Whilst the Sunday Times prophesised imminent disaster yesterday as they revealed that the Conservative lead over Labour has been reportedly cut to 2%, Call me Dave was rallying his troops over at Brighton Pavilion with one of his well-rehearsed “no-notes” speeches.
One cannot say anything other than he is a good orator, yet his failing comes when actually relaying to voters what exactly it is the Conservatives would do, if elected. How would they, for instance, repay the national debt and “repair broken Britain”?
Neither main party has revealed much in terms of real disgestible policy: yes, we know what Labour are like, but are the Tories a breath of fresh air or just more of the same?
We know what Labour are about – tax and spend. But they are bound to have a silver bullet to offset the doom of the impending budget, just as Tony Blair had his 24 hour drinking policy as a headline-making populist smokescreen implying greater freedom; except with the other hand he was crushing the life out of anyone that wasn’t on benefits or a Labour donor, creating state-dependent, Labour voting government jobs and using legislation to nanny and socially engineer us whilst making us believe Labour knew best.
“I never came into politics to change the Labour Party. I came into politics to change the country.” – Tony Blair
Almost every one of the policies that Dave has revealed has been taken apart on the blogosphere by those more articulate and witty than I. His policy on education in particular has been chewed up, spat out, then driven over by a steamroller of ridicule which, frankly, is all that it deserves.
To summarise quickly, he wants to implement a Swedish system of schooling whereby anyone can set up a high quality private school, but he fails because he wont let them make a profit. So why would anyone set one up? He fails again when he says he’ll only boost school places, “in the poorest communities”. Gordon Brown often says the Tories are the party of the few and not the many and on this he’s right, except it’s the poorest representing the few!
The trouble with Call me Dave is that he’s trying too hard to appease his perception of the core Labour voter. Not all Labour voters live in poor areas, Dave. Not all Labour voters are Labour-ers trying to make ends meet. In fact I’d go so far as to say that people in areas that are so deprived that they don’t have a good school don’t even vote.
He has been described as a salesman, and he actually looks like one. It’s as if he’s trying to pitch something that he can hoodwink us with but doesn’t actually believe in it himself.
Dave simply doesn’t identify with the average person. Neither do New Labour, but they employed former tabloid editors such as Alastair Campbell and various other media spin doctors to speak our language and create a perception that New Labour had empathy and were just like us. Indeed they continue to do so, particularly with the humanizing Gordon Brown interview with former News of the World editor Piers Morgan. I’m sure Mandelson was clapping like a sea lion whilst watching that.
The other problem is, and we’ve talked this one to death, the dependency culture that Labour has nurtured. Never before have so many been dependent on so few, and I am not only talking about being dependent on the welfare state. But if you are one of these people, you’re not going to vote for the man that says he’s going to tackle benefits culture and streamline public sector services, are you?
As we have learned from previous elections that Labour have won, honesty is not the best policy if you want to become the government.
Tony Blair never told us about the arsenal of taxes he was going to sneak in the back door. He never told us that Gordon Brown was going to offset growth with massively increasing national debt. He never said that Gordon was going to plunder people’s pensions and flog half of the country’s gold stocks to fund a determined effort to spend the country into financial oblivion (something he has achieved over and over). But we had to lap it up when these war criminals came into power.
Everything Labour has done has been by deception. Even the budgets; one of the core things that even non-politicos will tune into in order to see how they will be taxed or relieved, were tainted by smoke and mirror tactics. Gordon laid down the taxes that would be going up, but wrapped them up with a nice delay of up to a year so that by the time the Artful Bodger was pilfering our wallets we’d have forgotten the basis upon which he could.
But the Conservatives are seriously light on policy. Dave keeps using the words radical and change, but everything I have seen him proffer so far has been implemented in a more successful way in another country. Kudos for actually doing his homework on what works, but epic fail for dismantling the working mechanics of those policies and spewing out something that is neither radical nor changes anything.
They have failed to look at what people really want. Of course, some candidates such as Blackpool North frontrunner Paul Maynard have been out there and have been talking to their constituents. He has canvassed like mad up there and looks set to shunt Labour southbound into Blackpool South. But he’s not a one man army. I want to know how the Conservatives differ from Labour on policy such as immigration. On the NHS. It’s one thing to say they’re going to look for efficiencies, but quite another to have the balls to walk in there, Up in the Air style, and fire a load of nurses.
I guess no matter how you look at the upcoming election, it wont be won on manifesto promises or which party has the best economic recovery plan (neither party has one of those). It’ll be won on perceptions. The perception that the Tories are only interested in inflating the wealth of their cronies. The perception that Gordon Brown will bankrupt the country. The perception that David Cameron is a slick salesman with no real conviction. The perception that Labour is the party of the working class.
