International

Cameron against blame game

LONDON: “No U.S.-style political wrangling, we’re Brits.”

That was the message from the Tory Opposition leader David Cameron on Tuesday as he offered to set aside his party’s differences with the government and cooperate with it to deal with the economic crisis, which is threatening to plunge Britain into recession.

In an emergency statement at the party’s ongoing annual conference in Birmingham, Mr. Cameron warned that political parties should avoid the “political wrangling” going on in America and “stick together.”

“We’re in it together,” he declared. Adopting a conciliatory tone that was in sharp contrast to the party’s hitherto confrontational approach, he said at a time of national crisis it was necessary for parties to rise above partisan considerations.

“We have always been ready — at a time of national difficulty — to put aside party differences to help bring stability and help bring reassurance… This is a moment when democracies are being tested: we need to show that they can deal with crisis and difficulties like this one,” he said.

Mr. Cameron’s bid to strike a statesman-like posture was dismissed as a PR stunt by critics who recalled that only a day ago, he had squarely blamed the government for the present crisis and singled out Prime Minister Gordon Brown for a blistering attack.

Meanwhile, in a further sign of attempts to forge a political consensus on tackling the crisis, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg offered to work with the government and the Tories “in a spirit of compromise in the interests of the British people.”

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