An unhealthy dependence

stephen

Danny would not agree I know but less media time devoted to Boy George[who I think has never had a proper Private Sector job] and more time given to the Big Beasts like Ken Clark and William Hague would do the Tories some good IMHO. The Big Beasts have lots of experience of the real world rather than the rarified world of Tory Thinktanks!

Verity

That's because Mr "Trust me. I'm a pr man" has insisted on hugging all the publicity to himself - at some cost to the party, given how unimpressive he is.

Stephen MacLean

Yes, decentralisation in the nation, decentralisation in the Conservative party.

Or, better yet for conservative traditionalists, a return to 'primus inter pares' in Cabinet government, with party leaders as 'first among equals'.

Short the UK

I thought George Osborne was very good today, sharp, serious and combative. 10/10.

Philip Hammond should get on the telly more - he has gravitas.

Ken Clarke should get on breakie telly, spin the man and his common touch. Bash the the Labour haters!

Hague is visible.

Liam Fox is a ghost.

Gove is a name.

Pickles is in the media mix.

Sayeeda Warsi is a media star.

Chris Grayling is under the radar.

Boudicca

Philip Hammond comes across well ... calm and intelligent. They should make more use of him.

Atheist Ranter

Just persuade Daniel Hannan to take over as leader (somehow??). The world would then be a much better place.

SUSAN HILL

and of course they should always bear in mind the 'if he were to be run over by a bus' scenario.

Beer Moth

"...the electorate needs to see that the party has changed..."

As soon as the party does change, don't worry we'll see it alright.

If there were people on board who were genuinely 'impressive': people with character, who had an ear for, and showed an affinity with, the public, then they would, without thinking about it, put their own stamp on the scene. Such people would have no need of a 'systematic effort to build up the profile'.

egh

Hmm. Picture of a Suit in a Desert.
Time-wasting in the Waste Land?

How about addressing the Issue of Survival of the People: instead of the chess-game?

In2minds

Ken Clarke would not help here, stop pretending.

Albert E. Relative

The Conservatives will need a successor to Cameron one day. Perhaps sooner than they think. So it would be nice to see other front benchers more in the public eye.

Tiberius

Unwittingly, Verity, you prove the point you persist in denying.

Which is that before Dave, the party was going nowhere in terms of ousting NuLab, since the other main players just don't cut the mustard. Only with him as leader can the party put together a government.

Watt Tyler

This is written from the Islington mindset which thinks that the old Conservtive party was the nasty party. Thus, when they write things like "modernisation of the Tory party" or "the electorate needs to see that the party has changed" they are talking about how they would like to see the Tory party conform to the Marxist/Frankfurt School style ideal.

Their whole notion of how everything should be is dictated by this subversion of Liberalism. So deep has this taken hold in our social "elite" that ideas that are essentially leftist have become the centre ground. The British Right, therefore - and as far as they see it - has dissapeared up the political spectrum into the sphere of extremism.

I tell you, the Conservative leadership doesn't have the ideology to get Britain out of the mess its in because Britain is in the mess its in because of Leftist Ideology - the stuff Cameron is chasing*.

The old gaurd won't complain because they don't want the splits to appear before the general election - which will be too late for them, Parliament having been stuffed by fellow Red Tories. The best thing we can hope for is that as few of these types get elected as possible. Vote UKIP.

*David Cameron supports the redistribution of wealth.

By the way Tiberius, the Labour party has imploded by itself - its nothing to do with the Tory Boy.

wrinkled weasel

Tiberias. Dave's appearance on the scene was incidental. The country is merely fed up with Labour and enough people have now caught on to all the lies they have been fed. Dave is just in the right place at the right time, and I have to say that I have never seen a leader who was in a position to take candy from a baby but who so regularly fails to pick up the candy or drops it on the way to his mouth.

If he fell under a bus, there are others who could do the job as well or better, such as William Hague. I agree with Verity that Cameron is mostly a PR job, and a not very good one either. It might help if any of them were passionate or principled about the issues, but they are not, they are pragmatists and chancers.

Dean

Personally I tend to view Daniel Finkelstein's advice with a degree of scepticism as he still carries the mindset of the John Major government and, like many Tories, seems unable to comprehend the historical significance of last year's global banking crisis or the sheer folly of the Tories' dogmatic response to it.

