Cameron Googles Himself And Vows ‘I Am The Future’

David Cameron draped himself in the mantles of modernity and moderation yesterday, using a visit to California to hammer home his claim that he — rather than Gordon Brown — represented Britain’s future.

He told the Google Zeitgeist conference in Silicon Valley that internet technology promised a “post-bureaucratic era” of personal freedom and responsibility.

The Tory leader then headed to the state capital of Sacramento for a short meeting with Arnold Schwarzenegger, the California Governor and former film star, who has emerged as a centrist Republican sharply critical of President Bush on climate change.

An aide travelling with Mr Cameron said: “There are very positive aspects to the associations we will get out of this trip.” Mr Cameron’s schedule for the three-day American West Coast tour, hastily arranged after Mr Brown signalled that there would be no general election this autumn, was designed to reinforce his image as a modern Conservative only a day after he told the Prime Minister to “make way” during Question Time.

In his speech yesterday, a video of which was swiftly posted on YouTube, Mr Cameron promised that a Tory government would list online every item it spent above £25,000 so that taxpayers could hold him to account.

He called on police to publish “crime maps” detailing offences street by street — another example, he said, of how the internet could help people to take more control over their lives.

Mr Cameron said that the internet was opening up a “new world of freedom” and undermining central bureaucracies by rapidly increasing information available to citizens.

“We can see it in the astonishing explosion of bottom-up content creation, revealing the vast pent-up desire that people have to express themselves and take control.”

This would foster the “politics of responsibility”, he said, “I believe that we are on the brink of an entirely new era in public policy — the postbureaucratic era.

“In the post-bureaucratic era, you shouldn’t just be telling government what you want. You should be choosing what you want, and acting to get what you want, so your money is spent on your priorities, all the time.”

Last year, when Mr Cameron also appeared at the Google Zeitgeist conference, his speech was seen as marking a decisive break with Thatcherism. On that occasion he said: “It’s time we admitted that there’s more to life than money and it’s time we focused not just on GDP [gross domestic product] but on GWB: general wellbeing.”

By contrast, yesterday’s speech — and its rejection of the apparatus of a centralised State — has already been described by at least one commentator as “neo-Thatcherite”.

Aides swiftly insisted that his remarks should not be “over-interpreted” but any impression of a drift to the Right may have been offset by his appearance in a photocall alongside Mr Schwarzenegger. The 30-minute meeting was closed to the press but the two leaders were expected to discuss how California was tackling climate change by setting mandatory carbon reduction targets, a measure opposed by the Bush Administration.

Today, Mr Cameron is scheduled to meet Antonio Villaraigosa, the Democrat Mayor of Los Angeles, where they will discuss ways to combat gang and gun violence. This is another key Tory theme and Los Angeles has achieved some success with its anti-gang initiative which emphasises prevention or intervention as much as suppression.

The Conservative leader, who also recently showered praise on Wisconsin’s welfare reform programme, appears to be warming to America.

He had previously annoyed the Republican establishment by using last year’s 9/11 anniversary to attack the neoconservative policies of Mr Bush.

His spokesman yesterday said that talks with the White House were at an advanced stage for a trip by Mr Cameron to Washington, possibly before Christmas.

This would be the first visit to the US capital by a leader of the British Conservative Party in more than five years. But asked if Mr Cameron would be meeting Mr Bush, his spokesman replied: “Not necessarily. It will be with senior members of the Administration. We don’t know about Bush yet, but we hope to see him.”

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