The Red Tory

Ex-Tory voter

"Blond's work has enabled the Tories to make forays onto Labour's ideological turf and make a grab for language traditionally associated with the left" And that is exactly why I no longer vote Tory.

local local

Some of us in the Tory party have been advocating empowerment of individuals, families and communities for much longer than Blond.

I was laughed at in 2003 for suggest education vouchers would allow parents to set up their own schools.

I was told individual assesment of need leading to personal welfare subsidies was impossible to implement.

It was suggested to me that hypothecating NI payments to fund health and social insurance and pension saving was simply not something the Treasury would accept.

2 down, 1 to go!

Verity

"Blond's work has enabled the Tories to make forays onto Labour's ideological turf and make a grab for language traditionally associated with the left."

Why, in the name of God, would any conservative thinker want to use the language of the left? Any conservative sincerely tempted to "use the language of the left" would, in fact, already be a leftie.

And why would any sane person want to make a foray into Labour's ideological turf?

That this silly man's thinking is what has visited David Cameron on the Conservative Party.

David Ossitt

“David Cameron gave the opening remarks, stressing the influence Blond's thinking has had on how the Tories think about poverty and public services, but he was also keen to point out that he doesn't agree with everything that Blond says”

So that’s all right then; is it?

No; it is bl**dy well not, David Cameron is supposed to be the leader of the Tory’s the Conservative and Unionist Party.

What he is definitely not the leader of, is a soft at the centre, namby-pamby, Blairite loving Con-socialist mix of left leaning shysters.

Blond is that awful paradox; a Christian-socialist, after almost twelve years of Blair and his ilk we have had enough of that, thank you very much.

What David Cameron should grasp, is that we need a new Margaret Thatcher, someone of either sex who will take control, someone with conviction; someone who knows instinctively what is the right thing to do is and does it, someone who will put this country back on the right track, without worrying about think tanks and self image.

chris as usual

@David Ossitt

Sounds like Gordon Brown is the man for you. See how easy it is to get it wrong?

ssleddon

Ex-Tory voter and David Ossitt make good points.

I can't help thinking that the Conservative party are trying to make all this more difficult than it actually is. There are people who will always vote Tory, and people who will always vote Labour. In the middle is a swathe of people who have sympathies both ways. Currently these people are fed up with Labour, the big state, the economic mess, and so on, and would probably vote Conservative provided the party stands still and tells us what it believes.

The only way the Tories can screw this up is to go chasing after people asking what they'd like. People want vision and leadership, not the political equivalent of he desperate kid in the playground who'll do anything to be your friend.

I believe the Tories will lose a lot of votes to UKIP, and Labour to the BNP come next May, because whatever you think about these Parties, at least you know what they stand for. Or am I just being simplistic?

Ken

Got it in one David Ossitt!

A quick read of the (freebie) economic lead in this week's Spectator suggests that a Conservative dictatorship will likely be needed to stave off a Japan-style decade of disaster in the UK.

Cast Cameron as that dictator?

Don't see it myself.

David Ossitt

chris as usual

"@David Ossitt

Sounds like Gordon Brown is the man for you. See how easy it is to get it wrong?"

Please stop it; you are being silly, who could possibly compare Gordon Brown with the Blessed Margaret.

DavidDP

"we need a new Margaret Thatcher"

No we don't. We need a new Disraeli, someone who is pragmatic enough to put in place the solutions we need and have regard to alleviating the condition of the two nations

DavidDP

"the Blessed Margaret"

Sorry, does anyone really say that with a straight face?

strapworld

When you read that Letwin says that Blond is a brilliant person, one must worry.

That Cameron, who proved at PMQ's yesterday that he is not the master of his brief! That he does not have issues properly researched! Goes along with Letwin and allows this unknown person who has emerged from outer space, presumably, and is now esconced within Cameron's cabal.

One has to worry if Cameron possesses any common sense at all.

He is showing that he is a follower and not a leader. What an absolute fool.

By the way, surely the heading should be PINK TORY and Pickles should have the name RED TORY!

What a party, what a circus. what an utter disgrace these people are to the Conservative Party of Churchill, Macmillan and Thatcher.

Let us start again please!

strapworld

ssleddon. I do not know how you can make the statement that, neatly only Labour supporters will support the BNP and only Conservative supporters will support the Ukip.

I for one normally vote conservative but like so many of my friends (also conservative voters) we will be voting for the BNP.

James Delingpole

"Blond's work has enabled the Tories to make forays onto Labour's ideological turf and make a grab for language traditionally associated with the left"
Yes the technical phrase for this is "selling your party and everything it stands for down the river".

Number7

DC does seem to have his moments!

In one way I can see why he want's to loose the GE - End of Zanuliebore forever.

