The Tories have no plan b

Praguetory

What's Labour's plan B? The Tories goal is to win the next election. Bit early for succession planning.

Richard Jenkins

The problem with Cameron is that he is too nice. Going to Rwanda was a huge political misjudgement, but no doubt (a) not having a huge ego he underestimated the symbolic leadership of just being at the floods; and (b)naturally courteous, he did not want to tell his Rwandan hosts, "sorry, something came up". Same issue with Willets and grammar schools - Cameron managed with a light touch, when what was needed was Blairist or Brownite control freakery, to cut the issue down before it ever started. He is one of the nice guys, and we all know where they finish. Cameron can fix the problem by learning to be a little less nice.

James T Kirk

It is indeed hard to pin down precisely what has happened to the Tories since the May elections. To my mind, though, it seems to be a collective loss of nerve in the face of Brown's coronation. They have been cowed by the media's presentation of Brown as invincible (maybe Blair's clunking fist quip actually is the single biggest influence in all this) and have taken to the bunker rather than return fire with the huge quantities of ammunition Brown bequeathed them while Chancellor. Brown's coronation could be said to be the Tories' Pearl Harbor, and while the wreckage after both events may be comparable, the Tories, unlike the US, did actually have the means to prepare a defence.

Colonial

Desperate times require desperate measures. Could a strategic, one off vote for the BNP shake the Tories out of their soggy torpor and produce a leader people can take seriously?

Michael McGowan

The problems that the Tories are facing are the problems they have had for at least the last ten years but have never addressed. The endless search for a Messiah is simply displacement activity which enables them to avoid tackling real issues. They are in danger of becoming a virtual party with little infrastructure in large parts of the country and whose leadership has gone out of its way over many years to alienate its natural supporters: not just social conservatives but lower-middle class/working class strivers too. Despite seeking out new supporters, Labour has always looked after its heartlands. The Tories have stuck two fingers up to theirs. At Westminster, the Party is hopelessly split. People like Ken Clarke and Quentin Davies are left-leaning 1950's patricians who basically belong on the left. Only cultural distaste has stopped them defecting and now Quentin Davies has realised this. Others will follow. Furthermore, the pay, rations and club facilities of Westminster plus the opportunity provided by Opposition to pursue other financial interests mean that being out of office is far from unpleasant for many Tory MPs, starting at the top. Unlike Labour in the mid-1990's, they simply lack the stomach and workaholic instincts for the protracted guerrilla warfare needed to roll back the New Labour tide. They also face a far more determined enemy than Labour faced in the mid-1990's, not least because Labour has ideological bearings. The Tories have almost none. All told, asking the Tories to run an effective opposition is a bit like asking Lord Emsworth to run the French Resistance. Replacing Dave will not chnage anything much.

James T Kirk

Michael McGowan's argument is convincing, and in effect means that Cameron has merely provided a temporary respite from the default position, aided perhaps by Blair's unpopularity in his last few years. Is that it, then? Britain is now and for generations a one Party state?

Michael Gorman

Many people complain that we are run by professional politicians rather than people with experience of commerce, administration, law, etc. Mr McGowan seems to be arguing for even more professionalism; so lets hear it on behalf of the amateurs. British people are patriotic, but we want to feel relaxed about it.

Michael McGowan

I am simply suggesting that they need to be effective: whether or not they manage it as amateurs is their business. Part of the current problem is that there is now a perfectly respectable profession, quite well-paid and not too demanding, called being an opposition MP.

Brian Jenner

Michael McGowan is spot on. The Tory Party is organisationally dead. It's time to start a new party.

Take this example. My MP is an 80s throwback. He's just an ordinary backbencher, but worse he insists on holding on to his agent, who is a just very old-fashioned and bureaucratic.

Bournemouth is the key to the South West. You need a dynamic party organisation to start taking back the nearby seats and begin a recovery.

But Butterfill is staying put till 2014 if he can manage it. That means the repair work can't start for another SEVEN years.

The Tories did well here recently, not because they were good, but because people hated the LibDems. It obscures the fact that the Tories are pressganging their friends into being councillors, they're not recruiting fresh talent.

Six people hijacked the Labour Party and took it to Government. That's all it needs to wipe out the Conservative Party.

M

Why all this pessimism? It seems like everyone who have commented so far have already resigned to Brown and New Labour. It isn't given that Gordon Brown will be the PM after the next General Election, or that New labour is destined to rule Great Britain. Of course, the easiest course of action would be to concede victory to Brown and New Labour. It is never easy to rise to a challenge. The hard part is to convince the electorate that New Labour is at the root of our current problems, and that there isn't anything new about Gordon Brown. As someone else said, he is the tired old guy that have been in charge the last 10 years. A victory against Gordon Brown and New Labour is very possible, but the Tories have to believe in Tory Policy.

M

Why all this pessimism? It seems like everyone who have commented so far have already resigned to Brown and New Labour. It isn't given that Gordon Brown will be the PM after the next General Election, or that New labour is destined to rule Great Britain. Of course, the easiest course of action would be to concede victory to Brown and New Labour. It is never easy to rise to a challenge. The hard part is to convince the electorate that New Labour is at the root of our current problems, and that there isn't anything new about Gordon Brown. As someone else said, he is the tired old guy that have been in charge the last 10 years. A victory against Gordon Brown and New Labour is very possible, but the Tories have to believe in Tory Policy.

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Labour is in power. The Tories are not. What exactly can they do?

Charles Frith

And what is Tory policy M?

Old Atlantic

The Tory plan is to get people to vote BNP by imitating Labour and saying what is needed is Labour's policy with a Tory majority.