A call to arms from St. Paul
Cameron should heed St. Paul, not his advisers
If Cameron is to win, he cannot equivocate
The freshness of Cameron’s political novices had the initial appeal of a basket of puppies with Conservative poll ratings soaring, but the voters now seem to prefer the old dog Brown. Not that the headline figures of support for the parties should encourage either euphoria or despair if the general election is a couple of years away — but there is no guarantee of that. Far more worrying was the Telegraph YouGov poll four weeks ago when respondents were asked whether Labour or the Tories were the better party to handle each of the 19 problems ranging from the economy and NHS to crime and immigration. Labour led the Tories by 13 to 4 with 2 shared, but more people said ‘Neither’ or ‘Don’t Know’ than supported either party in 15 of the 19, often by wide margins.
Now the economic uncertainties seem to be driving even Tory-inclined voters to trust the solid, experienced Brown rather than the fresh, open, modern, compassionate, middle-of-the-road Cameron. Much of this is the Tories’ own fault. The decontamination exercise has left the party deracinated, and its rootlessness has left its voters looking elsewhere for security — most notably to Gordon Brown.
If we have an autumn election, it is likely to be every man for himself as Tory candidates fall back on local campaigning, the leadership plays pick and mix with the policy recommendations of its commissions, and everyone hopes that the Labour campaign will tread on a banana skin. I suspect that if the electors saw Brown cruising to a 100 plus majority, then they would back off and a late swing could leave Cameron defeated but not humiliated.
It does not have to be that way. Cameron is not stupid. He does want to win. He needs to clear his office of the overexcitable youths and turn to a better source of advice — St Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians xiv 8: ‘If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?’
Neither the party workers (who are despised by the clever young people in Central Office), nor the hard core of 8.8 million Tory voters of 2005, let alone the five million lost to the growing army of abstainers, will be inspired to turn out merely to replace middle-ground New Labour Brown with middle-ground modern Conservative Cameron.
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chris dowling
October 5th, 2007 12:06pmThe Tory policy for success is simple."Give people back more of their own money."Zero tolerence for anti social behaviour."Mighty Oaks from little acorns grow".Much more draconian punishment for violent criminals.Its as simple as that!