James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Tories are right to be thinking about how to buy time once they are in government

The incoming Tory government are going to inherit a mighty mess. Not only will the economy still be in bad shape but the military will have been running hot for seven years without adequate funding, the country will be on the verge of an energy crisis as soon as the economy starts growing again and all the problems of the broken society will still exist. The Tories will have to hit the ground running if they are going to have a hope of a successful first term.

It is extremely unlikely that the Tories will have a Blair-style honeymoon; the situation that they will inherit is too dire and there is not the same enthusiasm for Cameron that there was for Blair. But what the Tories, obviously, need to avoid is the public turning on them after a couple of years on the grounds that the problems they were elected to deal with have not yet been solved.

To that end, it’s sensible that the Tories are considering—as Tim Montgomerie revealed this morning—making an account of the state of the nation once they enter government. They need to show the electorate the dire state that Brown will leave Britain in and make New Labour own this current crisis in the way that old Labour did the winter of discontent (pictured), if they are going to persuade the British public to give them the time they need to solve these problems.

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