What’s needed now is a modern Conservative party with clear, discernible principles

oldrightie

An excellent piece.Sadly I rather suspect The Conservative fear of Labours' media juggernaut, however is for a reason. Our nation is now one dominated in every corner by Labour placement and patronage, which will be very hard to counter. That notwithstanding I would welcome anything other than more dreaful years of Labour incompetence and dogma. I agree with you that David Cameron may well be a great leader of this Country. We certainly need one.

salieri

What's neeeded now is better spelling: discernible.

Think This

Well Fraser I am very much on your side in this debate. Its a shame Cameron cant be bolder on things like the NHS and 50p tax. The question I want to ask him is if these are political positions? If Cameron could have his way regardless of an election would he would still have the same policies?

Make no doubt about it though - what you propose is a shift to the right. I don't think this matters. If you can sell it to the electorate they wont care if its right or left wing.

Vulture

Two issues conspicuously absent from your critique - and from Dave's vocabulary are
the intimately linked ones 'Europe' and 'Immigration' - which help to explain why the Tory 'wobble' might yet turn into a full-blown electoral defeat.

ConHome has a post today that Tory candidates have actually been forbidden to mention the'I' word in the General Election campaign.

Doesn't it tell us everything about Dave that the two subjects which, next to the economy, are uppermost in the minds of the voters are subject to Dave's vow of Omerta?

And its significant, Fraser, that you don't mention them either. Anyone for Neather?

Simon

Why not let Fink do a guest bit now and again? James and David are usually fair and worth reading but a bit more balance would not be a bad thing. After all in the good old days when Matthew was editor he was confident enough in his own views to make you political editor.

Dennis Churchill

Vulture
Yes, don’t mention immigration, the E.U or anything where the political class have agreed on the “Right” view.

wrinkled weasel

We are being asked to vote for "Not Brown". That's just not good enough.

I like the word "empowerment", except that, how bad is it, how profoundly disempowering has life in Britain become when the idea of giving us back what should be ours of right - that is
that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness - should now be something in a manifesto?

200 years ago, the Government introduced income tax to pay for the war. Now the government wishes us to pay for everything. Apart from health, education, security and lifting people out of poverty, we have been disempowered from making our own decisions, told what is good for us and now, prevented, yes, prevented from leading our lives as we wish.

The government rules not with the tacit consent of the people, but with the aquiescence of a nation that has been broken to the point of reliance.

Frank P

Only 90 or so days to go. We need to know the true colours of the current Tory Party, so that we can encourage others to vote for it, provided that its true colours are Conservative, of course, and not Blair - Brown II with different mushes on the government benches and a new cabal of pinkos in the back rooms of Whitehall. The carnival is over and the cross-dressing must stop or you'll get f****d by mistaken identity Mr Cameron.

I wish you Westminster Villagers would stop talking among yourselves on these pages as though the punters can't hear you and are your puppets whose fingers will put crosses according to your whim.

denis cooper

It's far too late to have a debate about the future direction of the Tory party.

At this stage the only concern of the party leadership is to win the general election, and therefore they'll be prepared to say anything they believe might help to accomplish that, but also therefore nothing that they say now can be trusted.

However if the Tories do win the election it will be by default, not because they are in tune with the people but because Labour appears even more out of tune, and above all because the Labour government will be blamed for economic hardship.

I'm looking for a party which is genuinely attached to the British people and treats them with respect, and which above all has an unequivocal and steadfast core belief that the British people have the right to both possess and govern their own country.

I haven't seen much of that in the Tory party during recent years; instead I've seen an engrained contempt for the British people, and an unscrupulous readiness to deceive the British people, and an indifference to the natural rights of the British people, in Tory attitudes almost as much as in Labour attitudes.

As far as any patriot is concerned the Tory party is close to being a lost cause, and if it does happen to win the election it will probably pass beyond any hope of redemption.

John

The length of this post is illuminating. You're worried about the reaction you've received to your self-indulgent, armchair criticism of Cameron and Co.
When you started this "friendly fire" you imagined the Tories were going to walk it anyway, so why not get a bit of street cred by having a go at the leadership.
It seems to have dawned on you by now that you're part of the media narrative that will probably keep Brown in power.
How does it feel to be a "useful idiot"?

stephen

I am becoming increasingly despondent about our Dave and the Fink's views do nothing to allay this.Dave seems increasingly under the influence of poltically immature people like Boy George and those who designed the awful "airbrushed" picture of him. At least the poster seems to have come down! Let's hope our Dave can toughen up, dump the electoral liabilties who surround him and find a "Mad Monk"like Keith Joseph and a smooth enforcer like Willie Whitelaw to do his dirty work like getting Boy George out of the way.

