British ruling party seeks to expand ideological realm

The ruling Conservative Party of the U.K. has announced that it would turn into a middle-of-the-road party by recruiting a high-profile politician from the Labor Party. During the party convention held on Monday, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said that he recruited Lord Andrew Adonis, a political heavyweight from the Labor Party, to head the National Infrastructure Commission. This is sending a shock wave across the country, dubbed as a "political coup" by the local daily Guardian.

Assuming the position of labor party whip of the House of Lords, Lord Adonis was the core architect of policies working for the then ruling Labor Party led by former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown in such various capacities as t the chairman of the Policy Advisory Group under the Prime Minister’s office, vice minister of Education, vice minister of Transportation, and minister of Transportation. The recruitment is seen as a big stride on the part of the Conservative Party. The National Infrastructure Commission was first conceived by the Labor Party at the general elections in May as a solution to the issue over the large-sized social overhead capital investments, which was delayed by the opposition from the local municipalities.

Chancellor Osborne called on the party to "extend our hand to people who feel completely abandoned" by Labour`s new leadership. His strategy is to co-opt the moderate who are disillusioned with the hard-line leftists amid the signs of discord within the Labor Party over the concern that Jeremy Corbyn, the new hawkish party leader, is turning his party into a traditional leftist political camp.

“Do you know what the supporters of the new Labour leadership now call anyone who believes in strong national defence, a market economy, and the country living within its means? They call them Tories. Well, it`s our job to make sure they`re absolutely right,” the chancellor said. “The Conservatives were now the party of work, the only true party of labour.”

raphy@donga.com