Cameron must win outright

John Adlington

Chris Huhne will lose his seat and therefore cannot realistically challenge for the LD leadership.

Walsingham's Ghost

"The alternative is not power-sharing: it's chaos."

Amen to that, Brother...

WG

Naomi Muse

In the normal way of things I would agree with you, Fraser. Dave and Co need to win outright.

However, we are not in the normal way of things. MPs have been shown to be less than honest about expenses, and to have an unfairly liberal policy toward their own expenses and allowances.

The House of Lords is in a similar pickle.

All of these people should pay all of the money back based on the yardstick that they would not have received if submitted through a normal company with normal shareholders and HMRC rules applied.

Therefore we are not in the normal way of things.

The number of sitting MPs who will not be returned because of this tainting is likely to surprise.

There is already a replacement of around 50% of MPs who are going because they choose to or have been shamed into it.

The whole way politics is working is changing, partly because of the apparent lack of integrity of MPs, and partly because the influence on voters is different this time.

We are being presented, for the first time, with a 'leaders debate' and leaders comparison, including wives and other cup cake and pinny ideas.

Wierd though this is because we do not elect leaders, we only elect MPs. Who knows whether one of the leaders or shadow cabinet people may not get voted into a seat at all!

If Broon, Cameron or Clegg fails to get elected then another nail in the coffin of party politics is hammered home.

The blogosphere is likely to do for party politics what it did for the puff over climate change scientists. The power of the online communities has not been taken into account.

Vulture

It's a ghastly thought, but the last time that the country was faced with a financial catastrophe of this magnitude, in 1931, the result was a National Government of all three parties...apart from the majority of Labour who went into opposition.

It's still a moot point whether that Govt. got us out of the depression or just presided over it. It excluded two of the men who proposed Keynesian solutions (Lloyd George and Oswald Mosley - the latter teetering on the edge of fascism, but not yet over it..) and basically remained in power ( with the addition of Labour in 1940) until 1945. Slightly longer than Britney's marriages, I think.

So be careful of what you wish for, Fraser.
Incidentally, you say that Chris Huhne will be on manoevres to take the leadership from Clegg. Not if he loses his marginal seat he won't. I think his majority is only around 500.

welease woger

Of course it would be much better if Cameron won outright.

So why don't you get behind him a bit more?

denis cooper

"The Westminster system does not handle coalitions"

Then let's change it so that it can handle coalitions, if that's what the electorate want.

Who do these bloody politicians think they are?

Brown, Cameron, Clegg - who are they, where have they come from, and when did the people as a whole ever agree that it would always delegate its sovereign power exclusively to the leader of just one political faction?

They're supposed to serve us, not dictate to us that we must always vote for single party government.

Sheila

welease woger The Spectator is more behind Cameron than any publication. There's more than a few journalistic careers here hinging on getting scoops from the top of a Cameron Government.

If Cameron doesn't win outright one has to wonder whether the party won't rip itself in two and try to absorb UKIP in one of the breakaway wings. Not that this would do any good. By then Clegg and Brown would have rigged the voting system against any conservative opinions there would be precious little to fight for.

Clowns to the Left of us, fools to the Right.

Ex-Tory voter

I agree that it would be better if Cameron won outright, but he doesn't put forward the policies I want to vote for.

Moraymint

It seems to me that the Tory Party's strategy rests ultimately on hoping that voters are assuming that they, the Tories, more so than Gordon Brown will dig us out of the unimaginable mess created by 13 years of Marxism-by-stealth.

We are being asked, by implication, simply to accept/believe that the Conservative Party has the philosophy, policies, skills and courage to prevent the nation from slipping into catastrophic socio-economic decline.

I say this because I still find it difficult to discern just what the Conservative Party really does stand for when it comes down to critical issues like uncontrolled immigration, the power and cost of the EU, repealing the thousands of needless laws passed since 1997, personal taxation, the ever-increasing intrusiveness of the state, multi-generational welfare dependency, the lack of investment in defence and security ... in other words, reversing 13 years of the utter madness of socialism.

I crave clarity on these things for the Tories to guarantee my vote. Meantime, I continue to wonder just where to place my vote.

Perhaps this is why the polls show so much national uncertainty as the general election looms. A hung parliament could just be the best way of quickly re-setting our national politics and putting some clear blue water between Marxism and the alternative(s).

My greatest disappointment and suspicion about the Conservative Party is probably summed up in that idiotic phrase they spouted for so long, namely "sharing the proceeds of growth" whilst it was becoming clear to some of us that the UK was about to be heading for hell in a handcart.

At a time when state spending and the associated national debt was rocketing into orbit with a wild-eyed Gordon Brown grasping the joystick and throttles, the Tories were, in effect, talking about running up yet more state spending. WTF?

Only now, when armageddon beckons, is the Tory Party trying to persuade us that they're economically gifted. Let's hope they are (all of a sudden).