John Richardson

Thank you 'Vulture' and 'D.Churchill'.

Like most people these days I scrolled straight down to the comments before I began to read.
Then I realised no 'immigration', no 'Europe'?
We are supposed to take this seriously ?

An article written from a right of center perspective, with an election approaching, that refuses to acknowledge the vital, central importance of these two subjects.
To ignore them is a bold political statement. A policy in itself.
Why bother reading about 'Ideology' or 'Policies' when the two most important and interesting subjects are deliberately omitted ?

So thanks again to the above two, you saved me 10 minutes of my life I would have wasted.

MSM.
Dontchalovem ?

strapworld

Mr Nelson. How is it you can write three blogs on your speech and still not do the one you promised me, on Neather and Immigration. As Vulture has written Cameron has banned candidates from even mentioning the word! Does that mean that this is another ''promise'' (I will cap immigration!) that is false? It does appear so.

The Conservative Party under Cameron is more Liberal and Socialist than Conservative.

Denis Cooper.. It is NEVER too late. Your attitude, if I may say, is the problem with people these days. People are too happy to embrace a pretty face. The problem with Cameron, as far as I am concerned, and I write as a lifelong Tory (With a very short sojourn with the awful Ukip), his problem is that he is weak!

TGF UKIP

Thanks Fraser, at least we know who you are now. Far from being the good solid conservative I had thought and hoped you were, it's clear that by identifying so closely with Dave that you are really nowt but a fellow "One Nation relatively liberal" progressive. Thanks for clearing that up.

Note you are staying well clear of giving us tomorrows ICM poll which is prompting such Labour gloating. As such a mate of Dave's, can't blame you really.

perdix

The Conservative principles are:
Transparency, Accountability & Responsibility.
These words will not win an election because the most of the electorate does not think very deeply, but if pursued in government would transform the country.

Watt Tyler

Fraser, don't worry. Cast-Iron Dave won't lose the election because you criticised him. He will lose it, if he is going to lose it, because he did not seem to address the chief concerns of the electorate. I don't think that you needed to spend so much effort defending your corner.

I can see why you thought you needed to. There is this really strange idea amongst apparent Tories (some posting here) that if you criticise Cast-Iron, you are risking more Labour government. The idea is that if you don't vote Tory, then you will be responsible for the extention of Gordons term in office.

No.

If we don't vote Tory (I will be voting UKIP), and Labour get re-elected, it will be Cast-Irons fault.

You yourself point out that the Tory government will do so from within certain Labourite socialist parameters - (I suspect it is because you point this out that they really atteck you). Subsequently, we will see that the Marxist Long March will go from strength to strength. This will be the greatest irony.

emil

Vote for "Not Brown" is plenty good enough for me in 2010. I'm certainly more prepared to see if Cameron can make the rights choices in government, and trust his judgement in what not to say beforehand, than expect Brown to be less of an unmitigated disaster than he has been in the tragic event that he actually gets elected for the first time.

Short the UK

Once in a while Team Cameron get ahead of the curve, then they slam the brakes on and go behind the curve.

The "austerity" back flip is political cowardice. Do Team Cameron read Bloomberg, Alphaville and Clusterstock? TC has face to face access to the best macro thinkers in the World, so you'd think they would have a focused message and narrative for the befuddled public! I think it is the disease of focus groups and triangualtion that is at the root of the weak leadership, or should I say non existent leadership.

If we do have a hung parliament we may need a Government of National Unity as the focus must be on National Salavation.

JohnRS

I very much agree with your article

When I heard Cameron speak at the Conservative Party conference I was impressed with what he said. It was full of good ideas, delivered with passion. Since then it's all turned to ashes.

Now we have content-free, mealy mouthed speeches that say nothing. There's no passion or policies. There's nothing conservative about this Conservative Party and the voters have figured this out. Tonight another poll is released showing the poll lead down to less than ten percent. Cameron is going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory unless he changes tack very, very soon. Looking at the calendar he's probably only got a couple of weeks to replan his approach and start to get it out to the voting public so it can sink in before the GE.

If he fails to make some major changes, a hung parliamnet will be the very best he can expect to achieve. He'll need to consider his postion if this is the best he can do after being so far ahead.

TrevorsDen

You are talking rampant gibberish.

