Comments on: How the Conservatives can win the election

By: bellagerens

bellagerens — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:20:37 +0000

A Conservative leader with a good chancellor should be miles ahead in the polls against where Brown is. That Cameron is not is an indictment of the Conservative party who picked a lead on short-term electorability, rather than political principles.

Absolutement, my friend. Cameron could win big on my strategy, but he won’t, because he’s the Buttered New Potato with a side order of Policies Mess.

By: Joseph Takagi

Joseph Takagi — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 01:48:47 +0000

I don’t think things like ID cards will save them. Remember, there was a large majority (in polling) in favour of 90 day detention in the country. Most people don’t “get” civil rights until it happens to them; their son gets wrongfully accused of a crime, or locked up for something as harmless as dealing a little weed.

There is no advice that I could now give to David Cameron about how to win. The damage is done. His problem is in the past, in that he focussed so much on “detoxifying the brand”, towing the line of things that the BBC would like, telling people how nice and cuddly the Conservatives are, how they won’t go cutting anything, how they care about polar bears, that they never got across a message about the irresponsible levels of spending by the government (or pushed it far back).

The results of that irresponsible spending is now with us, and this leaves David Cameron with a problem. He now has to add responsibility into his brand image, but he can’t just ditch all his previous brand messages as that would like a man without clear direction. So instead, he’s trying to incorporate messages about responsibility while retaining all his previous messages, and as that creates philosophical conflict, the policies that come out of it are a complete mess.

By: Backofanenvelope

Backofanenvelope — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 12:30:36 +0000

In my opinion Cameron is stuck at 40% because he reneged on his promise to hold a referendum on the Lisbon treaty. This might seem unfair as the other two parties did the same. But there was a nasty smell about the whole thing as Cameron and Hague tried to explain away the fact that they HAD reneged on their promise. Even people who think we should be in the EU think that promises should be kept.

By: Angry Exile

Angry Exile — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 00:54:37 +0000

And the fact that they’re not going to do all that is the reason I want them to lose almost as much as Labour. Same goes for the Illiberal Democrats. The only thing I can give the Conservatives any credit for is that they’ve at least come out and said they’re not libertarian, which is at least honest than being anti liberty and calling yourself a liberal (the worst offenders IMO are the Liberals here in Oz). Maybe they just lack the sense to lie about it as you suggest, but the fact that they are politicians who are actually not lying about something is a point in their favour and one of the things that makes them the least awful of the likely outcomes. Unfortunately for them I think ‘least awful’ doesn’t buy as many votes these days as it used to. Certainly isn’t going to get mine.

By: Mr Ecks

Mr Ecks — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 00:42:24 +0000

The country IS mega-ruined, whatever style of fantasy the scum of New Labour peddle. They have printed 200 billion and may still be unable to push the coming collapse back until after May/June (hence talk of early elections). Agree Cameron is useless and yesterdays man before he even gets in ( heard that he is trying to fiddle the Tory rulebook to make it harder for them to dump him:if true it would suggest he knows the “Hier to Bliar” tripe won’t cut it in the new world to come).It is the Blu=Labour garbage that is the Tories problem. IU am sure there is more than enough hatred for ZaNu to finish them. I doubt anyone expects much of Blu-Labour, at least with its present moron of a leader.

By: nbc

nbc — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:27:07 +0000

It’s just occurred to me. When the Libertarian Party wins, you’ll be the “First Lady”…

He he.

By: The Great Simpleton

The Great Simpleton — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:34:54 +0000

Good analysis on the economy. I said something similar to Jackart a year or so ago – no point Tories going in to detail as it will be a case of getting in to office, looking at the books and throwing their arms in the air claiming that its worse than they thought, whether it is or not.

As to ”79, it wasn’t that clear cut a victory for the Tories. The battle ground was as much about who runs the country, the Government of the unions, as the economy and Maggie sold it as the unions fucked up the country and needed controlling, this had some resonance. The Tories didn’t win it by being popular though, Labour lost it.