It is rather hard to run an effective opposition to the government of the day when they keep pinching ideas!
Today, yet another Tory policy has been snaffled by Labour. This time, the policy concerned is the introduction of a single force responsible for border controls. While this is clearly a good thing for the country as the policy is a good one, it does make it hard to run an opposition effectively.
The truth is that this is a reflection of the political times in which we live. Policy ideas, rather than objectives, had become one of the main differences between parties that are ever-more managerial in their styles. How things are done is increasingly seen as important as what it is that is to be achieved.
This does underline the sensible Conservative Party approach adopted eighteen months ago, of taking time to think about our policies and not rushing to announce them. If everything had already been published Labour would no doubt have stolen even more of our clothes and left voters sadly bereft of choice at the next election!
It’s certainly a tricky time to be in opposition. The party has undoubtedly made the right move to the centre ground and the excellent (and patient!) work done to create sensible, balanced policies is to be applauded. Now we hit the tricky bit: the three main parties are all centrist and overlap is bound to occur. It is inevitable there will be some policy grabbing.
We must keep the main prize in mind: large swathes of the electorate are disillusioned with Labour. The challenge for Conservatives is to look like a viable government. With the old left/right debate largely dead, voters and looking for the best management team.
For fear of upsetting some of the old die-hards, I’d suggest the party needs to accelerate efforts to become more ‘relevant’. In my experience, Tory events still seem to attract a one dimensional demographic. The national party is making progress on this (although the impression of an Etonian clique running the shadow cabinet is a shame) but the local associations still look out of touch. I’m certainly not having the easiest time getting involved in mine!
Great work by Mr Cameron so far, although the top down approach won’t work in isolation. Political movements start at the bottom.
Comment by Richard Speigal — 26 July, 2007 @ 9:06 am
I agree that policy overlap is bound to occur. Does that mean we should spend more time talking about the ideological differences in order to highlight why voters should chose one party over another or is that too much and will just turn them off?
Comment by Timothy Barnes — 26 July, 2007 @ 9:08 am
Quite the reverse – I think policy differences are becoming largely irrelevant and will be a turn-off to most (presuming our policies are sound, which they are!). The major complaint from voters is that they don’t know who to pick – so they pick the most credible. Some voters, sadly, pick nobody at all.
People vote for who looks best, they vote for who inspires them, they vote for “people like them”. Which brings me back to the “one dimensional demographic”… The strongest party will have the strongest local roots with a broad church of local opinion and local leaders. The strongest local party will be more than just a party – it must be a movement.
This kind of grass roots groundswell would have (perhaps) meant a better campaign in Southall. It should have meant a broader choice of candidates for the mayoral election.
Comment by Richard Speigal — 26 July, 2007 @ 1:21 pm
Don’t you think that the “all things to all people” bit is the turn-off, though?
As for Mayoral candidates, we may need to start another chain on that entirely!
Comment by Timothy Barnes — 26 July, 2007 @ 3:01 pm
It’s not a question of all things to all people – it’s about party relevancy. I think Blair called it the “common touch”.
Conservative policy is now more in line with public preference and we’re no longer the one trick pony of tax cuts. Great. But my point was that Tory events still attract the same old faces: I’m trying to be tactful… erm… can I say I haven’t seen anyone in jeans yet? (Do we save that for Sundays…?)
I’d like to see a more diverse membership – especially locally. Policy overlap is not an issue in a political landscape that (finally!) allows more than just a left/right stance. The message is good, we now need to find better messengers.
Comment by Richard Speigal — 26 July, 2007 @ 3:58 pm
It is true that for a long time the party’s members have not been as good at advocating the party locally as they should have been. That is not to say that they do not work hard in many places, up and down the country, as they clearly do. However, I agree that sometimes events can seem a bit mono-cultural and can be hard to integrate into for new comers.
Try a TRG policy supper event sometime. There may be a lot of ties there, but mainly because people often come from work, but you will see that we are a fairly diverse lot in views and backgrounds. The more we do to increase that generally, the better.
Comment by Timothy Barnes — 26 July, 2007 @ 4:14 pm
Thanks Tim, I’d love to come along. As you say, it all comes down to involvement.
Comment by Richard Speigal — 27 July, 2007 @ 8:13 am
“The message is good. Now we need to find better messengers”. I am not sure what the message
is……we will do the same as Labour but a bit better, maybe?? No wonder there is a shortage
of good messengers.
Comment by Michael McGowan — 1 August, 2007 @ 11:16 am