All that said, the prospect of another 5 years of the Labour Party in power is truly horrific. However, the Tories are cutting it fine, to say the least.

I want an outright Conservative Party victory. I just hope to goodness these guys are up to it.

steve

Fraser is correct, there'll soon be another election.

PLEASE vote for UKIP to:
1) Oust the 'heir to Blair'.
2) Protest against Cultural Marixism, Islamification...

denis cooper

Let's just remember that each of these three men - Brown, Cameron and Clegg - has been elevated to the position of "leader" by a political faction which comprises a tiny minority of the population.

Put together all the members of all three parties, and what do you get? Less than one percent of all adult citizens.

That's the degree to which these three political gangs have managed to alienate themselves from the bulk of the population, most of whom no longer want anything to do with any of them.

There are now about as many Buddhists in this country as there are Tory party members; we could ask the Buddhists to nominate somebody to take control of the country, instead of relying on Tory party members, and that person would probably be little more disconnected from the rest of us than the person who has been chosen by the Tories.

Tiberius

Sheila: if you read the Speccie (mag and blog) and the Telegraph over the last few weeks, I'm sure you'll conclude the latter to be more supportive of Cameron, all the more so if you ignore Heffer.

Tiberius

"I want an outright Conservative Party victory. I just hope to goodness these guys are up to it".

Moraymint: The lady from Bolton on Trevor's programme summarized it for me when she said she wanted a leader who is intelligent and clever. She should perhaps have added sane (cf The Mentalist and the Ballsup).

Verity

Steve:

3. Punch our way out of the EUSSR.

4. End thought fascim/political correctness, including indoctrination of the young in school.

5. On day one, cancel membership in the ECHR scam. Halt all immigration from primitive societies and followers of a violent, primitive belief system and cancel "benefits" for asylum seekers and polygamous "wives".

6. The promise of binding referenda.

Richard of Cirencester

Moraymint rather likes the idea of a hung parliament.

I was a member of Brent Council in 1990 when inconclusive local elections resulted in the six Liberal Democrats (out of sixty six councillors) holding the balance.

It was a nightmare. We never even knew who would chair a meeting until the Lib Dems decided on the night. The Council officers were at their wits end trying to keep the council going with no members able to give them direction. Trying to set a sensible budget was impossible.

It wasn't until a year later when the Conservatives put together a much criticised coalition with two dissident Labour councillors ('the only Conservative-Black Power coalition in the world' as Private Eye put it) that the Conservative-led Council was able to tackle the Borough's appalling financial problems created by the Labour Council of 1986-90.

Let no-one be in any doubt - a vote for the Lib Dems is a vote for Labour.

Jean Monnet

If Mr Cameron does not win outright, perhaps the Tory party could find itself a leader who would not have failed to depose the nastiest, most incompetent, most profligate and most mendacious administration since records began.

John David Barnett

Dennis Cooper

How do you propose changing the system? I should imagine we will always end up with parties which have leaders.

Mervyn Rosenberg

The persistant moaning about elements of current policy (and, yes, much policy has been announced)are puerile.
If we don't vote Tory we will get Labour!
In this circumstance not voting Tory should deserve a trip to the Tower.

Rabyrover

The Lib dems most attractive policy is to abolish income tax on income under £10,000. If we do not have a majority, we should agree to this policy (few conservatives would disagree); Lib Dems could not then refuse a deal.

Moraymint

Richard of Cirencester
March 15th, 2010 4:24pm

Richard, I don't like the idea of a hung parliament as much as I fear the idea of another 5 years of the Labour Party in power.

My point is that if the British people choose a hung parliament then it could be a quicker way of sorting out both of the main parties once and for all time: destroying the Labour Party (hopefully) and at the same time forcing the Conservative Party to rediscover its real self.

Herbert Thornton

So we must hope for a Cameron-led majority because it's better than chaos? Even though, on immigration and the Lisbon Treaty Cameron & Co. are indistinguishable from Brown & Co.?

To paraphrase Enoch Powell - "What's wrong with chaos?"

And if all three terrify you equally, then what's wrong with UKIP and the BNP?

paulg

Any talk of coalitions are a helping hand to the Liberal democrats, a party so misnamed that you would assume the european union would forced a change.

The conservatives are going after their seats and, irrigardless of the polls will take them.

So all this speculation is conjecture, no more no less.

The conservatives must fight to win because only a victory will see a conservative government, persuing conservative policies, delivering a society based upon conservative values.

we no longer want a mish mash of ideologies driving our people to torment and ruin. When we know the path to decency, liberty and prosperity is only found through conservatism.

The conservatives fight to win and, win we must.

Kirsty Richards

I want the Tories to win with a majority of between 10 and 20. This will result in Cameron being held hostage by the right of the party instead of the LibDems. He will have to give them some red meat, hopefully on Europe etc.