Finkelstein is right that the Tories need to stick to their modernisation message. But he is wrong to see it as simply a re-branding exercise. When Blair became Labour leader he conducted a root and branch re-appraisal of the party's ideology which resulted eventually in the sensible, and hugely symbolic, decision to abolish Clause 4. There has been no similar re-appraisal of ideological received wisdom in the Tory Party. As a result, the Party reacted in a knee jerk way to last year's global crisis, by moving to the right on economic policy and preaching the virtues of "small government", when what it really needed to do was engage in fresh thinking about the efficacy of the free market and the role of government in a modern economy.

The problem goes much deeper than a failed or incomplete re-branding. From my perspective, the Tories are in completely the wrong place on social and economic policy. On social policy, they are too liberal and as a result are failing to tap into voter unease on immigration, law and order and multiculturalism (although they have some good policies on welfare and education). But on economic policy, they are too right wing in the sense that they are still viewed as lacking in compassion, opposed to activist government, and full of prejudice about the public sector. Unfortunately it is now too close to the election to correct this faulty positioning. I still think the Tories will win but they have missed the opportunity to win by a landslide. As long as the economy continues to recover gradually in the next six months, Labour will continue to close the gap.

Watt Tyler

By the way

The photographer who took that picture of "Look! Tory Boy in Desert". Is he the same one who took "Look! Tory Boy in Memorial Garden"?

Watt Tyler

Dean - I don't know for sure of course, but I reckon that if you had been a Labour voter, and were switching to the BNP, and if a pollster asked you what party you were going to vote for, and if you were a bit worried about letting anyone know about your voting intentions - if all those conditions were met, I reckon that you would tell them you were going to vote Labour.

David Short

If DC doesn't quite win, he will be pressured to resign, even tho it is only trad't'l for a Tory leader to resign after an outright loss. The high expectations people had had of him will disappear. Then - whoosh - here will come an unopposed Boris, to turn a hung parliament into a solid Tory majority with solid but 'modern' Tory values.

Vulture

Finkelstein hardly has a great track record, politically speaking. He spent a decade dickering between the SDP and Labour before plumping for the Tories as the best vehicle.

As for Dave, I agree with all those posters who say the Tories' (relative) polls success under him has been less to do with the Messiah's own qualities, and more to do with people at long last waking up to what a disaster Liebour has been. Dave has just had the luck to be holding the parcel when the music stopped, so to speak.

Finally, James, you call for the m ore impressive members of the Shadow Cabinet to be given space to shine. Ahem. There will now be a pause while we try to think of who they might be. A very, very long pause.

(Though having said that, honesty compels me to amit that the Boy George was quite impressive againt Naughtie on Today today.)

Nicholas

Finkelstein is a lightweight.

strapworld

Watt Tyler is right in pointing out the 'photo shoot' opportunistic Cameron.
I suppose he will be in Bethlehem shortly and stay in a stable looking up at the stars?

When will people wake up to the simple fact that Cameron is just an empty vessel. No leadership qualities whatsoever. He certainly, as Finkelstein points out, cannot delegate which suggests he either does not trust his colleagues or he, like Blair, considers himself a media star!

What I want for the months and years ahead, to get us out of the bloody mess we are in, is a leader with gravitas and great intelligence. Someone in whom I can trust.
Sadly I do not believe Cameron has any of those qualities. He is a sub editor, really!

Tony Gee

The CP should be at 50% in the polls, similar to Blair pre 1997, given the mess Labour has made. John Major's tenure was an outstanding success in comparison - sound economy, no wars. The missing 10% are probably disaffected Tories which is down to Cameron, so he would be wise to spread the load to the old guard.

John Lea

Vulture states: "Finkelstein hardly has a great track record, politically speaking. He spent a decade dickering between the SDP and Labour before plumping for the Tories as the best vehicle."

erm, didn't Churchill move from the Lib Dems to the Tories? Most people's political views evolve over time. There's nothing wrong with that.

Geoff M

SDP Finkelstein has never been correct about anything.
The fact that the teenagers at CCHQ think he is some kind of oracle is what exactly why the Tories are not on 50% or more in the polls.

Geoff M

"Most people's political views evolve over time. There's nothing wrong with that."

Finkelstein's political views have not changed, the modern Tory party is just the SDP-lite, that's the problem.