Can the Tories learn to run before Brown runs to the country?
Matthew d'Ancona 2:25pm
The psychology of this conference is like no other I've experienced. Having mastered walking, the Cameron Conservative Party believed it had a couple of years in which to get on top of this running business. No such luck. Gordon Brown's very public toying with a snap election has compelled the party to unveil a larger tranche of hard policies than it had hoped to do at this stage of the electoral cycle.
So Michael Gove and George Osborne had to look this morning as if they were capable of being Schools Secretary and Chancellor respectively in a matter of days. It is to their immense credit that each (in my opinion) passed this test. To listen to Gove this morning—a debating master who wisely played it straight—was to hear someone self-evidently more than capable of running a big department. And who can seriously doubt that Osborne would be a more vigorous Chancellor than Alistair Darling? Which is fine. But in a quasi-presidential system the question that matters will not be answered till Wednesday pm.
All the gossip, meanwhile, focuses on election practicalities, not least because the activists gathered in Blackpool are the people who will be expected to pound pavements this month if Gordon goes to the country. The latest potential hiccup is the capacity—or potential incapacity—of the Post Office to handle an election in late October or early November at such short notice, not least at a time of industrial unrest in the postal service. "The Post Office could sabotage democracy," in the words of one Shadow Cabinet Member.
If the PM doesn't go for it, expect a lot of "Brown the Bottler" campaigning from the Conservatives. You can hear it already this week: "We're ready, why isn't Gordon?" As ever in politics, the truth is otherwise. The Tories are far from ready. But you can't help admiring their pluck.
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richard jacobs
October 1st, 2007 4:39pm Report this commentI was appalled at the hostile interview given to David Cameron by Andrew Marr on Sunday am on the BBC. Constantly interupting it was the height of new Labour bad manners and repeated again this moring on BBC breakfast by the female presenter with George Osborne. Such open BBC hostility and bias is unacceptable.
Oscar Miller
October 1st, 2007 5:09pm Report this commentListening to a shift in editorial line on the BBC today I strongly suspect that Gordo will "bottle it" , which will be repackaged by nuLab - as a cunning stunt to trick the conservatives into revealing their hand. Personally I think this will backfire badly for him. If Gordon continues to reduce politics to a game of poker his reputation will go into meltdown. After all he is supposed to be opposed to super casinos - not turning decisions on the country's future into one big roulette wheel.
John Whitworth
October 1st, 2007 5:39pm Report this commentBBC hostility may be unacceptable, ut it's what we've got. Shut them down, I say. But of course to do that we have to get a Tory Goverrnment which isn't easy. I thought is was the ghastly Naughtie who interviewed Osborne and actually I thought Osborne did well, even got in a crack about Naughtie knowing more about Brown personally than he (Osborne) did, which riled the Socialist Scot not a little. Naughtie, you will remember, refers to the Government as 'we'.
NotaSheep
October 1st, 2007 5:52pm Report this commentIt was James "If we win the election" Naughtie doing the interview and I also thought that he was less biased than he might have been. Still did his soto voce hurumphing during answers that he disagreed with though.
TGF UKIP
October 1st, 2007 7:10pm Report this commentThe Tories have missed a major trick with the New Labour BBC. They don't and can't complain about the bias because if they did they would just look to the general public as a bunch of cry baby whingers. Remember folks, political anoraks like us might spot all the interruptions, all the pejorative adjectives and we might know that there's a direct career path from BBC News and Current Affairs to New Labour spinner, but the public just ain't sufficiently interested in politics to be aware of all this. The secret has always been to give the public a staightforward and overt reason they can understand for the BBC to hate the Tories and do all that they can to prevent a Tory victory. The surefire way of doing this is to announce as an unshakeable policy for the next Tory Government an abolition of the poll tax licence fee, the BBC to be made a free standing public company with no tax payers money and to redress the broadcasting balance an opening up of the airwaves accompanied by an express wish to see a UK edition of Fox News "to redress the current imbalance in news coverage." The Labour and BBC howls might just alert the public to just who was on who's side. Quite apart from which it might just help the Tories to re-build bridges with Rupert.
Oscar Miller
October 1st, 2007 7:34pm Report this commentI think you'll find that Richard Jacobs was referring to Osborne's interview on BBC breakfast TV - not his interview on Today with Naughtie, which was reasonable mostly because Osborne was on top of his game. I didn't see Osborne on telly, but Marr was extremely aggressive to Cameron on Sunday.
carol42
October 2nd, 2007 12:32am Report this commentI would love a British version of Fox News. They may be slanted to the right but don't pretend to be anything else. However they allow anyone from the left to state their views and give them a fair hearing which is a lot more than you can say for the BBC. I think it was the commentator, Charles Krauthammer, who said Rupert Murdoch found a gap in the market - half the American public. He certsinly did. Their is no need for the BBC financed by a compulsory poll tax now, let them stand on their own feet and compete in the market. If you don't like ads. do as the German TV did when I lived there, adverts. only at the end of the programme.
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