A Tory who wanted to radically change the NHS would almost certainly be opposed by many on the Left. Would they all be reactionaries?

Wanting to ban homosexuality would be reactionary. But not “opposition to allowing lesbian mothers to have kids through IVF”.

Consider their opposition to allowing lesbian mothers to have kids through IVF. Their anti-poverty policies are rubbish. (not that Labour is much better)… there is no compassion in their immigration policy.

What I mean is, apart from jumping on the environment bandwagon, how does all this translate into policies?

Besides, most of the population probably has no idea what ‘progressive’ historically means. But it does sound nice, doesn’t it?

That may be true, but the funny thing is hostility to the “environmental industry”/”global warming myth” blah blah is now the almost exclusive preserve of the hard conservative right, that barking few who, curiously enough, would be the very tiny minority who *are* actively offended at the very concept of “progress”, ie. Peter Hitchens, Mel Phillips, Littlejohn, Heffer.

Cameron uses the word precisely for that reason, to differentiate himself from that crowd in the electorate’s mind. The ploy seems to be having some success given his poll ratings, worse luck. Apart from its symbolic value for this purpose, the word has now, as Dave says, been rendered pretty meaningless.

More importantly: Cameron’s current course isn’t “faux audacieux”, it’s real, He is uncovering genuine elements of Tory appeal - buried under laissez-faire by Thatcher, but central to the party from ‘45 through to the 70s. Cassilis makes this point better than anybody else I’ve seen recently: http://www.cassilis.co.uk/2008/05/change-is-real-deal-with-it.html. In many ways, we’re returning to the centrism of the Wilson/Heath/Callaghan era, (albeit without the unions and the nationalised industries and the constant exchange-rate kerfuffles), and Cameron fits in there just as well as Brown does.

As for environmentalism: that was a right-wing cause earlier and longer than it was a left-wing one.

The word has died. Cameron was just giving it one last kick for good luck.

Excellent comment. I suppose we can expect the word Liberal to go down the toilet sometime soon too. Nick Griffin will say “we’re all liberals now” and we’re shafted.