BUT - What about the suffering population - i.e the rest of us

DavidDP

I wish blogs were around in the years before the 79 election. To would be great to see all these people complaining how rubbish Thatcher was ("couldn't even best Sunny Jim in the House!" "Why has she chagned her voice?! Style over substance!" "What's this flimsy film of her and her family life?! Churchill would be rolling in his grave at this bloody woman!").

David Lindsay

ssleddon, half of the UKIP vote for Strasbourg is either Old Labour or, especially in the West Country, Old Liberal rather than Old Tory. Add together the Tory and UKIP votes in Wales, London, the South West, either of the Midland regions, or any of the Northern regions, and you get an absurdly high figure for the number of natural Tories living there.

By contrast, and as the Gelasgow North East by-election proved once and for all, the BNP vote comes entirely from the Tories. People who see themselves as a cut above their chavvy neighbours, and in British terms Tories in Labour areas, have been Fascism's base for as long as there has been such a thing. Still, by all means let the Tories imagine that any vote cast in Glasgow, or in Yorkshire, or in the North West, or in the East End and its hinterland, must be tribally Labour and thus unreachable by themselves. That way, they will certainly never return to office.

As for Thatcher, well, where to begin? With the Single European Act, the Anglo-Irish Agreement, the Exchange Rate Mechanism, the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, and the replacement of O-levels with GSCEs. That is where to begin. But that is not where to end. The list of resons why she is wildly overrated goes on, and on, and on.

Frank P

He looks ginger beer - is he?

DavidDP

"By contrast, and as the Gelasgow North East by-election proved once and for all, the BNP vote comes entirely from the Tories"

No it didn't.

David Lindsay

Yes it did, DavidDP. The Labour vote was still high enough to keep the seat very comfortably, whereas the Tories were only 40-odd votes ahead of the deposit-losing BNP. Orange votes, I expect. Tory votes, manifestly. Like the BNP vote everywhere, in fact.

Snowman

True leaders don’t fish for ideas in the midst of a battle as strapworld points out. True leaders know where they want to get and have the qualities to carry the masses with them, rather than ignoring them. Cameron resembles a blind man touching his way through and clutching at any straw that’s around. Instead of hugging the Blondes of this world he should lock himself up in a room for a week and read the blogs from the Guardian through the Spectator to the Daily Mail. That would enlighten him what the country needs and shouts for more than any dream-like pap of forays into nuLabour’s ideological turf.

local local @ 3.44: you have my sympathy; how long will it take for the Tories to figure that they cannot win fighting on Labour’s terms.

Judging from only few appearances on the box Daniel Hannan would fit the bill far better.

Martyn Rowe

I listened to Blond on Five Live earlier and when he talked about the economy and the legacy of Thatcher he made a lot of good sense.

I get the impression that some commenters see the word 'RED' and start spitting blood.

I like the fact that he made it clear that;

a) He is a believer in the free market and state-run organisations being bought by the private sector.
b) a believer in helping the poor break out from their stagnant communities by the encouragement of work, not benefits
c)and re-establising communities and the traditional ethos of community spirit.

He also said he positively encourages argument and debate and the getting together of different political perspectives to come up with better political ideas (unlike the authoritarian style of Labour).

Why is any of that anti or un-Tory?

He's more socially conservative than me but he appears to be modern in his views, accepting of the fact that Britain has changed and the Tory party must change with it.

Hoe else will the Tories become electable?

Ranting about immigration and low taxes and Europe has priven to be a big turn off, three times in a row...

To afect change in a centre-right way the Conservatives must first get to power. Regressive policy ideas won't achive that. leaning more towards Blond's policies probably will.

To say the Tories are selling out is bullshit. Since when has a modern, common-sense, polite apprach to improvement been anti-Tory?

And I hold no candle for the guy, I'd never heard of him before today.

David Lindsay

Much as I like Hannan, his views on the NHS make him a liability to any party.

DavidDP

"Yes it did, DavidDP. The Labour vote was still high enough to keep the seat very comfortably, whereas the Tories were only 40-odd votes ahead of the deposit-losing BNP. Orange votes, I expect. Tory votes, manifestly. Like the BNP vote everywhere, in fact."

Sorry, that doesn't follow at all. That's like saying the LibDem vote fell, so they all voted BNP instead.

You'd be better off checking polling data, which provides a more complicated picture.

Tanuki

Blond embraces all I detest about "Cameron's Conservatives".

He seems to want a sort of watered-down-New-Labour sort of Conservatism. One that still believes that "the man in Whitehall" knows best - and who will nudge the populace (via a whole slew of intrusions, exhortations, choice-editing and 'green' taxes) into supplicant obediance.

Sorry, but it just doesn't work for me.

I want rid of 'nudge', recycling-advisors, five-a-day coordinators and smoking-reduction outreach workers. Blond's vision truly appals me - it's the nanny-state under a faux softer-gentler gloss. If there's something that a proper Conservative government should do it's taking an axe to everything this false prophet promotes.