Just look at the response to the Tories quite reasonable policies on cutting the deficit. An hysterical over emphasis on the horrid nasty tory cuts, all played up by the media.

David Cameon is a Conservative, leading the Conservative party and I would be very surprised if his government was not a Conservative one.

Just what more do you want??

What I would like is to see you stopping this endless speculation and and questioning about the soul and future of the Conservative opposition and start campaigning for a Conservative victory.

You can argue about the policy of a Conservative government to your hearts content.

And next time you see the Barclay Bros you can ask them why they are presiding over the ruining of the Telegraph titles.

TrevorsDen

TGF -- the last few ICM polls have given leads of ... 9, 10, 11 and now 9 again.
If this is a source of labour gloating then they are in a worse state than I imagined. The reality is its your gloating, but quite why anyone should gloat over polls which are well within a margin of statistical error defeats me.

But hey 'TGF UKIP' thanks to the way you say you are going to vote you are doing your level best to see a return of a Brown govt. ie you you are a walking contradiction.

So I would keep quiet if I were you.

djw2009

In the Thatcherite v. modernizer debate (note the z spelling, which is the correct OED spelling), Brown is a modernizer. Brown believes in Europe, immigration, homosexuality, government intervention, quangoes and global warming. If Cameron wants to be a modernizer, then there'll be no choice at the election for the electorate. What the country needs is a healthy dose of Thatcherism.

Fraser, by citing the problem as lack of direction, not ideology, you are calling for policies that are distinctive but fully within the modernizers' spectrum. Eg a luxury goods tax - there is nothing non-Labour about such a proposal; it is one that could be made within the Labour Party without moving out of the Labour ideological penumbra. In other words, you are left calling for policies that are all within the sphere of things that could be considered by the Labour Party. But if the Conservative Party doesn't have a different ideology; if it occupies exactly the same ideological space as Labour, what is it for? I want the Tories to do things that Labour would never consider - eg closing down all the quangoes, abolishing the race relations industry, cancelling foreign aid, withdrawing from the refugee convention, withdrawing from the EU. I simply will not vote for a party every single one of whose policies could just as well be in the Labour manifesto.

Actually, Fraser, you 're wrong. Cameron has no good angel. He would never consider radical policies. He will do the bare minimum the markets force him do - as would Brown too.

Alexandrovich

There is an increasingly loud noise coming from the comments here and there. They tell me, more or less, that if I do not vote Conservative I am stupid; do I want to give Brown another five years?
When they tell me exactly how five years of Cameron will change anything I might reconsider. Instead of concentrating on revenge on Labour, start pressuring Cameron to tell me what his plans are for immigration. Until you do, I couldn't give a toss.
What you (and Parris) are saying is 'don't tell the voters what you are going to do until you get in'. I think you arrogantly underestimste the majority of voters if you think they can't handle the truth. And they won't take kindly to Cameron staring, dead-eyed into the cameras and saying 'wait and see'.
If he doesn't show some backbone PDQ, the Clunking Fist may very well be back.
Heaven forbid.

daniel maris

I can see why UKIP are getting serious attention.

The Conservative Party are completely wedded to a future in the EU, but without being honest about that.

The Conservative Party seem unwilling to pursue radical policies with respect to the structure of the welfare state and taxation but nevertheless give the impression they want to reduce the employment rights of ordinary working people.

The Conservative does nothing and says nothing about the threat from the totalitarian Shariah movement. Instead, it courts the votes of those who support Shariah.

UKIP may be a ragbag set of dodgy politicos. But at the very least they are the party that has sounded the alarm about Shariah and supports Geert Wilders.

The Conservatives can't be bold on the EU, on mass immigration, on Shariah, because to do so would split the party down the middle.

A vote for UKIP may be a necessary step to creating a radical populist party that will prevent the slide to Shariah and incorporation into the EU superstate.

wrinkled weasel

For all the whingeing on this comments thread, nobody is serious about voting Labour. So perhaps that is the point: Cameron knows the hardliners, (or maybe those with principles and a desire to see Conservative values restored) will not desert. Of course they will not, they will just whinge about Cameron being wishy washy, which of course is true.

Right now, I guess his strategy (and I hope to God that this is what it is) is to woo the waverers and not frighten the horses with bad words like "Europe" and "Immigration".

If he succeeds, and captures the floating vote, then perhaps the true vision can emerge.

(Of course, I believe none of this - Cameron is what he appears to be.)

