Conservativehome has, in just a few years, become the leading website of the UK right. It tends to be Thatcherite in tone though contributions come from several positions on the conservative spectrum. It supports the Conservative Party but it has its own vision of what the party should be. It is often critical of the leadership and is not greatly enamoured of the coalition though, unlike many conservatives here and elsewhere it recognises that pragmatism is not a sin and that politics is about power as much as purity.

It also takes an interest in conservative movements in other countries and regularly comments on upcoming elections in Australia, Canada, Germany and, of course, the USA – and it’s the ConHome approach to American conservatism that is really beginning to wear me down.

Take, for example, this piece about David Cameron’s recent visit to the USA. From the headline – “ Could Cameron Provide Republicans With The Model To Beat Obama” – UK readers unfamiliar with the American political scene would assume that Cameron had made a massive impact on the American right – so much so that Republicans were no longer running around like headless chickens because Cameron had told them about budget cuts…

Read – and despair…..

Tuesday’s New York Times piece described David Cameron as a “Slasher of Government Bloat”. The article by John F Burns was premature in comparing Cameron to Thatcher but the fact that it appeared on the front page of America’s most important newspaper is noteworthy. Americans are partly interested in Cameron because they know that the Obama administration cannot delay its own budget cuts much longer. Cameron also fascinates the Republicans as they seek to be more than “the party of no”.

There’s the clue – “the party of no”……but then what more can you expect if you are reading about Republican politics in the New York Times? Well you can expect references to “Former Bush speechwriter Mike Gerson” writing in the Washington Post and – yes, you guessed it, the douchebag himself, the NYT’s conservative-in-residence Ross Douthat.

I couldn’t resist a comment

“America’s most important newspaper” – the fish wrap of record? You must be joking – and if you think Gerson and Douthat have their finger on the GOP pulse from their Beltway perches then you are mistaken.
In many parts of the US the GOP is more energised than it has been since the early 90s as a result of the Tea Party and they are turning away from the GOP establishment and choosing candidates who will fight Big Govt, not adapt to it.
Please please PLEASE stop getting your political insight from the NYT and WaPo – for a UK conservative site it is just not good enough…

You see almost every time conservativehome references American conservatism it is via people like these – plus, naturally, Brooks and Frum. That’s why very little has appeared there about the town hall meetings, the Van Jones affair, the Tea Party, the Palin endorsements, the Tea Party, ACORN, the Tea Party, the NAACP….and did I mention the Tea Party?

Toby Harnden at the Daily Telegraph is a hit and miss hack but at least he was savvy enough to include some names in his list of the top ten US conservatives that you will rarely see mentioned at conhome – except disparagingly ( 2,3,4,6,7 FYO)

The cure for this myopia? Visit my blog and regularly check out the sites on the right hand bar if you want to get a feel of what real conservatives (mostly outside the Beltway) are buzzing (OK I’m a traffic whore….) but if you’re really short of time just go to Free Republic and Hot Air – that’s worth twenty Douthats…..