Snowman

David Lindsey @ 6.30:

If only I nature didn’t make me lazy, and my English were more refined and flowing I would compose an essay proving to you and everyone else who so blindly trusts in the NHS that the tax funded behemoth resembles nothing less than a smaller replica of the communist societal model. The only tangible difference - the language of the two. The former communist countries spoke mostly Slav languages, the NHS, I gathered this from my latest visit to our local hospital, communicates in a greater variety of tongues.

The key similarity centres around the Marxist’s ‘to everyone according to his needs, from everyone according to his ability’ that translates to the ‘free at the point of delivery’ with funding ‘according to one’s ability to pay’ for the NHS.

As much as it may pain and destroy your love for the NHS, the set-up cannot survive in its current mode, the evidence suggests that it has already began cracking up – see for inst. the latest NICE curtailment of a cancer drug. Expect more of the same. The funding will never satisfy the demand, hence the need to restrict the latter. The more science and technology develop better treatments and drugs, and the more our lives extend, the greater the restrictions to access the NHS services will become. It is by and large the ability of any of us to fund ourselves that limits the private delivery of health services. It the case of the NHS, the limiting power lies in the hands of experts, most of us don’t get a look in.

Does the NHS display cases of brilliance here and there. Of course, it does. So did the USSR in for inst. developing a range of missiles on par with the US, or in launching the first man into the orbit. Spots of excellence prove nothing. Only the satisfying of the needs of the many does.

Politically, the NHS ranks high on the list of minefields that few politicians will venture into. Pity, because one day it will implode not unlike the model devised and nurtured by the Red Menace.

Verity

David DP writes: "the Blessed Margaret". Sorry, does anyone really say that with a straight face?
Yes. I do.
James Delingpole – Agreed.
Martin Rowe defends: “He is a believer in the free market and state-run organisations being bought by the private sector.” Oh? Is that why he just proposed breaking up the four major supermarket companies? Because they’re too successful?
“He also said he positively encourages argument and debate and the getting together of different political perspectives to come up with better political ideas (unlike the authoritarian style of Labour).” How old is this guy? Seventeen? Spends a lot of time in the Sixth Form common room does he? That’s the age when you think you’re going to think up an original political idea.

2trueblue

What the hell about the rest of us? That is what worries me. I do not really care bout those that are unable to make up their minds with out the 'Bond' influence, or anyone elses for that matter.

Vulture

Cameron, despite his sweeated Oxford degree is no intellectual, and he makes the mistake of supposing that all intellectuals - and all ideas - have to come from the Left. Hence his desire to embrace this grinning chump Blond ( who has sadly not inherited his stepbrother Dan Craig's looks or rugged sex appeal).

There is nothing remotely 'Tor' abt this so-called 'Red Tory'. If dave is so insecure and dumb that he needs some intellectual underpinning - and God knows, he certainly could do with a few ideas - he should look for thinkers who are Conservatives, as did the blessed Margaret : eg. Sherman, Hayek, Pirie et al. (Dr Mad is still with us, though the first two have gone oin to Tory heaven). WE have had a bellyful of this pseudo-Socialist 'Red Tory' crap.

2trueblue

I don't think that Cameron is trying to pretend to be intelectual. He certainly is not without intelligence.
The tory party is trying to appeal to the 'don't knows' and trying to broaden their appeal to currently non-tory voters. The problem is it does leave the rest of us worrying what the hell is going on. The assumption is that we will vote tory anyway, just to get rid of the present shower.
That is something I have a problem with , I want to know what direction we are going in and what the end game is. Politicians can not assume anything, we have had spin now we want something more, and Blond is not it.

Brendan Caffrey

Can "The Ownership State" abolish public sector management?

Res Publica has produced a series of provocative ideas about real public concerns. This is to be welcomed. But there are serious reservations about the proposals so far.

Philip Blond argues that over the last 10 years public sector productivity has only risen by 3.4%, whereas private sector productivity has risen by 27.9% over the same period. Where these figures come from is not revealed. How productivity is measured is a complex business. What to measure, and what is measureable, raises a host of problems in both the private and public sectors. Toyota is an example given of cutting costs. I am not aware of recent research on Toyota; but my research on other Japanese firms showed cost cutting came from wages that were high relative to local wage rates, but low relative to national rates. Trade unions were not made very welcome either.

There is an attractive demand for "front line leadership". But this sits uneasily with "public sector experts" retained! Workers self management has a long history in Britain, and also in Yugoslavia under a socialist government. What one needs here is real world examples of what decisions front line managers can take; and those only experts could take; and how any conflict between these two groups could be resolved. One is left with a feeling that a strong local group could, or should win. The debate in the 1990's around communitarianism in America is instructive here. Specifically, how Catholic priests organised housing and employment, but only for "good" catholics.

The death of full time managers still seems a long way off.

Responses to the above are welcome at:
whyworktoday@live.co.uk