The Tories think Brown is their most potent weapon

stephen

Good for Dave at last he's turning the heat up on Brown. How about turning up the heat on the Lib Dems then UKIP next? Anyone considering voting for either of these parties should ask the question am I pushing the country to another 5 years of Brown?

toco

The increasingly erratic and dysfunctional Brown is indeed Labour's Achilles heel and there was no point in highlighting this until it became too late to choose a new Labour leader.As with most competitions in life timing is everything.

Tom Pride

But Peter Riddell comments:

"The Tories are now poised between a clear Commons majority and being just short of one in a hung parliament. If the latest figures are translated into seats, according to the UK Polling Report, the Tories would be three seats short of an overall majority, though 75 MPs ahead of Labour. But if the Tories were one point higher, and Labour one point lower, David Cameron would have an overall majority of 36. These estimates assume a uniform national swing, or switch, of votes, but, in practice, there are likely to be regional and local variations.

Moreover, there is evidence that the Tories may be doing better in their key target seats which would mean an overall majority at this level of national support."

Sam ARMSTRONG

Why don't they just take a last-minute leap to the right? Get back to some true Tory policies that we can trust ... that would secure a whole heap of voters in a second.

Colin

Yes, that'll be why the tories are 25 points ahead in the polls with barely weeks to go till the next election.

Idiots...

Nick

If the Tories wish to make this election a referendum on Gordon Brown's stewardship of the country and, in particular, the economy why isn't every discussion of the recession, budget deficits, national debt, collapse of sterling, public spending cuts and tax rises prefaced with the fact that it is Gordon Brown who is responsible for all these tragedies.

The election shouldn't be discussed in terms of "Tory cuts" but rather Tory solutions to deal with Brown's mismanagement. And yet hardly any Tory MPs when discussing this on the media manage to get this message across.

TrevorsDen

take a look a populusn before you jump to conclusions.

Populus gave the Tories just an 8% lead in December 09 (38%), now its 10% (40%) – so its jumped around.
and
10% was the Tory lead according to Populus in November, 39%
10% was Tory lead in October, 40%
14% was Tory lead in September, but the share still 40%.
You then have to go back to July where the Tory lead was 12% – but the Tory share just 38%.

Going further back, Populus had the Tories on
36% in June
39% in May
43% in April
42%in March
42% in Feb
43% in Jan
Notice when the change came in? The expenses scandal.

But even when the Tories were on 43 in Jan their lead was still just 10% …
Bottom line – only once since April 2009 have Populus had the Tories on over 40%.

Richard

Negative campaigns never work. The people are not bothered about the Brown or Cameron persona they want to know .....
how much will it cost me
will I have a job
who will look after me if I am sick
etc etc
A good punch up might get the 24hr news media excited but real people want policies and some hope things will get better.
Too much doom and gloom will just switch the public off.....or scare them so much they will stick with the devil they know.

Tim W

Sadly this is the right thing to do. There is now no threat of Gordon not being leader and therefore no risk of anyone else coming in and the attacks being wasted.
Clearly Cameron and Hilton have attempted a more positive campaign by outlining their Tory (albeit vague) vision.
Due to the BBC coverage and the opportunity given to others to criticise the policies, it has backfired as people 'get scared' of the Tories.
In 1992, and election so similar to this one but with positions reversed, Kinnock led a largely positive campaign, outlining his policies and Major's Tories were very negative and the campaign (Labour's Tax Bombshell) was all about scaring people off the opposition and it worked.
The poll lead has narrowed since October conference when Cameron started to outline policies and be more positive. Before then it was all Anti-Brown stuff and Brown was nearly finished.
I'm not saying you can't win by talking policy but they need to be largely unobjectionable policies, unlike tax cuts for marriage, if you're going to win more votes - see the polling of that policy with Labour, Independent and Lib Dem supporters.

ollie

a 40/30/20 split will give the Tories a working majority. They are panicking at recent polls, when they absolutely should not be. The polls show that the public DO NOT want a Labour govt - they are just unsure about the Tories - or so the media narrative tells us.

After the election, the Tories will wonder why they were so nervous.

RKing

I think the media, yourselves included, are to a large part responsible for the tories lower margin in the polls. We don't see the intense scrutiny of nulab policies as we do of tory policies.
Then perhaps its the complete lack of nulab ideas that has some bearing on it but why oh why don't you start banging on a bit about it.

