The recession-proof civil servants

C Powell

The Tories should throw stories like this (and that of the behaviour of the housing officers in Norwich) back in Labour's face, every time they try and use the "Tory cuts" line.

Matthew Parris had a good article on this in yesterday's Times too.

JimBob

So thats where all the NHS money went. Like Mr Powell says, theres an awful lot more mileage in this one because of the way the economy is and because theres some many more like Nicholson. Name and shame them all please.

strapworld

Matthew Parris's article was excellent, but it also made the pertinent observation that David Cameron has got to raise HIS game.

No more Blair's double. He has to wake up to the fact that people, now, want gravitas and honesty. Can Cameron deliver?

mitch

We need to destroy this whole rotten structure and start again.

TrevorsDen

Cameron is not and never has been a Blair double. He is a typical middle of the road conservative. Was Willie Whitelaw a Blair Double?

The other thing people should get real about is he is not never has been and never will be perfect.

Nor has any politician, nor will they be. Nor was for instance Mrs Thatcher. She gave us the EU Single market. And of course nor will the electorate.

David Cameron is plausible and decent. But most importantly he is not Gordon Brown.

Maybe some of you lot should get that tattooed on your foreheads so you can be reminded of it every morning as you shave.

Verity

Matthew Parris's article was aces and hit so many nails on the head I began to get a headache.

Cameron has lost the confidence and goodwill of large swathes of Conservatives for his Blair-Too posturing. He has made it appear that there is nothing to choose between the two parties.

I don't know whether he has it in him, but he has to get vicious. As TGI UKIP said elsewhere, Conservatives and potential Conservative voters want to see blood on the carpet.

They don't have to give away their amunition. All they have to do is destroy the Labourites. That means referring derisively to things like "communism dressed up as social justice" and similar word manipulation by Labour.

Forlornehope

This comes back to the real but unspoken fault line in British politics. It is a competition between those who work in the private sector and public sector professionals (the dustmen don't get a look in anywhere). A visit to any Labour party meeting makes it all too clear that this is a special interest group for professionals in the public sector (not a manual worker in sight). No PSP with their own interests at heart would ever vote Conservative but many do; Marx called it false consiousness. Similarly plenty of people in the private sector are conned into voting Labour. Neither party can really own up for fear of losing more votes than it gains. Tough one.

Verity

The Tories should also be constantly referring to the 3,000 new laws the Labourites have signed into law. Why did we need THREE THOUSAND NEW LAWS, for God's sake? Are there 3,000 new circumstances to legislate for? It's communist bossiness and control. This should be hammered home. The Tories should promise to delete them at a swipe.

Brown reneged on Labour's "promise" (forgive the snigger) to have a referendum on the EU Constitution - oops! forgot my NuLabspeak there - "Treaty" and Brown was such a sneaky coward, didn't want his photo taken leaving to sign it, so he sneaked in the back door and signed it later. The Labourites are liars and cheats.

This cannot be hammered home often enough.

Fergus Pickering

What the F**K is gravitas? Did the divine Margaret have it?

alan scott

And it is non-taxable?