Tories on the offensive?

Another poll, another decreased lead for the Tories.  The latest ICM/Sunday Telegraph poll – the first conducted after both Peter Hain’s resignation and the Derek Conway furore – puts Labour on 32 per cent (down 1 from last month); the Conservatives on 37 per cent (down 3); and the Lib Dems on 21 per cent (up three).

I suspect the Tories’ uninspiring poll performances are down to their complacent politics since New Year.  Now, however, there are signs that the complacency’s fading, and proactivity’s reigning once again.

The Sunday Telegraph contains the double-punch of an interview with George Osborne and a comment article by David Davis.  Both pieces set out a different agenda to the Government’s. Osborne’s headline-grabber is the claim that the Tories will repel Labour’s capital gains tax proposals: 

“The Government has got this crazy plan for a £700 million increase in capital gains tax, which hits entrepreneurs. There is no other country in the world that thinks the answer is to increase taxes on enterprise.