Archie

No, Mr. Nelson! Even Cameron's cheerleader-in-chief, Matthew Dancona, appears to be having doubts, just like the rest of us have had for some considerable time! The opinion poll gap is narrowing because he is perceived as untrustworthy (cast-iron guarantee, green frippery, no grammar schools, etc.) and therefore not fit to be entrusted with government. I say this, no matter how much The Speccer or others try to boost the Tories' image, it is their leader who is under the spotlight and under this so-called leader they are doomed!

Fitalass

A very disappointing article, and one that doesn't answer the essential question. How do you get elected on an honest mandate which restores trust in our current electoral system?

One thing I never hear you or your colleagues bang on about on this site, Cameron's passion to restore politics to its rightful owners and legislators.Oh, the owners are the electorate if there was any doubt.

Thanks for the wasted last few weeks. Now we have the Libdems under Clegg's stewardship backing Brown's 'grubby and cynical' attempt at an AV referendum. Kind of took your eye of the ball there a bit.

It makes your speech and articles of recent weeks look weak and ill advised. Stick a finger out the window to judge the political weather instead. Hope the team are happy at the current political situation.

We have life style guru's up at Holyrood, C4 has Gok, and Westminster alas has you and your team here. A right leaning government will be a friggin miracle in these circumstances. Not a very sensitive political antennae on display I am afraid.

laverda

I totally agree that VAT should be increased (to about 25%) and the 50p tax scrapped. At the same time the tax allowance should be raised to £10K for low paid workers and pensioners. I also think the tories should u-turn on a EU referendum. Let the public express their view on it, (full membership or trade only or withdrawal). The public need radical policy to sort out the mess Brown & co are leaving.

R King

Nice thoughts for a perfect world but sadly this is the UK 2010.
He is up against the most formidable liars we have ever seen with the likes of Mandleson and Cambell advising and I don't think that your purist thoughts and reasoning wouldn't last five minutes against the nulab mafia.

I'm afraid he's going to get down and play it nasty, real nasty with no holds barred. The labour crew will stop at nothing to regain power.

Brian Parkhurst

The problem is slavish adherence to focus groups. Good politicians lead don't follow.
The Conservatives need to be consistent. Power to the community is an excellent policy. This morning's revelation that planning procedures for new schools will be taken away from local authorities is a negation of that policy.
Removeal of quangos is another excellent policy but we keep hearing about new ones being proposed by front bench shadow ministers!.
GET A GRIP!

potager

Frazer, in response to your point that now is the time to examine the minutiae of Tory policy, and criticise where you find it wanting, I would ask you to consider:

1. The General Election is a mere 90 days away.

2. As other bloggers have pointed out, the media generally has a left-wing bias. As a spectacular example, please look back at Jon Sopel's interviews with David Cameron and Peter Mandelson on The Politics Show Sunday 31 January. Sopel interrupted Cameron at every turn, his tone was hostile, facial gestures pained and disbelieving accompanied by much peremptory finger-wagging. Mandelson by contrast suffered just ONE interruption and otherwise Sopel's demeanour was deferential, supine and compliant. Indeed Mandelson later congratulated Nick Robinson on the BBC's handling of Cameron!

3. I would set a challenge for you and any other interested blogger: can you find ONE positive achievement of this 3-term Labour government (which does not rely on questionable statistics for its validity) and which can be set against the following list of disasters and failures:

- The debt mountain (public and private);

- Crumbling public services - NHS, education, social services; antiquated infrastructure, uncertain energy supplies; initiative-sapping, ruinous and poorly targeted benefit system and tax credits; Iraq, Afghanistan, Britain's shattered repuation in the world, collapse of sterling, uncontrolled immigration, loss of manufacturing base, MPs expenses, government by cabal and smear.

You have said that you think David Cameron would make a fine prime minister, and I agree with you. So now is the time for people of great influence such as you, to nail your colours to the mast, focus your fire on Gordon Brown and his cohorts, and be unequivocal in your support for the Tories!

Yak Yak

Empowered to live under the heel of the Brussels clique; I include European Governments in that group. This is one of the most decadent plutocracies the world has seen. Their luxury is enabled by modern medicine, conveniences, mobility and aggregation of a continent's taxes. Another important strand of their solution for us is the free movement of cheap labour, hence the immigration which citizens are subjected to (subjects subjected to in our case but that doesn't read as well) and from which they are shielded by security guards, gates and chauffeur driven cars. We are undone by the political class and are disenfranchised. Empowerment is the last thing on anyone's mind.The Spectator has over time become just another guest at the feast. Given all that, if someone wants to suggest a place to deposit my vote I'd be glad to hear it.

