It's still the 'nasty party'

26 April 2003

No opposition party has ever done so badly in the polls, says Michael Gove, and none has everhad less chance of winning over the voters

The party made a familiar political mistake, vividly described by David Frum, the former Bush speechwriter, who has observed, 'When a political party offers the voters ham and eggs, and the voters say "No, thanks", its first instinct is to say, "OK, how about double ham and double eggs?". It often takes two elections, and sometimes three, to teach a party to stop talking about what matters to itself, and start talking about what matters to the voters.'

Removing their leader without altering their behaviour will only confirm to voters that the Tories really are the nasty party. Rather than the party changing its leader, the leader must change the party.

The party needs to change its rhetoric and abandon the shrill, strident, oppositionist tone that will never win affection, respect or support from the undecided. Civilised people do not begin important discussions with personal denunciations. Tory spokesmen must face the truth that the Westminster game of character assassination depresses people. Voters do not need the Tories to tell them what to think of Labour. What they want to hear is a clear, coherent and consistent idea of what Conservatives stand for.

Which is why the Tories also need to be disciplined. The party has lurched from making a commitment to the vulnerable, to stretching that commitment to include motorists and the middle classes among the vulnerable, to falling back on to the familiar ground of aggressive tax-cutting. The embrace of those in real need thus appears to have been cynical, confirming the voters' view of the party as opportunistic and inconsistent. The Tory party, having decided to change, cannot always be retreating to the laager when change proves difficult.

Unfortunately, the party which once declared that there could be no turning back seems to be happier living in the past than connecting with the modern Britain it helped to build. The Tories have become a party of Victor Meldrews raging against contemporary life. They are continually campaigning to bring things back, whether it is the Royal Yacht, respect, matron or grammar schools. This deep uncomfortableness with the way we live now doesn't inspire respect. It only confirms the voters' view that the Tories have one foot in the grave.

Until the Tories change their rhetoric, attitude and culture, abandoning shrillness, stridency, nostalgia, arrogance and aloofness, they will not secure a hearing. It does not matter how brilliant new Conservative policies are; any good ideas will be tainted by association with the toxic Tory brand. There are no short cuts to victory for the Conservatives. No silver bullets exist to slay their demons, whether fired at Tony Blair or their own leader. The party as a whole has to reform itself before it will be trusted to reform Britain.

This article is based on a presentation – 'The Case for Change' – developed by Michael Gove of the Times and Andrew Cooper of the research company Populus for the Tory pressure group C-change. A full version of the presentation, which has been shown to Tory MPs and activists, is available on the C-change website.