New Conservative

David Frum on David Cameron:

In his speech today to the UK Conservative Conference, party leader David Cameron opposed reductions in taxation, endorsed same-sex marriage, praised government-controlled healthcare as "one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century," omitted any words of praise for the British mission in Iraq, attacked Tony Blair for drawing too close to the United States, aligned himself with a more liberal approach to Britain's surging crime rates, urged the Anglican Church to admit non-Anglicans to church schools while endorsing more state funding for Muslim schools.

Thoughts:
(1) Wow. So Tony Blair's grab for the middle could turn out to be paradigm shifting far beyond his time in office -- New Labour has captured so much of the middle ground that Blair have effectively forced the next generation Conservative leader to model himself after Blair to remain relevant.
(2) The Democrats have made repeated dives for the center. Why did it not work? Is it because of the perception that they were dragged to the center by the Republicans as opposed to boldly staking out new ground? Is it because the American electorate is just too divided to look for "consensus" rather than a "divide and conquer" approach?
(3) All things being equal, what is preferable? Two relatively center parties working hard to differentiate themselves through voters through fine policy points and efficiency in administration, or two polarized parties giving voters the choice of two different ideological visions?