Cameron comes out fighting

jimmy

"his (electorally essential) mantra that stability (ie mortgage rates) must come first. Economists can argue all they like about the relationship between tax cuts and monetary stability, but the public has, for now, made up its mind: it does not want a Conservative Party that puts upfront tax cuts ahead of everything else." Matthew, thank you; OK now I understand that "stability" is code for "mortgage rates". I must say this was not obvious to me. If only the Tories had used real language rather than code. I see no sense at all in the position that tax cuts must be off the agenda. What's required is a confident assertive Conservative analysis that states boldly that high taxes are not "good" per se, and that cutting them is a way of empowering people. Our poor countrymen and women are otherwise stuck with the leftist assumptions they get fed by BBC and Labour language always associating a tax-cutting agenda with a poverty-of-ambition agenda. Re. economists arguing the relationship between tax cuts and stability, you imply this is impossible for Joe Public to understand. I would disagree. The longer you allow the leftist language and assumptions to go unargued, the longer they persist and damage intelligent public thinking on this issue. I happened to read the article by John Redwood in yesterday's Sunday Telegraph and, in moderate tones, he made roughly this point - among several others. While I would expect the Spectator to pitch its articles at intelligent people, I don't see why it (or its editor for that matter) should be arguing for dumbing down the Tories' policy messages on tax. In my view the Tories broadly believe in lower tax, smaller state (if not, I don't see how they can be distinguished enough from the government at polling time). Please let's get a confident consistent statement of the good reasons for having this opinion, in the media for everyone to see. Otherwise, keep up the good work!

Tiberius

I wonder if society is yet broken enough for the electorate to wake from the ten year duvet day that New Labour has given them. Despite the tactical errors, Cameron has, in my opinion, already done enough to warrant renewed interest in the Conservatives, yet at their best the polls only reached 40%. At 42%, we could have got excited. But the recess has given Cameron a chance to re-focus, and if the IDS and Redwood reports can galvanize a renewed, tactical-error-free effort then so much the better. But I'm just not sure that even policies like welfare reform (see Janet Daley in today's DT), and the strengthening of the family, which many see as ways to reclaim the streets of Britain, will provide the tipping point for winning the next general election.

jimmy

Hi, My post contained paragraphs, and as such was (I thought) relatively readable. As rendered above, it contains no paragraph breaks and is markedly different as a result. Any way this can be fixed? Was it something I did wrong?

Tiberius

Jimmy, I don't think acknowledging how the public see the tax and spend argument (essentially as a zero sum exercise) is the same as dumbing down the message. I do think, however, that embarking on a strategy which will replicate the mistakes of Cameron's immediate predecessors would be foolish. There is a time for the policy wind to change direction, but on tax that time has not yet come.

jimmy

Tiberius, I cannot disagree that the public is largely suspicious of tax cuts. Indeed, you have quite aptly described how it is that many do think of such things: a zero-sum exercise. Consider the principal reason for this misapprehension: the leftist messages carried, implicitly and explicitly, in the broadcast media. The thing is, if no-one has the courage to speak up clearly, and with conviction, for a different economic analysis, we will be forced forever to debate the issues in a distorted way. I thank you for responding, and congratulate you for succeeding in reading through the version of my post sans paragraph breaks.

cogito ergosum

I support Jimmy's point about paragraphs. Please, Spectator techies, do something about it.