Alex Massie Alex Massie

Muesli Conservatism or Red-Meat Tories?

Tim Montgomerie says it’s “time to stop apologising for being Conservative” and calls for an end to this Red Tory nonsense and, instead, a return to “red-meat Toryism”. As a committed Conservative it’s not too surprising that Montgomerie thinks this is the way to stabilise a wobbly Tory campaign. The base always thinks the problem is that the party has strayed too far from orthodoxy. (This is true of almost all political parties). It’s a perfectly respectable point of view that is also, I suggest, perfectly mistaken.

Apart from anything else such a strategy – banging on about europe*, crime and immigration – would delight Labour. Nothing they’d like better than to be able to point out that, despite the eco-makeover, the Tories really haven’t changed and are just as nasty as you remember them being. Worse, a tilt to the right now, even rhetorically, undermines the entire point and presentation of Project Dave. What would it have all been for or about? And if you want to really confuse voters, present them with an entirely different face as soon as the election campaign begins. I’m not sure that’s a good idea.

Montgomerie produces a Daily Mail poll to bolster his argument. According to it, 34% of people think the Tories’ biggest problem is the lack fo a clear message (funny, I thought “We’re not Gordon” was pretty clear) while just 17% say it’s that they haven’t changed. But these ideas are not necessarily contradictory. Indeed a lack of clarity about the latter may inform the former.

Nor is a finding that 45% say they’d be more likely to vote Tory if they take a “tougher” line on crime and immigration necessarily mean much. We’re not told is this is a poll of all voters or just those who won’t vote Tory, nor are we told how much more likely they’d be to respond to such talk.

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