Cameron not complacent and sees tax as the issue for the election

This week's Spectator magazine carries an interview with David Cameron.

Here are some highlights or lowlights

Local elections are no proxy for national contests. ‘Asking people to change their government is a big decision, and that is why there is not an ounce of complacency from me after the local results,’

the lesson he learnt from last week’s local elections is that low-tax Tories are the most popular ones.
‘If you take the local elections, there was no doubt in my mind that it was easiest to campaign in those places where Conservative councils really did have a record of keeping the council tax down, or at least promising to limit the increase,

Pressed on what will distinguish him from Labour,some hint of policy

‘The education policy would lead to a whole generation of independent schools in the state sector offering choice and excellence. And we will have revolutionised our welfare rolls, in the way Australia and some American states have done, by turning the whole system on its head

And on poverty

The Left’s answer is to use lots of taxpayers’ money to change benefits and tax credits, so that you solve the symptom of poverty which is shortage of money. The cause of poverty is the drugs, alcohol, the crime, educational underachievement, family breakdown and worklessness.’ This distinction between causes and symptom lies at the heart of the new Tory analysis.