Tim Montgomerie of ConservativeHome has written a 7,000 word dossier condemning Cameron's management of the election campaign. As he has written in the Guardian:
Ahead of last week's election, everything was set up for the Conservative party. The British economy was weak. Gordon Brown's reputation was in tatters. The Labour party was divided. In contrast, Cameron was the most popular Tory leader for a generation in mid-term polls. The party was twice as well-funded as Labour and was able to afford the most professional marginal-seats operation ever seen in UK politics.
And yet, the Tories fell short.
That's a massive understatement.
With all the money any party leader could dream of thanks to Ashcroft he failed. And now he's in charge of our economy.
With Brown massively unpopular he couldn't win the argument for his convictions - because as Simon Jenkins in the Guardian argues - he travels ideology-lite. He wnated - as Vince Cable rather nicely put it weeks ago - to get his friends noses in the trough. That was it.
And who is condemned most of all - George Osborne, as I predicted last Thursday. As Montgomerie says:
The shadow chancellor, George Osborne, never developed a consistent economic message
And this is the man who is now meant to close the deficit, reassure markets and avert another recession - all at the same time. Not a hope.
The message is clear - even the Tories think the team now running the country are second rate. And that's on day #1.
Wait until May 2015 and see what they think then.
ConDem will be phrase the country will echo then.
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Tories have only been in power for 5 minutes and already unemployment has risen to 2.5 million. So as predicted people are losing their jobs as Labour predicted.
Cameron’s only experience outside of politics was in public relations!
Richard,
What we don’t know is what Cameron’s policies really are. There were a lot of things in the Tory manifesto – most obviously the inheritance tax cut and the marriage tax policies – which were obviously daft. I suspect he only put them in because of pressure from the right.
If you take off your “Tory evil, Labour good” glasses what you will see is that there is a chance that the Tories at last kill off its outdated rump. That we end up with a Tory party that believes in social liberalism – the clear equality of men and women, the fact that gay rights and unmarried parents are simply a fact of life and nothing to even think about, that preserving the environment is unquestionably vital – all of this will end up being Tory mainstream.
There is a unique chance for a “progressive” government: if, by progressive, we mean a system that allows people to progress and improve themselves and gives everyone an opportunity to fully achieve their potential. Labour has had 13 years and failed. The problem with Labour is that it believes that the state can and must do everything, and as a result, it is fundamentally opposed to the idea of lifting people out of dependency on the state. And what does detention without trial, ID cards and Peter Mandleson/Ali Campbell have to do with progressive politics anyway?
Lifting the income tax starting threshold to £10,000, and then, with luck, having very low marginal rates until we reach something approaching the average wage, could be the most important legacy of this government. If we can change the culture so those in the benefits trap can get out of it, that will be fantastic for social mobility.
I suspect Cameron and Clegg both saw a unique possibility: for Cameron he can now move his party into the 21st century and drop all the hang ups of the past, and for Clegg, his party could actually implement some radical policies. It could all end in tears. But it could also lead to a new way of doing things, where politicians on both sides of the coalition are forced to question their assumptions and as a result come to a much better way of doing things.
But look at yourself – you are quoting “ConservativeHome” as an authority. You regard everything they have written as risible. Instead, look at it another way – that the Tories took a wrong direction at some point under Thatcher and that now it is back on a different course. We don’t know where it is going. But there is a chance that what you are witnessing is actually the birth of a new, progressive Tory party.
In other words, in terms of ideas, it might be that the forces of progression have won. But its too early to tell.
We are on the cusp of history. It may go wrong, but let’s see what they actually do before reverting to the tribalism that may, actually, have just been consigned to history.
@mad foetus
If you can equate progressive with conservative you must be a Channel Island’s lawyer
Richard,
However you look at it, this is exciting. Two parties working together, hopefully excising the daft policies of each and developing a true “third way”. Of course, it could end in disaster: I could see the Tory right forming a new party with all the UKIP members, the Tory left and LibDem right forming a new Liberal party and the left of the LibDems joining Labour, which is itself going through a period of redefining itself.
Fortunately Jersey and Guernsey will never work together in this way. That would be a bridge too far.
@mad foetus
Realignment seems inevitable – but only if we get real PR
@mad foetus
I don’t think that raising inheritance tax was daft – the solution however was just silly sticky plaster.
The system of inheritance tax operating in the UK is unfair insofar as it taxes the estate (which is effectively double taxation – a progressive and fairer approach would be to impose tax on the recipient. I am surprised that the Tories (and Labour) didn’t take that approach.
MF – I can see your point and if more of the Tory party were Cameronites I think you’d be right. But polling data on the new intake of MPs suggests that they are far right, not centrist. Many of them think climate change is some kind of scam, for example. If things go badly wrong for Cameron a putsch from inside the party to install another leader on a more right-wing platform – Hague for example? is not impossible. I think the Tory party is a hard-right wing base under a somewhat more centrist leadership.