatisation of government.

I'll now wait and see if anyone decides to challenge him on this. It should be interesting to see how he answers them if and when they do, but given the media craven acceptance - no, their preference - for Cameron as the heir to Blair I doubt that they will.