A note of caution

ChrisD

I think that anyone with a couple of neurones has worked out that the Conservatives cannot just expect to coast to a GE victory on the back of Labour's present woes. I somehow don't think those at the top in the Conservative leadership team are resting on their laurels, sitting back with their feet up enjoying a bowl of popcorn.
The fact that Cameron has been in American this week also points to a politician beefing up his foreign policy and statesman credentials.
I also think John Rentoul's argument is further weakened in light of the huge policy review undertaken by the Conservative party over the last 2 years.
Just maybe if Labour had involved themselves in this kind of top down review of policy over the same period and then combined it with an attempt at basic competence and management they would not be in this mess.
As for Cameron's performance at PMQ's, news sound bites and Conservative back bench morale would indicate that it is Brown and Labour who are failing in that department.

TGF UKIP

Might be my memory, but I cannot recall any time between '92 and '97 when so many disasters hit the Major Government in so short a space in time. Yet, might be my memory again, but I also seem to recall that when the collective disasters did befall the Major Tories, their polling figures did drop well below 30% while Labour's soared into the over 50's. James, you will have access to all the past polling figures so what were the relative positions in December 95 and 96? As it stands my own interpretation of today's YouGov poll is that, after all that has happened in the past six weeks, it does provide considerable support for the belief that Labour still has everything to fight for. The crunch in the poll seemed to me to be the mere 7% gap in the "Forced Choice" question "If you had to choose, which would you prefer to see after the next election? A Conservative Government under Cameron - 42% or A Labour Government under Brown - 35%." This would seem to demonstrate a significant scepticism about and lack of enthusiasm for the Dave Tories. Not altogether surprising really - when your opponent is really on the ropes as Labour presently are, this would seem exactly the time to go on the offensive and spell out the policy differences between the two parties. Except, and this is the nub of the Tories' problem, there really aren't any serious differences. After two years of constantly saying "me too" Blue Labour and Real Labour are now united on high spending, high taxing, politically correct, couldn't care less about the armed forces, big government. Small wonder that there is so little enthusiasm for the Dave Tories overall particularly (I would guess - but would love to see a poll breakdown) among C2's and in the North.

Simon

John Rentoul warns of trouble ahead for the Tories. Whatever next. I was more amused by his prediction that David Milipod would ride to Labour's rescue and replace Brown. Interesting that leading Blairites are openly giving up on Brown already.

Herbert Thornton

It may well be that the electorate will turn to Cameron's Tories, but it will be out of desperation and turn out to be very much mistaken.

Cameron will disappoint them on immigration and his reckless wish to involve British troops in supposedly solving the Kosovo crisis is more likely to spark military conflict with the Serbs and with their now far more confident ally, Russia.

Military conflict between Russia and the west is something that the Islamists would dearly love to see happen.

British policy should, at the very least, be to stay out of the Balkans and to leave the Serbs and Russians to deal with Kosovo.

John Ionides

I agree, Chris. Cameron seems to be keeping his eye on the ball and just plugging away. He is making the right sounds, in the right way, at PMQs, but there is no value in trying to dismantle Brown at this point. 6 months down the line when the party policies have been fleshed out then he can maybe start applying more pressure, especially if the economy starts to turn. Rentoul is a bit of a Blair fan, no? In which case I can see why he might want Cameron to stick the dagger in now so that Brown can be replaced with Microband or similar.

Tim Worstall

"restoring people’s faith in politics" Why would anyone want to do that? Just when we've got everyone plugged into reality, that politicians and bureaucrats do thing that benefit politicians and bureaucrats, why should we want to disabuse anyone of the truth?

David Lindsay

"restoring people’s faith in politics will be one of the biggest challenges that faces them" Exactly what was said in 1997. Are we now going to have this every 10 years, or indeed more frequently than that, for ever? Until we give ourselves new parties, yes.

Dirty European Socialist

The tories are run by a jumped up fauled PR executive who just has right accent. Thye are not for for government we have manged 10 years of economic growth. Beat that.

Dirty European Socialist

The tories are run by a jumped up fauled PR executive who just has right accent. Thye are not for for government we have manged 10 years of economic growth. Beat that.

David Lindsay

Dirty European Socialist, every burnt out car and boarded up shop front here in the North East cries out for a proper Opposition to Red New Labour. But what have we got? Blue New Labour’s MP for the Cities of London and Westminster objecting to the Northern Rock rescue package purely because the jobs and most of the small shreholders happen to be here, and Yellow New Labour’s shenanigans while also engaged in the ethnic cleansing of the working class out of Newcastle. The votes are here to be had, but no one wnats them. No wonder some of us are starting to make our own arrangements, and not just in the North East.

The Midlands Industrial Council sounds like a most admirable body (even if it is daft enough to waste its money on the Tories), just as the trade unions are (even if they are daft enough to waste their money on the Labour Party). Between, they seem to supply the last clean money left in British politics, which is why Red New Labour wants rid of the former while Red and Blue New Labour alike want rid of the latter. After all, they are examples of a little thing called civil society, which we cannot allow anywhere near politics. Can we? And the shortfall arising from the “transition” to civil society’s exclusion from politics must be made good by the taxpayer. Mustn’t it?

Max Kaye

Restore faith in politics? Nah! Let's learn from the Belgians and not have a government. The less politicians and bureaucrats do, the better.

Fergus Pickering

Dirty European Socialist surely Cameron has the WRONG accent. Blair certainly thought so because he made his properly common and downmarket to suit people like you. My own accent, by the way, will be quite as common as yours, whatever it is. I think people should be allowed to talk the way they naturally do without our British snobbery making a big deal out of it.

Nicholas Millman

The real difference between the two parties is about liberty, as articulated by David Cameron abroad, but sadly not enough here. This issue lies beneath the surface of all others and is the consistent thread unravelling in Labour's moldy old Socialist sock. Their aspirations, masked beneath spin and propaganda, are totalitarian, with all the bureaucratic inefficiencies, waste and incompetence that go along with the gradual but insistent erosion of liberty. Their closest parallel is the old GDR government. The sooner people wake up to this, including the deluded Lefties that defend them here, the sooner they will be ditched. David Cameron needs to do his utmost to ensure this message is delivered and understood.