Ian C

Richard of Cirencester
Quite right, but to put it more clearly: A vote for the LDem's is a vote to keep GB in No 10. So is a vote for UKIP, Greens or anyone else.

You Cameron whingers have a clear choice. Vote for him or give your vote to Brown. Don't be so bloody stupid.

denis cooper

If I thought it was possible, I'd propose simultaneously scrapping all three of the present main parties to allow the emergence of new parties committed to serving the people rather than themselves.

denis cooper

Ian C, the more you take that line, the more determined I become that I will NOT vote as you think I should.

Verity

Paulg - "... only a victory will see a conservative government, persuing conservative policies, delivering a society based upon conservative values."

And what values are those, then?

Unfettered immigration by third world primitives cleaving to a violent and primitive belief system? Following diktats from the EUSSR? Ignoring the promised referendum on the EU? Not imprisoning violent malfeasants? Not deporting illegal aliens? Continuing to give taxpayer-funded benefits to men with several illegal "wives" so they can breed lots of warriors for Allah? (That is the reason for the multiple wives, in case you didn't know.)

Any promises regarding derogating from the EHRA?

So, what "values" is Dave talking about, then?

TGF UKIP

I really do envy you Fraser, I do wish I could wind up old Tiberius even half as well as you.

But how deliciously exquisite is that bit from your Graudniad piece "And some of the fee-market LibDems, such as David laws, are too right wing for a Cameron government anyway." Absolutely priceless and definitely guaranteed the get the old boy spluttering into his Wincarnis, so well does it define Dave and his Clique.

Meanwhile, you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be an avalanche of "Dump Dave" calls if he fails, in these circumstances, to win an adequate majority. And they'll be coming from far and wide and by no means confined to those Tiberius chooses to describe as "the pack."

potager

Well Fraser, perhaps if you had spent less of your time criticising the Tories there could be more certainty of them achieving an overall majority.
I remember only too clearly an appearance on The Politics Show
when you had obviously been included as the 'Tory'commentator.You were so negative about the Tories Mathew Taylor, ex Labour advisor, and Jo Coburn felt obliged to leap to the Tories' defense in the interest of balance.
Can you undo the damage you have caused?

Andy Leeds

I think a far more likely outcome could be Gordon the Moron Brown remains in office. I can see him not winning an overall majority but being the largest party. He would be able to use the conventions of his office to present a Queen's Speech, including in it loads of carrots for the LibDems, and then basically dare them to vote it down. The LibDems will never enter a coalition with the Tories - never. They hate the Tories far more than they have care for our country. It might end up being a rerun of 1974, only the Tories will win at the second election, and probably quite big too.

sallen

I have voted Tory in every election since 1987. this time Dave will not get my vote. i don't exactly know why, maybe because of Europe, maybe because of ineptitude in confronting brown, maybe becaise i cannot see any difference between Libour and Tory. whatever it, they will not be getting my vote.

Archie

Why on earth would anyone vote for the Tories when they are indistinguishable from NuLabour or indeed the LibDems? Especially when anyone can see what a complete Horlicks the present so-called government has made?

Nicholas

Archie: "Why on earth would anyone vote for the Tories when they are indistinguishable from NuLabour or indeed the LibDems?"

Utter nonsense. Clearly you don't read much or even bother listening to what Cameron and Osborne have to say. There is no comparison between them and Brown's gang.

I suspect much of the mischief on this site is Labour trolls (e.g. sallen) trying to provoke rifts amongst the Conservatives and undermine their voting base. And it's no good pleading the tired "traditional conservative, man of principle" line, if the posts are as good as Labour trolling then you are as good as Labour trolls.

sallen

@Nicholas. How Offensive : ) "Labour Trolls" i am a small businessman in Essex planning my exit from this country if Brown/ labour win or even get close. It will be proof that the electorate has been bought off by the socialist’s free money. Labour need to be destroyed, utterly crushed. If not, there is absolutely no hope left of a bright future in this country. Another reason I cannot bring my self to vote Tory is I know that Browns scorched earth policy will not be punished. He will be allowed to retire gracefully instead of being brought to justice. Justice for our soldiers, our taxes, our gold, our children’s futures and his LIES.

stephen maybery

War gaming? and what in the name of almighty God is that? What has the commentariat got against expressing themselves in a creditable version of the English language? One gets the impression that utilising English properly is not only akin to elitism (Horror of horrors)but even worse, dropping a fart during the parson's sermon.

P Baker

After the last TV debate, YouGov asked: “How would you vote on May 6 if you thought the Liberal Democrats had a significant chance of winning the election”. The responses: Lib Dem 49%, Conservative 25%, Labour 19%. If this actually happened there would be 548 Lib Dem MPs, 41 Labour MPs and just 25 Tories.

The message here seems to be, vote for what you really want to happen, and it will.