The lazy party
Hywel Williams 2:31pm
I must have been watching some other conference. Judging by the general view taken of David Cameron’s speech to the Tory conference yesterday this was a masterly exercise in understated urbanity. What I heard instead was a rambling and diffuse statement of aims, conspicuous only in its failure to communicate energy and ambition. Of course it’s true that post-Blair we’ve become suspicious of false messiahs and glib oratory. Nowadays we shudder at those creepy millenarian visions the former prime minister used to dish out when addressing Labour conferences. But a political leader seeking to take his party into government after long years in opposition needs star qualities of drive rather than just resilience in the face of criticism. And that relaxed style of Cameron’s as he perambulated around the stage was a good illustration of the Tories’ low level of mental energy at the moment.
The Conservatives have been under-estimating the magnitude of the New Labour challenge ever since 1994. They never got to grips with Blair—and the same is now true of their relation to Brown. Instead of getting down to real work, policy detail and number-crunching the Tories have opted for mere personalisation with their shallow complaints about Brown being the ‘road-block to reform.’ Whatever one’s view of the prime minister he is a prodigiously hard worker-as are members of his immediate circle such as Ed Balls. The only leading Tory to match them in that department in recent years has been Michael Howard and there isn’t a single member of this shadow cabinet who can match the Brownite work rate. The prime minister’s edge and drive used to be dismissed as proof of his ‘obsessive’ character. But the electorate seems to rather like this seriousness-rather than the detached dilettantism which now defines the opposition’s high command.
In all the Tories’ war-gaming over the past year no one seems to have taken seriously the possibility of an autumn election. Sub-contracting out the work on policy development to various commissions must have seemed a cute trick at the time. Now its real reason is very obvious: ‘top Tories’ are just too lazy to do the work themselves. No wonder we hear so much from them about the need to get the work-life balance sorted. They’re at home most of the time already.
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John
October 4th, 2007 3:23pm Report this commentDid you have some kind of problem with your connection where you post was delayed by 12 months?
Derek L. Piper
October 4th, 2007 3:30pm Report this commentCalm down. Do you have any idea how much work is required to pull off a succesful conference, let alone the political conference of a party that so often spends spends its free time tearing itself to pieces? Also, more importantly your post sounds as if it were written a week ago.
Praguetory
October 4th, 2007 3:42pm Report this commentMore hours at the desk equals better outcomes = obvious fallacy. Any serious commentator who has been following Cameron over the election will know that he has travelled more widely than Brown. In the West Midlands Brown hasn't appeared since he was elected.
Dafydd Goch
October 4th, 2007 3:49pm Report this commentYou make the common (well-nigh universal?) mistake of confusing quantity with quality. If anything, the Conservatives problem is doing too much (as it certainly is Brown's). As G.K. Chesterton, said, "Don't just do something, stand there."
Recusant
October 4th, 2007 3:52pm Report this commentAnd why would we want a prodigiously hard worker as PM? Inevitably it leads them to over-manage and over-complicate. No, give me a Reagan or Eisenhower over a Hoover, Carter or Bush Snr.
Tiberius
October 4th, 2007 3:57pm Report this commentI suppose we have to let a hundred flowers bloom.
Bel
October 4th, 2007 4:26pm Report this commentJohn, like you, I wondered if this post was 12 months late. For one thing, we haven't heard the expression 'roadblock to reform' in a long while. Seriously though, the criticisms made by Hywel Williams in this article could have been true even a few months ago, but not at the moment.
Prodicus
October 4th, 2007 4:37pm Report this commentEh? Radical new policies galore all week. Where were you? DC gave the *leader's* speech, designed to show who *he* is and what sort of a bloke it is that can get such a solid 'manifesto' (for that's what this week has been) prepared by a competent team through *thorough* work undertaken over months.
Derek L. Piper
October 4th, 2007 5:25pm Report this commentWow, when I wrote my little blurb I thought I'd then get attacked -- but I'm happy to see all the comments are in agreement!
Oscar Miller
October 4th, 2007 6:53pm Report this commentAnd what are Brown and his people working at? Getting the Treasury to torpedo conservative tax plans. Plotting ill judged photo opportunities in Iraq. Infiltrating opposition parties. Complicating the tax system. Issuing top-down directives. If only they'd stop working...
John Austin
October 4th, 2007 9:23pm Report this commentI agree with Hywel; the speech didn't inspire me at all. A bit of a soggy rice pudding of a speech, in fact.
coolmum
October 5th, 2007 8:33pm Report this commentBroon may be a hard worker but we all suffer for it. And look now where he is channeling his hard work - internal polls, and decisions about how to overcome the Tories. Hello - isn't he supposed to be running the country, not opportunistically deciding whether now is a better time for him to go to the polls or not. He is looking weaker by the day - pride comes before a fall......
Oscar Miller
October 7th, 2007 11:17am Report this commentpride comes before a fall...... Prophetic words Coolmum
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