Web Extra: The Tories should fear the dynamic new team of professionals that Brown is assembling

Fraser Nelson

Thursday, 6th March 2008

The irony is that the four at the top of Tory structure – Mr Cameron, Mr Hilton, George Osborne and Andy Coulson – are working well together. The ideas are bold and innovative. The problem is the interface between this quartet and the rest of the machine leaves a feeling that this creative quartet is firing off more ideas than can be managed. Mr Brown likes to accuse the Tories of having no policies yet the reverse is true. The party is suffering from policy indigestion.

The most sobering aspect of this came in an internal poll which found 90 per cent of the public cannot name any Tory policy announced more than a month ago. In an attempt to touch all bases, Mr Cameron runs the risk of reaching none. “There is feeling that the leadership get bored easily,” says one official. “And boredom is absolutely lethal in politics.” As Alastair Campbell was fond of saying, the public only begin to hear a message when the politicians and the press are sick to the back teeth of it.

Yet the successes of Team Cameron have been profound. Had it not been for the brand detoxification from Mr Hilton, there would have been no radical Tory policy on welfare. The party has earned permission to address issues like immigration. The intellectual headway made since the Blackpool conference has been remarkable; witness the way Labour’s rapid rebuttal unit has mutated into a rapid assimilation unit where ministers copy Tory policies. Yet Mr Cameron walks this terrain like an oil prospector, digging a little and regularly finding promise of black gold underneath. Yet, he has not dug deep enough on any one spot to strike.

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Dave B

March 7th, 2008 12:59am Report this comment

The Mail reports that Ms Moses won't be taking up Mr Brown's job offer after all.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=526652&in_page_id=1770

Fraser Nelson

March 7th, 2008 9:58am Report this comment

Dave B, this story sufaced in the Standard just as we were going to press. But from what I can gather, she's still signed. She is already in and out of No10 and cleared her desk at Centre Forum yesterday. she's expected to start formally on Monday.

DPT

March 7th, 2008 1:22pm Report this comment

Excellent article Fraser. As a fan of Brown it has been clear for the past few weeks - and particularly since the Northern Rock announcement - that No 10 is getting its act together. The main problem in Labour has been a lack of overarching strategy or narrative. Most Labour MPs have said privately that this is not Brown's fault however. This is because he does have a vision of whaut he wants his Britain to be but until now hasn't had the practical ability to implement that vision from No 10. I believe that is now changing and we are now entering an interesting time in British politics when finally we have two parties in competition for power rather than just one.

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