Outsiders looking in must be perplexed with the machinations going on within the Conservative Party. The outburst that took me most by surprise was Lord Howe's utterances this weekend about the leader losing control over the party activists. Lord Howe, most famous perhaps for his part in Margaret Thatcher's downfall, told David Cameron to get a grip of his Eurosceptic MPs and to ignore grass-root calls for EU re-negotiations.
It begs a fundamental question - should the leader be directing the grass-root thinking in a top down manner or should the activists be the ones establishing the party direction? However beyond that though, at the heart of the issue is what connection is there between the leader choosen by the party and the party rank and file? And the answer to that at present appears to be - not a lot. There seems to be a complete lack of trust by the general rank and file in David Cameron and his small metropolitan elite circle. The views of the rank and file seem increasingly disconnected with those of the leader.
Does the party therefore need a whole new rank and file or does it need a new leader? With members defecting in droves to UKIP and the extraordinary sight of a full page advert in the Daily Telegraph today from Nigel Farage inviting Tories to switch to his party, it seems that Cameron is jettisoning those members he doesn't want yet not replacing them with anyone else. He seem intent on destroying the bedrock of foot soldiers that do all the hard graft at election time - delivering leaflets, knocking on doors, getting the message out to an increasingly apathetic electorate.
Where does that leave me? Not that I'm important in any way, but it is my blog so I feel at liberty to ask, then answer the question. I've just come out of an County election campaign from which I would have been quite comfortable standing on either the Conservative or UKIP local manifestoes. That's not really surprising given that the UKIP manifesto was written by ex-Conservatives. One manifesto attracted 577 votes, the other 537 votes. The MP Nadine Dorries is suggesting in the 2015 General Election that candidates could perhaps stand on a joint ticket. I'm not suggesting for one moment that someone standing in my County division on a joint ticket would have picked up all 1,114 votes (577+537) but I'm guessing enough to win. Before I heard that UKIP was standing I felt quietly confident that I was in with a good chance, but the moment I heard that UKIP were putting up a candidate in the Division I knew in my heart of hearts that the battle was lost.
I'm not now going to jump ship and join the Farage crew. But I would like to see a change in our party leadership to someone who can work with the UKIP leadership to re-unite the right of centre in UK politics. Someone that the rank and file can feel confident is a true Conservative who represents their views rather than regards them as swivel-eyed loonies. When I see how our present leader runs the party, my eyes roll rather than swivel. Let's get our party back and put out a united message for the 2015 election. The alternative is a Milliband government with Ed Balls holding the (empty) purse strings. Conservative MPs - its over to you!
Monday 20 May 2013
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Another analysis is that a significant number of Conservative MPs prefer being in opposition - it's much more fun and you don't have to have the responsibility for actually doing anything. And those MPs cannot handle the hard graft of governing and sorting out our financial problems. They'd much rather talk about things that interest them rather things that interest the electorate.
ReplyDeleteAny political party is a coalition. Any shift UKIP-wards will repell a significant number of activists, members and voters. How many, I don't know, but given that Cameron is much more popular than the party and that the description "swivelling-eyed loonies" matches some - but by no means all or even most - of the activists I have met I suspect it'll be enough to keep the party out of power for a long time.
Which is of course what those disgruntled MPs seem to want.