Tiberius

I'm asking myself, Fraser; why do you keep returning to this theme? It feels like a wobble of your own, self-justification even if it isn't.

Since you mention Matt, Archie, his article in today's ST provides perspective, not newly found doubt. I don't think his disagreement with Cameron over grammar schools and 90 day detention justifies him being called his cheerleader.

Noa Zrk

"What’s needed now is a modern Conservative party with clear, discernable principles".

Spot on, Fraser. The difficulty is that every time we, the discerning, seek clarification on principles we are told to shut up on the grounds that we are rocking the boat and will be personally responsible for the re-election of Labour and the perpetuation of Hell on earth for all time.
So, the unenviable choice for would-be Tory voters is, it appears between a bizarre variation of the US military's gay policy of"don't ask, don't tell" or "ask no questions and you'll hear no lies".
Either way, the losers are the British people.

TomTom

Cast an eye on Merkel's Government. She is in dangerous waters. Having botched her election first time around and been forced into a coalition with the outgoing SPD thanks to Gerhard Schroeder's aggressive campaigning; she emerged from the secon election in coalition with the FDP with its supposedly market-oriented policies.

Now her government is stymied, fractious and will ose state elections within months of being re-elected. The sense of drift and managerialism in place of leadership makes Germany a prime candidate for bond-market trashing if it gets too near Greece and the PIGS.

The Euro debacle is just one more disaster for Germany's disastrous State finances and in Year 5 of a Merkel administration the sense of drift is irking more and more Germans.

Cameron may have a baptism of fire within weeks

Marcher Baron

I spend a lot of time talking to people when I'm walking my dogs. Inevitably talk turns to the state of the country and thus to politics and what should be done to "put the world to rights". What I hear from the man in the street (or at the barber's) bears no relationship to Dave's touchy feely liberal agenda. The general consensus of what I hear is that there are too many people coming here (many of whose lifestyle is inimical to us) to take advantage of our benefits without contributing, that the primacy of a secular, tolerant, but basically Judeo-Christian tradition should be affirmed, that it should not be considered racist to believe that immigrants should speak English, that the Human Rights
Act has been a criminals' charter, that paying young women to get pregnant and live off the State is disastrous, that AGW is just a rip-off excuse for more taxes, that we would be better off out of the EU and that police should be back on the beat preventing crime, not ticking diversity boxes. The party that will address these issues and restore some semblance of sanity is the one that most people I talk to want to vote for. Unfortunately for Dave, particularly post his decision to ditch a referendum on the EU and his support for an influx of homosexuals from Africa, it does not seem to be his party.

PAUL GILBOY

Frazer don’t you realise that last Wednesdays question time was a game changer. Gordon Browns character was completely destroyed and left in shreds.

The defence chiefs said he wilfully under funded the army in Iraq and was the most unsympathetic chancellor they had ever encountered; anecdotal evidence from those on the ground stated that they had to buy American equipment out of their own pocket or search E bay for boots and equipment. Men kit and equipment was denied as as Basra fell to gun men

Claire short tells us that Brown was worried that he would be shuffled out of Government once Tony Blair declared victory. If victory was denied Blair Brown won.

Ergo, the Man who controlled the purse strings, Gordon Brown left the British soldiers to bleed in Iraq, to satisfy his own political positioning.

The logic of this preposition cannot be refuted as this tells a story that we all saw before our eyes.

The British army was not defeated by anyone but Gordon Brown determined to secure for himself the crown, the crown he did not have the guts to fight for.

AB

spot on about the city. thatcher would never have accepted "socialism for the rich". RBS and the rest would have been dismantled, anyone who needed cash from the BoE would have been forced to pay penal rates. The system would have been protected but we wouldn't have needed Labour's faux class war to capture unearned bonuses because there wouldn't have been any to collect.

stephen

I see the Times now describes Boy George as our Dave's "Election Co-ordinator" his first proper job!? IMHO Dave seems completely memerised by the Boy who got lucky with his IHT proposals a couple of years ago and probably caused Brown to bottle on an Election then.Since then it seems our Dave thinks the Boy walks on water! Sadly the Boy's IHT proposals are now an electoral liability but the Boy is too immature to spot this unlike Ken Clarke. The trouble is Dave and Boy George are far too close for Dave to comtrol/sack him they are god fathers of each others children and of course ex Buller members!