Should we welcome the theft of our ideas ?

A few years ago after Tony Blair had copied a set of Tory ideas to the dismay of his own backbenchers, I commented that there were times that he made the Conservative position seem like a "Reverse Lamont - in power but not in office."

A letter in yesterday's Times following the copycat announcements on IHT and Non-Doms asked "Is it any wonder that the Tories were keen to keep their policies under wraps?"

There is an interesting post on Platform 10 (the Cameroon website) to the effect that the Conservatives and David Cameron mustn’t be afraid of Labour stealing ideas.

"In fact, he should encourage it. All the policy reviews are full of many good ideas. By putting them out there, and encouraging Brown to adopt them, one of two things will happen.

* If they are good, they will be stolen and Cameron can claim the moral high-ground. Labour will get a reputation for shamelessly stealing policy and they will soon look very weak.

* If Labour ignore them – and the policies are bold and startling – then Cameron will be better defined. It is a battle of ideas which must be joined every day."

I think there is a strong argument for this, provided we keep some shots in our locker, in reserve to bring out when the election is actually called.

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