PUT THEM UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT FOR A CHANGE!!!

Mucker

Cam has been keeping his powder dry, don't want a repeat of the "letter to the mother of the KIA son" moment do we (that is when there was a recent surge in support for him). Doing Piers they hope there will be a similar amount of goodwill towards mcbroon...we shall see.

Fergus Pickering

I suggest some stuff on immigration and some anti-muslim noises such as those of the other David Davis, or Davies I can't remember. Well, if it's votes you want... Don't say I didn't warn you. If Dave can't bring himself to do the deed then let someone else who doesn't mind a bit of rough stuff. Hague of the skinhead haircut?

mitch

Meanwhile back in reality, Gordon and his party are toast.
Cameron will have his landslide and labor will be wiped out.....trust me everyone hates brown.

HK

And presumably the next phase of that strategy is:

"Do YOU want to choose whether Gordon Brown gets back in, or do you want Nick Clegg to choose for you?"

Vulture

If Liebour continue their public blubbing tactics over nasty Tory attax on good old Gordon, the Tories have simply to remind them of What a nice chap old Goddy is as detailed in Rawnsley's new book ...and his old one: hauling secretaries out of chairs; bombarding staff with low-flying Nokias; constant tirades of foul mouthed expletives;
plotting with Damian McBride to spread foul lies; undermining Tony Bliar to become PM.
Yes, he's a lovely guy isn't he....

Dan

Ollie's right - the Tories will gain a decent majority at least.

AndyinBrum

V he loves his kids though

M. Rowley

As all the figures show, expansion in the employment market over the past thirteen years has been driven by exponential growth across the public sector. This growth has not been in what might be loosely termed front line posts, but in the creation of a managerial class who have in effect been the executive arm of New Labour, taking forward the agenda of the big state.

Firmly embedded in the public sector there lies a vast swathe of apparatchiks, many on £50K plus salaries, who would sooner feast on the contents of the cat's litter tray than vote Conservative. For the most part university educated, they are articulate, not without influence, and doggedly determined to see Labour win a fourth term as their very existence is contingent upon the continuation of the New Labour project.

I detest Brown as much as the next person, but there's no getting away from the fact that these people will not go down without a fight, and do anything in their gift to keep Labour and their whole rotten machine in power.

oldtimer

The "Do you want five more years of Brown - Yes or No?" test was put by the BBC`s Nick Robinson on the 10pm news last night. He described it as unscientific - how true that was. The cards were simple enough, discussed in groups (no voting privacy) and at the end we were not given the result! So the BBC/Robinson can make up any number they want when the result is finally revealed - if ever. As an exercise in political reporting it was about as low and as open to manipulation as I can imagine.

Cameron and co are right to focus on Brown and his record.

Brown does not keep to his manifesto commitments (think referendum on the Lisbon Treaty) so why should we believe his "legally binding guarantees" - another con in the making?

Brown misrepresents and invents his opponents policies so that he can knock them down (listen to any PMQ session for example). These misrepresentations and inventions do need to be knocked back. Not at PMQs but at another time such as a Cameron press conference. Otherwise people start to believe them, which is Brown`s intention in the first place.

Brown is incompetent. The boast of "No more boom and bust" is evidence of that.

JONNY

These posts prove one thing.
If Cameron wants to regain grassroot respect he'll hit Brown hard - bang in the solar plexus (boyo he'll look puffed).
And even snick the odd one below the belt right the way up to Election Day.
Vicious negative is always more potent than flaccid positive
(just ask Carl Rove).

Paddy

The Tories have to play dirty just like the labour party.

Nicholas

M Rowley. Very good post and a spot on characterisation of the scum keeping "the political wing of the British people" afloat. They are cod versions of the champagne socialists in New Labour. Quangocrats and fake charity gauleiters with spouses in local government or teaching. Literally the party elite of the old communist bloc. Cameron needs to target them and destroy them or they will become the fifth column against everything the Tories try to do.

John Bailey

Gordon Brown has NO Mandate in England and is unelected and unaccountable to every single voter in England, with England being the only place in the so called "UK" that his Policies affect as he has no say in the non English Regions, (including the Scottish Region where he is elected), as they have their 'own' Governments.

Ram that down peoples throats and the election is in the bag!.

Paddy

Agree with M. Rowley. These people will not go down without a fight.

They are very convincing liars and when that fails they turn to tears. They will try every trick in the book.