But do we believe him?

I LIKED a lot of what Cameron said today, especially the brief reference to Thatcher and 'good housekeeping'. However, like a lot of people on the right, I greet this type of rhetoric with a lot of scepticism.

Although the Tories appear to be committed to cutting taxes, they're not advocating cutting the size of government. He may have you fooled, but all he's claiming is that the Tories will slow the size of government so that it's growing under economic growth. Some socialists such as Tony Crosland have advocated this.

Crosland, who stated that socialism meant everyone could drive in a Rolls-Royce, claimed that the proceeds from a buoyant economy should be reinvested in public services. However, if economic growth continued to strengthen, the government could use the proceeds to cut taxes. Therefore public services would still receive investment, but would diminish as a proportion of GDP.

I'm not claiming that Cameron is of the same line of thought as Crosland, but the size of the state in monetary terms is still going to increase. Again, although I like a lot of what Cameron is saying, I'm rather cynical in that I hold the belief that government tends to like spending money, be it Conservative or Labour. Whenever a solution is required to fix a problem, government looks to government.

Hopefully Cameron will prove me wrong.