Apolitical party that has little to say about the recession risks looking incredible. But a party with nothing to say about anything else may seem unappetis-ingly glum. Once accused of being deficient on the big economic issue, David Cameron's Conservatives are now trying to avoid the charge of bleak vacuousness on the rest.rnThis week they sought to flesh out their commitment to "localism"-devolving more power from central to local government and beyond. Among their schemes were granting a "general power of competence" to local councils to improve their neighbourhoods (though it is hard to envisage many of them being imaginative enough to exploit it), and new mechanisms to let councils retain the tax benefits of local business growth and new housing.
展开▼
