Finish The Sentence
Fraser Nelson has posted this over on the Spectator Coffeehouse blog:
“Perhaps the best outcome of these torrid last few weeks is that the Cameron project has been brought down to earth…
Try to finish the sentence “I really want the Conservatives to win the next election because…” I certainly can’t – and to me, this encapsulates Cameron’s problem. Today’s voters want parties to do something for them, and the party without a practical purpose has no future. The good news is that, as Cameron stares at his evaporated opinion poll lead, he’ll by now realise his mistake.
Cameron is off on overseas adventures this week and to Brittany (by train, of course) afterwards. He’ll have much time to think about what’s gone wrong…”
[Click here to read the full post]
I really want the Conservatives to win the next election because… even a bad Conservative government would be better than this Labour one.
Most of what David Cameron has done since becoming leader has been good. He has pretty much successfully “decontaminated” the Conservative brand in the eyes of the public, and enabled it to fight on a pretty equal footing with the Labour Party. But what he has failed to do recently is to remind the voters what the Conservatives stand for. He has waited too long before making a political position, though not manifesto commitment, known. He has become to be seen as politically vacuous, lacking in a defined - or definable - political position. In a way, the “decontamination” went too far. What now needs to happen is not a reversal and reinstatement of fixed old positions, but statements of a general belief in traditional Conservative politics - without the dropping or dilution of his other policies. He must resist the temptation to make many detailed policy announcements after the policy groups report, but gently lay the groundwork for them instead.
Can you finish the sentence?
UPDATE: There is now an offer of a bottle of champagne for the best one.
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Surprised to see this post, TD, after your comments on my view of Cameron. David Davis is the man as far as I can see and the sooner he’s in the better.
I’m happy that Cameron has moved the Conservative Party away from its nasty image, but he’s got to start getting a strong Conservative agenda over. I was glad when he beat David Davis, and I have far more in common with Davis than Cameron because whilst Davis is a fine politician he didn’t seem to suggest he would invigorate the party and move it away from a stale position. Know with Brown replacing Blair’s spin with a more substantial form of politics it may be a better time for him to become leader than before Cameron’s re-branding job.