The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > The Tory Big Brother eviction show > Comments

The Tory Big Brother eviction show : Comments

By Peter Tucker, published 30/11/2005

Peter Tucker argues for the UK Tories to win government they must grasp the centre-right ground.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. All
Peter, If the title is not original how could the text be original?
To pick a flippant title means you are not serious in what you write and are pandering to the masses who watch Big Brother.
Who is Big Brother?
Posted by GlenWriter, Wednesday, 30 November 2005 12:49:45 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Peter,

Cheers. I wrote recent pieces on these topics on this website.

One was - David Cameron: Let's dream a new generation of conservative dreams

The other - the Old Left: Rebels without cause or hope

I agree to a large extent with the thesis that the Tories have been overly reactionary and that in response, David Cameron has positioned himself perfectly to win this campaign for leadership, and to challenge Gordon Brown as the inheritor of the Blair centre ground. Centre right I grant - Cameron being on the right on Europe and more aggressive on public sector reform - but the message is centrist overall.

Cameron is possibly a bullwark against the opportunist campaigning of previous Tory leaders, and in particular that of the Lynton Crosby effort, which by all accounts was a true disaster that sort to force Australian electioneering of "dog whistle" politics on the Poms. The Poms are far more sensitive and the media is more aggressively "l"iberal in Britain, and Crosby really floundered in that context. 2005 was there for the taking if Davis had been leader not Michael Howard and a more centrist message was pitched as opposed to Crosby's "Australian" effort.

Crosby has made Cameron the obvious candidate now.

Cheers,
Corin
Posted by Corin McCarthy, Wednesday, 30 November 2005 11:33:07 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Depending on the objectives of an opposition, scare tactics serve a purpose (a rotten and ultimately corrosive one I think, but a demonstrative purpose nevertheless).

In the last term, the Tories held 197 seats to Labour’s 356. A week is a long time in politics and five years is, well, longer. The Tories took the seats they needed to prepare for the next election and their scare campaign was able to deliver the right seats.

The Tories established a net 33 seat gain ‘beachhead’ where it wanted it and the LibDems also eroded labour’s margin with an 11 seats net gain. Tellingly, the Tories improved their proportion of national vote by only 0.6% percent.

I think the path to government is the path closest to the path that best serves public needs and aspirations.

Circumstances change, particularly in relation to historical political positions, so ‘straight down the middle’ can’t be taken as a strict truism.
Posted by martin callinan, Thursday, 1 December 2005 2:04:41 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Martin,

Labour votes were heavily depressed by Iraq - and without that issue - they would have won by at least as much as 2001!

Tory problems are real. They may have a beach head but even Michael Foote's Labour won 209 seats in 1983.

Arguably the Tories are further behind than Labour was at it's worst point in the 1980's!

Corin
Posted by Corin McCarthy, Thursday, 1 December 2005 2:59:13 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Corin, ya quite right, am suggesting though that scare tactics do have an impact and that the Tories’ use of them was quite deliberate and not entirely unsuccessful.

They are in trouble and I don’t think their beachhead will be of much use given how much they traded-in their identity, and aided the LibDems, to get it.
Posted by martin callinan, Thursday, 1 December 2005 6:04:59 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
I think this is an excellent article, but a message that the Conservatives will find hard to swallow. I have recommended it on a blog run by Iain Duncan Smith's former political secretary, Tim Montgomerie, at: www.conservativehome.blogs.com

I used to work at Conservative Central Office (when IDS was leader) and Corin is right, they have an awfully long way to go. Martin Kettle has written an article in the Guardian which is worth a look at http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1656653,00.html

Some I disagree with - but much of it is commonsense to anyone exposed to Australian politics, and how parties rebuild themselves while in Opposition.

PS Corin when I used to catch the Jubilee Line I used to see your boss reading the Metro on the tube in the morning! The only other pollie I used to see on the tube was Damian Green, the Tory MP for Ashford. I think more could and should set an example.
Posted by Alexander Drake, Sunday, 4 December 2005 10:45:34 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Alexander,

It is rare for a Tory to approve of anything that Ken Livingstone does but I concur that he is a remarkable politician.

He's far more pragmatic than many thought, more aware of the majority opinion than many had expected, but still brave as a bulldog. He is a real "crazy brave" but he has real control. That's incredibly rare - Keating had it as Treasurer but perhaps lost it when he was PM. No doubt Ken is more left wing than me, but as a governor I think that he is well within the tolerance band and runs a tight ship.

I also think London elections are more "progressive" than other parts of Britain so he is helped no doubt by this.

But the congestion charge, and a full bid for the games indicates a politician with a real win or lose mentality. He may not be PM material but he is a great inventor of his job, and an expansionist in his ability to have say in matters beyond his ambit.

I think Ken Livingstone could teach a Labor Premier a thing or two about risk taking. But then again - they keep winning too. So apart from John Howard the westminster parliaments are looking pro-Labor these days. Long may it be so. We've had to put up with Conservative administrations for most of last century across the board.

Thanks,
Corin
Posted by Corin McCarthy, Monday, 5 December 2005 8:24:41 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy