Together in the National Interest

Following the election, I blogged that the "national interest" depends on what you think is in the interest of the nation, noting that politics is that offer of competing visions for achieving what a party thinks is best for the country.

The Tory party conference takes as its slogan an extension of the national interest argument:

Together in the National Interest

I'll merely repeat what I said before: this national interest is one that the Tories have defined.

And when they say "together", though they're hinting at the coalition, they are more explicitly targeting the "hard-working, family-minded, common sensical" voting public and placing themselves on the opposite side to those who "don't" share the national interest (e.g. disabled people, benefits scroungers etc.).

I don't buy it. And it's in the national interest that everyone else who doesn't buy it says so.