By Mark Tami MP 

DAVID Cameron has taken some terrible stick over the past couple of months.

And quite rightly so. The Conservative cock-ups just keep on coming.

Cameron’s farcical handling of the Tory grammar schools row proved that he does not have the old right of his party under control, that he is still at their mercy. The Ealing Southall by-election campaign showed that the Cameron brand was failing, that people were beginning to see through his empty PR stunts. Leaving the country when his own constituency was under water betrayed poor judgement. In Wales, we had the news that a bright, young Conservative member in Rhondda had defected to Labour because he no longer thought his former party could credibly claim to represent Britain’s political moderates. And the spiteful manner in which Cameron dealt with criticisms from former Conservative Golden Boy Ali Miraj revealed a side to Cameron his spin doctors would have wanted under wraps – he appeared small.

Worse than all of this has been Cameron’s response to serious issues of policy. He has undoubtedly allowed his party to lurch to the right. We saw the first signs of panic over the grammar schools row, when Cameron caved in to his party’s right and then removed the shadow minister responsible for advocating progressive reform.

Cameron, feeling threatened, has allowed his Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague to lead his party back down the road of destructive anti-Europeanism. Back to the good old days of the Conservatives’ disastrous 2001 general election campaign.

The most telling move made by the Tories came this week. Appointing John Redwood to take charge of the Conservative Economic Policy Review in the first place was a major error. Redwood was always going to suggest hard, Thatcherite solutions to modern challenges. Cameron’s second, and much more significant error, has been to make it clear that he endorses the findings of Redwood’s group, with shadow chancellor George Osborne flying back from his holidays to launch the report tomorrow.

Redwood’s report, which will now effectively become official Conservative Party policy, is a nod back to the 1980s. Its call for the restoration of Britain’s opt-out of the Social Chapter would have serious consequences for the working people of Wales. The Chapter has proven vital in protecting women at work and parents. It has allowed for the kind of flexible working which a modern economy should embrace.  The Tories’ proposed scrapping of the Working Time Directive is another blatant attack of our workers’ rights. We are not talking about burdensome red tape here but about vital protection for people at work. Let’s not forget that the Tories have never been on the side of our workers, opposing the minimum wage and New Deal, and they have not changed.

The response to this alarming rightward drift from the Tories says it all. The self-appointed Conservative moderates are silent, no doubt alarmed by this latest shift to the right.

These proposals would frighten even Margaret Thatcher, but the Welsh Tory Right has been jubilant.  The Shadow Wales Office Minister David Jones is overjoyed, attacking our basic rights as “healthansafety fascism” and their high-profile general election candidate Glyn Davies has taken the opportunity to attack our public services.

David Cameron has failed to reform the Conservative Party. He has handed over control of the Tories back to right wingers who hark back to the same old tired, pub bore-style politics that failed Wales so miserably during the 18 years of Tory rule.

David Jones’ attack on our basic rights as fascism is offensive and shows that the Tories have no grip on reality. Fascism means locking away people who disagree with your point of view. I call allowing women equal rights in the work place just and proper.

The Tories are still removed from the real lives of our hardworking people. Welsh people do not want this bunch of extreme rightwing Tories back in charge of our economy and key public services.

David Cameron’s claims to represent the centre ground of politics are in tatters.

Compare his failure to the strong and dignified way in which Gordon Brown has led our nation since taking office.  He has begun to set out a progressive agenda for our nation on the issues that matter to people – affordable housing, crime, terror and public services. Meanwhile, in Wales, we have proved that we are a mature party of government, able to have a serious debate on a coalition with Plaid Cymru in the National Assembly, and then moving on and getting on with the business of governing in the interests of the people of Wales.

At precisely the time that Cameron is leading his party to rightward oblivion, Labour is showing Welsh people that it remains the party of the centre ground.

Mark Tami is the Labour MP for Alyn and Deeside