In his brilliant campaign to become leader of Britain's opposition Tories, David Cameron avoided categorizing himself ideologically as best he could.

In his brilliant campaign to become leader of Britain's opposition Tories, David Cameron avoided categorizing himself ideologically as best he could. He avoided clear economic commitments, for instance, arguing that they would be hostages to fortune four years before an election. But since he had to say something on the central business of government, he promised to divide the fruits of economic growth between the taxpayer and public services. Given that the last eight years under New Labour has seen a massive increase in the public sector, public spending, and regulation, this pledge was disappointingly modest. Cameron has been defended by some conservatives on the grounds that his statements are less policy commitments than cultural signals. They signify he is a Nice man who intends to transform his Nasty party by embracing the cuddly policies important to Britain's chattering classes and media elite. His attempt to outflank Tony Blair on the left by advocating even stricter Kyoto-style regulation of carbon emissions certainly fits that interpretation. And his first appointments--mainly Tory Left grandees--confirm it. Now, Cameron himself is a work in progress. He has some conservative instincts that may triumph over these early calculations. But this project to transform the Tory party culturally has large drawbacks. It threatens to saddle the party with soft-interventionist social and economic policies at the very moment when the voters are likely to be rebelling against Labour's rising taxes and failing services. It presents the Tories as soft and cuddly at a time when bombs are going off in the London subway and urban centers are racked by hooliganism. And it disenfranchises conservative Middle England at a time when tough-minded realism (aka nastiness) may seem the appropriate political attitude. In short, when the kissing has to stop, will Niceness be enough?