It’s all bollocks. An election shouldn’t be fought on those lines.
For a layperson such as myself, it would be nice if the parties would, for once, do something to benefit me. I wont hold my breath though. I’ll leave you with this lovely image that I stole.
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I see 2 cunts, lol.
Thats why I am voting BNP and Phil I wouldnt be surprised if you did, they way you are going mate, lol.
Yes we need real change, by changing the political landscape of this country PERMANTLY, by introducing some new parties.
A vote for:
UKIP
BNP
EDs
is a good vote.
No votes to lib/lab/con twats.Its time for change and to ditch the usual suspects, keep voting for them and in 5 years time, we will be talking about the same issues.
Paul Maynard is a good bloke but hes in a conservative in name only party that has a weak leader:Dave Cameron
The mainstream has run dry.
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The electorate simply dont know what the Tories stand for anymore. Not even sure that the Tories do. Either that or they have some nasty surprise up their sleeves that they dont want us to know about.
If they cant beat Labour after they have systematically raped all that was good out of this contry for 13 years then I honestly dont believe they ever will. Dont forget goalposts will be getting changed again soon if Broon has his way.
Too many parties in that centre ground now walking on egg-shells afraid of causing offence etc. Just say what you bloody well think and the decent majority will have more respect for you.
It will be a vote for UKIP or BNP from this household too come May though.
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They don’t stand for anything, and your comment about them stepping on eggshells is bang on the money.
I wish that these utopia-chasing buffoons would take a look at themselves and realise that people don’t want this politically correct, “oops did I offend you here have some compensation”, police state.
To be fair, it was Old Labour that quickly moved to the centre by stealing most of the Conservative policies.
Then Europe decided to create this awful Human Rights Act which funnily enough Cherie Blair’s Matrix chambers made a killing out of, and we’re now all slaves to that, and the Lisbon Treaty that oh, Tony fucking Blair signed us up to.
It’s the Lisbon Treaty that now prevents us creating things like death penalties. I’ll go with that. Just bring back stocks and public flogging of chavs.
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I’m voting Conservative but I would love to see the Conservative views made clear about the Aircraft Carrier construction programme, the underclass, the benefits system etc.
There is so much anger towards Labour but I sense most people want a reason to vote Conservative, my reason in Blackpool is Paul Maynard but nationally the people want hope and a plan.
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Brilliant article Phil, Labour has done nothing but lie and lie for 13 years, they have wrecked the NHS, abolished free education, bankrupted the country and that’s the tip of the iceberg. I do agree with the article I would like to see a bit more conviction. But I wish people [Labour supporters namely] wouldn’t be so bloody gullible believing all this ‘Cameron the posh boy doesn’t care about the man in the street’ shite. It will be a sad day for the country if Liebour get re-elected. But I will certainly not be voting UKIP after reading that link I posted last night and I won’t vote for that pro-smoking muppet Hamish. I plan to vote Conservative if anything for tactical reasons to get Marsden out. Ron Bell may have his faults but anything is better than Marsden and Labour staying in and he is the best chance tactically of getting Liebour out of Blackpool for good.
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I see the tories have been getting their money from a non-dom, each party is as rotten as the other, both parties stand for nothing but fall for everything.
Two flies sat on opposite ends of the one turd in a sea of piss.
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I agree that is unacceptable but Labour have actually being trying to pass a law banning donations over a certain limit to try and block Lord Ashcroft from donating, but coincidentally exempting trade unions, hypocrisy or what?
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labour are hypocrites TB, I agree but these 2 parties are a disgrace,the tories are NOT a TRUE conservative party anymore.
They should be done under the trades description act.
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“Two flies sat on opposite ends of the one turd in a sea of piss”
An absolutely perfect description !
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You know what pisses me off the most?
10000s of decent people who WORK will be thrown on the dole in coming years whilst bankers get bonuses and the yusufs/politts are raking in benefits for sponging and excreting retards.
What an obscene sick nation we have become that mistreats those who play by the rules, the proper people.
God, someone get me a can of zyclon B.
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Spot on Harold.
The real pain is only just about to start for the hard working millions – i.e. the easy target for every government, be they Labour or Tory.
Interest Rates are only going to go one way, and whilst they are unlikely to go as high as they did in the 80s and 90s they’re going to force a lot of people out of their homes.
Meanwhile the elite few will still sit back and piss on the masses from a great height.
How about a government having the balls to save the country billions overnight and not hurting any of our people by simply saying all foreign aid will be stopped immediately ? Why on god’s earth are we still sending money to India who have their own government funded space program or even China who have the world’s fastest growing economy.
Until we learn to sort out the many problems we have at home we need to tell the world they will need to do without our help. 2 fingers to the EU would also help of course
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