Listening to BBC commentators, you'd be forgiven for thinking that all this talk of "progressive Conservatism" was shorthand for Tories who accept the Guardianista world view. 

Surprisingly, Ben Brogan in today's' Telegraph similarly assumes that progressive Conservatism is some sort of a leftward shift - against which the Tory right must be silently fuming. 

New progressive Conservatism is anything but a leftward lurch.  Neither re-heated Thatcherism, nor its repudiation, it is rather an entirely new post-Thatcher script.

If Thatcherism was about decentralising control over economic things (deregulation, privatisation, supply-side reform), the new post-Thatcher script is about decentralising control over politics and public service.

Progressive Conservative ideas means Totnes-type primaries, so everyone gets to decide their next MP.  It has seen Cameron sign up to the idea of popular initiative - so MPs address the things that matter to voters, not politicians.  It means changing the way Parliament works, so that our elected representatives hold government properly to account.  It means directly elected police chiefs, and radical localism, and consumerism in public services.

What is so striking is that every single one of these ideas has come from the right  - see The Plan or Direct Democracy or the Localist Papers.  Leftie think tanks like Demos are playing catch up - their hesitation perhaps arising from a growing realisation of what this might mean for the Guardianista state.       

If you doubt me, listen to Radio 4's Beyond Westminster at 11am this Saturday - lefties arguing against more democracy.  Leftward shift?  Progressive Conservatism isn't an acceptance of leftie thinking, but it's undoing.


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